At 7.30 I met my guide Tek at the Yak & Yeti tour office and after all the toing and froing I finally set off on my trek. Thankfully Tek seemed lovely, very friendly and had quite good English. So we took a taxi to the bus station to catch a local bus to Besai Sahar the first checkpoint of the trek. The transport to begin the trek was an experience in itself. We took a local microbus, which as a standard just keeps the passengers coming, however we had a ridiculous number onboard even by Nepali standards. The reason however soon became clear as we passed an overturned bus. Apparently 2 buses crashed and so far 2 people had died and 20 had been brought to hospital- a sobering thought as we set off with what seemed the rest of the passengers on our bus. After checking in at Besai Sahar it was time for another micro bus with similar capacity issues. This one however had a real sense of community as it was the last bus going up the mountain that day, so we took anyone and anything that needed to go up´. I was wedged between three women, one holding on to my thigh as her handrail, whilst another one took my bag so I could let an old women sit on my feet. I think it was actually best to be packed in like sardines as it held you in place over the bumpy roads.
We eventually arrived in Bhulbhule and began our first bit of trekking- 45 minutes to Ngadi. Í feel a bit of a cheat calling this my first day of my "trek" more of a short stroll really but since the building of the new road it seemed a bit pointless walking from Bhubbhule - Ngadi, being beeped out of the way by jeeps and buses on a dusty road. Ngadi is a tiny village and pretty quiet as most trekkers now bypass it and take a jeep directly to Jagat to begin the trek, but hey Im a glutton for punishment and since there is a small path avoiding the new road between Ngadi - Jagat I I decided I wanted to do as much of the circuit as possible- no shortcuts, so I was starting as I meant to go on.

On the second day we walked from Ngadi (890m) - Jagat (1,300m). The scenery was beautiful, green everywhere and some beautiful terraced rice fields. I had some interesting chats with Tek about his life, he´s 37, unmarried but his brother died a few years ago (from drinking ´badly brewed´ alcohol-apparently. As a result Tek does not drink) and so his widow and 2 kids (17 & 13) now live with him- pretty commendable. Along the way we met a group of 3 Chinese guys and their porter & guide who had actually never trekked the route before (but the young guide spoke quite good Chinese, which is pretty rare & obviously much more important) so they sort of adopted Tek as their oracle. We stopped at a slightly bigger village- Ghermu for lunch, before settling in Jagat for the evening, where we stayed in a teahouse run by the local school teacher. The Chinese men had zero English and so after I had exhausted my Chinese (sum toatal of 2 minutes) I decided to have an early night.

Day three took us from Jagat (1,300m) to Dharapani (1,900m ). The scenery was still lush green with pine trees all around. I was actually really enjoying the walking- which was a good thing given I´ve another 2 weeks of this malarky ahead of me! We got our first taste of rain but luckily only as we headed into Tal for lunch. With no sign of it letting up I donned my waterproof trousers and sexy poncho (I´m sure this was incorrectly labelled- it should be a small family tent, as you could certainly get one in it!) and continued. The landscape seemed to match the weather as it changed from beutiful bright greens to grey rock faces. We walked along ridges where they were blasting ( no health and safety issues at all- just step over the wires). After a few pretty intense hail showers we made it to Dharapani. The guesthouse we stayed in was fairly rustic with rather large cracks in the wooden panels dividing the bedrooms so you got to know your neighbours pretty well. My neighbours were a really nice French couple Ali & Alice and it seemed we were in the right lodge as the owner also spoke excellent French as she´d married a French guy who showed up the next morning and gave us some tips for the route- much to Tek´s annoyance. The writting was on the wall at this point but for an easy life I said goodbye to Ali & Alise and Tek & I hit the road.