Day 12 Muktinah (3,800m)- Jomsom (2,720m)

My luck for catching festivals continued as it was the Hindu feast day for the Ram God. It was great to see everyone in their finest sarees as Hindu families from all over Nepal and even India gathered in Muktinah to give offerings and even dunk themselves in the holy (if not clean) waters in the temple- quite a sight. There was also a ridiculous number of Sadhus in town for the event, so I gave in and paid for my first picture with one of these holy men. This guy had gone all out and covered his entire body in ashes which he reckoned was worth a minimum 'donation' of 50RS before giving me my first tikka (blessing on the forehead).

I was pretty glad of my blessing later as we took to the roads. We decided to take a jeep to Jomson rather than walk the new road which looked more like a dusty quarry to me, but the jeep was not without its problems as the jeep station was heaving with a few hundred pilgrims all trying to get a jeep too. After much waiting and line jumping we decided to team up with some other tourists and chartered our own jeep. A few of the guys had not really experienced Nepali mountain driving yet so freaked out a bit at our few near death experiences. I was more amazed at the number of breakdowns and flat tyres- three in the first hour! That's an expensive fleet to keep on the road! Luckily we were not part of their statistics for the day and made it to Jomson in one piece- down to the tikka I think.

Day 13 Jomson (2,720m) Tatopani (1,200m)

I had always said Jomson would be a cross roads where I would decide if I'd had quite enough of this trekking malarkey and fly back to Pokhara or continue trekking. I really was not sick of trekking in fact I'd really enjoyed it all. I was however really sick of my guide, I really considered calling it a day just so I wouldn't have to deal with him anymore, which of course is a ridiculous scenario. I decided to compromise and cut out a few days of the trek which didn't appeal to me so much and speed to the last few days of the trek around Poon Hill which gives great 360 view of the circuit I'd just completed which I really wanted to do. The rest of the group were cool with this as they were on a tighter time frame.

We got up with the intention of getting an early bus to Ghasa but the pilgrims had obviously had the same idea and beat us to the buses, so we had to wait two and a half hours for the next bus out of town. Whilst sitting there I watched the light aircrafts bound for Pokhara take off and land. They looked awesome and a few people had told me the 15 minute flight over the mountains was a highlight of their trip and I considered changing the plan again, but as all flights were booked out for the day I resigned myself to taking the bus. The bus ride to Ghasa was great, the usual kamikaze driving but as it was accompanied by some banging party tunes and a pimped up bus, it was pretty funny. We even made a stop in Marpha, a village I had wanted to visit as its full of apple orchards and really pretty, but we had to make do with a trip to a shop there to buy some of their famous apple brandy.

The next stage of the journey the bus from Ghasa to Tatopani was not so fun- no party tunes and we got relegated to the back seat, so we felt every bump in the road and I got the center seat so with no knee braking possible I took flight a few times in the journey. We were all pretty glad to get to Tatopani and felt we deserved a dip in the hot springs the town is named after. Luckily I had set my expectations for this pretty low for this spa experience as it was essentially 2 fairly grimy concrete swimming pools. But they were fed from natural springs and if you didn't think too much about the filth you were sitting in from 50 plus trekkers who hadn't showered properly in weeks it was actually pretty relaxing, so we cracked open the apple brandy and chilled out.

Day 14 Tatopani (1,200m) Pokhara

The plan had been to walk to Ghorepani (7-8 hours trek) and then do sunrise at Poon Hill before heading to Pokhara, however it was pouring with rain and had been all night. It looked truly miserable trekking conditions, and Tek also threw into the mix that there would be loads of leeches in this weather. So after much discussion on whether we should do it anyway, try to sit it out or abandon the trek we decided to call it a day and get the bus back to Besai Sahar and on to Pokhara. It was quite disappointing to finish the trek like this on buses and jeeps rather than trekking and maybe a final sunrise but the weather was supposed to stay like this for a few days and we were all pretty ready to finish up, so we reluctantly took the bus.

The bus to Besai Sahar was the usual craziness, I nabbed the bench behind the driver, but with this luxury comes responsibility, so as the bus filled up I took a little girl about 6 years old on my knee. Angelina was such a cutie, she was singing along to all the drivers tunes while I danced with her. I have no idea how she managed on these roads but she managed to fall asleep in my arms as we bounced our way to Besai Sahar. At the changeover we weren't so lucky with the seats to Pokhara and ended up with the back seats again and so were in for a bumpy ride but with relaxing Pokhara in my sights it was a breeze.

At the end I was pretty glad to say goodbye to Tek which is a real shame. Having a guide is supposed to make the whole experience much more informative and enjoyable, but unfortunately I found having one unnecessary and actually more stressful having him around, but hey you live and learn.

So after 14 days I'd made it back. I'm quite proud to have crossed one of the world's highest passes. Overall it was an amazing experience and I'm so glad I did it. When I set out I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy trekking for so long, but I can honestly say I had some really enjoyable mornings just walking and enjoying the scenery and the day of Throng La Pass was quite simply incredible. I would definitely consider doing something similar again and for anyone thinking of doing a trek like this I can't recommend it highly enough, so get your trekking boots on!