The main thing we wanted to do in Nepal was the Annapurna Circuit which is a two to three week trek around the Annapurna mountain range. This trek goes up to a height of just under 5500 metres through one of the highest mountain passes in the world called Thorung La and then continues back down the other side. No walk in the park by any stretch of the imagination and we expected a lot of beautiful scenery and tiring days. I'll briefly explain what we did on each day here but also stick a pin in our map for every place we stopped at, hopefully it will look very impressive :) I should probably also explain that we hired a porter/guide, called Provat, who we'd be trusting to carry our big bag and make sure we didn't get lost. He's the other face in the photo's. Very friendly, smiley nice guy :).

Day 1 (Pokhara to Syange)
Okay, this day didn't actually involve any walking because we had to get a bus and then a jeep to our actual starting point of Syange. This took most of the day and was the bumpiest jeep ride we've ever experienced! We were literally thrown around in our seats the whole time. Not great if you get travel sick like the poor lady sat behind Hannah! Not a particularly exciting day but we did get to stay in our first “tea house” - the term given to the accommodation on the route. It was basic with shared bathrooms, as we'd expected but had a lovely view of the river from our room, a hot shower and a decent menu to choose from for food. We had been told that we'd only be able to get a Nepalese dish called Dal Bhat every day so were surprised to see spaghetti, chowmein, sandwiches, pizza and lots of other western dishes. 

Day 2 (Syange to Tal) 
Our first day of actual walking was a hot and steamy 6 hours mostly on a gentle uphill seeing many waterfalls, butterflies and goats being herded. Sadly we were actually on a road used by local jeeps so the scenery was occasionally spoilt by one driving past and beeping at us to get out of the way but all in all it wasn't too bad. The one really tough bit came at the end of the day where we had an hours walk up a very steep rocky path to reach our final destination of Tal. Once we got to the top though we were overlooking the town on the banks of a fast flowing turquoise river which was a beautiful and very welcome sight (especially as it just started bucketing it down!). The tea house we stayed in was even better than the first one. We had an attached bathroom with a hot shower and were starting to think this trekking lark wasn't going to be too bad. At dinner I decided to try the local “delicacy” of Dal Bhat, this basically consisted of a thin lentil soup, potato curry, poppadom, some sort of pickle/chutney and enough rice to feed me for a week. The experience was not a good one as most of it was cold and far too salty. I put it down to a bad batch but decided I’d leave it a while before trying it again.

Day 3 (Tal to Danaque)
Today was mostly gentle uphill walking with similar scenery to the day before. We did manage to gain almost a 1000 metres so were treated to some excellent views of the mountains. By the time we arrived at our tea house the temperature was getting cold and rain was coming in. As we arrived later than most other people the shower was refusing to give out any hot water, it had run out of gas to heat it! No problem though because you could get a nice bucket of hot water from the kitchen to clean yourself with. By the time I got to use the “bucket shower” it was pretty cold outside and the bathroom didn't really stop the wind coming in. So by the time I'd finished and got dressed again I was pretty darned cold. Being a bloke though I couldn't be bothered to put any more layers on and just thought I'd warm up eventually, besides it was dinner time and I was hungry. Sadly I didn't get any warmer and spent the next 2 hours shivering under a sleeping bag and 2 duvets! 

Day 4 (Danaque to Chame)
Today was hard for me as I hadn't slept well after having mild hypothermia (may be a slight exaggeration), Hannah rubbed it in by saying how enjoyable and easy she was finding it! We were very much reminded of the UK as the day mostly involved walking through similar terrain as you might find back home. Lots of forests, greenery, rocky paths and a similar temperature too. Although the day only involved about 4 hours walking we had a longer lunch break than usual. Mostly because we'd found the happiest cutest little Nepali girl who insisted we play with her. She was only two years old and spoke no English though she was very chatty. We were enlisted to play games involving her toy bunny, the table cloth and a handful of walnuts. She loved it! Where they lived was very remote and you could tell not that many people pass through so she was excited to spend time with us and looking at all our gear. I had to drag Hannah away as she was getting too broody for my liking :).

Day 5 (Chame to Upper Pisang) 
Today we found our first snow on the ground! Hannah found today pretty tough going and we were glad when we stopped for lunch and were told we had done the first part of the day really quickly (which may explain the tiredness and getting used to the altitude!) and only had an hour to go rather than three. At this part of the trek you can stay in one of two places, Lower Pisang or Upper Pisang. Our guide took us to Lower Pisang expecting us to sleep there, however we really wanted to go to Upper Pisang because the views are supposed to be much much better. Which they were. Unfortunately for our guide it involved an hours additional trek up a steep set of stairs! Okay for us with our small day packs but when you have 20KG on you its not so easy. We apologised and settled into a very cold and drafty room, after a bucket shower of course! At the previous two tea houses they have had a wood burner in the communal room. No such luck at this one though and we were even higher so even colder! Boo! 

Day 6 (Upper Pisang to Manang) 
We woke up to frost today so were very reluctant to get out of our sleeping bags. It's worth noting that the tea houses have no insulation and no heating at all. We sat in the communal room for breakfast and you could see your breath in there it was so cold. Still not worth lighting the wood burner though apparently! Today was a very hard day as we'd chosen to go the high route to Manang which took about 8 hours as opposed to the low road which apparently takes 4. The reason being the views, they were stunning from here and definitely worth the effort. We had to endure a two hour extremely steep climb to begin the day and stopped for a cup of lemon, ginger and honey tea (which we had now become accustomed to) at the top looking out onto a fantastic view of Annapurna II. We were lucky it was a crystal clear sunny day. We didn't want to leave as we were so happy just drinking tea and taking in the amazing view. The rest of the day was ok but a very long day. Our dinner definitely tasted even better that night! As we were now above 3000 metres showering was becoming an increasing issue. It made you so cold when you got out it was difficult to warm yourself up again. It's not like you could stand by a radiator or a raging fire. I flat down refused to have one when we arrived and Hannah regretted hers. From now on it was baby wipe showers all the way to the top!

Day 7 (Manang Rest Day) 
Today was an acclimatisation day as we were now above 3000 metres and had to let our bodies deal with the altitude more slowly. This also meant that from now on we could only sleep 500 metres higher than the night before. We got up late and went to see a nearby lake which was beautifully blue and still with the mountains reflecting on it. On the way back to our tea house it started to snow and there was a fair bit on the ground by the time it stopped some hours later. There was also a helicopter rescue as a poor women had slipped on some ice and broken her arm! A reminder to us both to be careful. 

Day 8 (Manang to Yak Kharkha) 
Today was a very easy four hours and we managed to see lots of yaks, deer and also two pairs of eagles. We actually managed to see the eagles incredibly close up as they were flying immediately below us in the valley and then one swooped just a few metres above our heads. It was amazing, it was huge with an incredible wing span. Hannah was extremely excited by this. Sadly neither of us were quick enough with our cameras! We were walking along a rocky, muddy, very narrow in places path for a lot of the day, traversing the side of the valley we were in. With the wildlife around us it was difficult to walk and to look around you at the same time as you had to watch your step. We were also beginning to find that we were becoming out of breath and tired a lot quicker at this altitude. Quite a strange experience as your brain can't work out why its finding it so difficult. Had to keep reminding ourselves it was because of the altitude. It snowed again that evening and was very very cold, we were finding the higher we got the earlier we went to bed as it was the only place you could stay warm! 

Day 9 (Yak Kharkha to Thorung Phedi)
Today was the last day before the big push up to the Thorung La mountain pass which is regarded as the toughest and longest day. It was only actually a three hour day so we arrived in time for an early group lunch. We'd made a few friends along the way as we all end up staying in the same tea houses and eating together or passing each other during the day etc. We all had to decide whether we wanted to press on after lunch and stay at a higher altitude in the High Camp or stay where we were. This is some 400 metres higher than Thorung Phedi and it will save you an hour or two the following day but if you end up getting altitude sickness you will have to descend back down, more than likely in the dark! We decided that as we both felt a bit dizzy and headachey, as did some of the others, it probably wouldn't be a good idea. We went to bed at about 7pm feeling anxious about the next day.

Day 10 (Thorung Phedi to Muktinath)
The big day! Up at 3am this morning for a 3:30am breakfast and planned departure of 4am! Though we ended up getting waylaid and ended up leaving at 5. First off our guide had to help one of the other guides sew up his coat as the zip had broken. Not what you need at sub zero temperatures! Then Hannah required a number of urgent toilet stops before we could leave! A dodgy tummy was not a good start to our hardest day. We set off in the dark along a very steep rocky path through the snow with our head torches lighting our way. We followed a trail of lights in the distance as we could see other groups heading up the first leg to high camp. This was a very tough hour and a half what with the early start, the cold and the altitude. We were supposed to make sure we kept hydrated but our water pipes from our water bladders in our backpacks kept freezing solid as well as the back up water bottles we had. Our climb was also interspersed with Hannah having to crouch behind large boulders for a couple of emergency toilet stops, it was lucky we were the last ones to leave and didn't have anyone following us :) The first time this happened she thought it'd be funny to drop the only toilet roll we had down the large slope we'd just walked up. Luckily for her it rolled about 15 metres down and then lodged behind a rock. It was a comedy moment in retrospect as all three of us watched open mouthed as the toilet roll bounced slowly and silently in the dark down the slope, unravelling as it went. Oh how we laughed afterwards! Though Hannah didn't find this particularly funny at the time! As we neared high camp the sun was starting to peak over the mountains and we were treated to spectacular views as the orange light of the morning reflected off the glistening snow. We had to climb across and up a frozen waterfall which looked magnificent but also a potential death trap given the steep course the frozen water followed. We were glad when we finally reached the high camp tea house for a cup of hot water to warm us and give us some liquids as well as wolfing down some cereal bars. By this point Hannah seemed to be feeling much better so we were ok to carry on. 
The next hour or so was a slow march or shuffle in very deep snow along a path just big enough for one person, round the middle of a snowy hill. One step to the right of you was a drop of about 30 metres which would make a fun slide in the snow but could also potentially mean a helicopter rescue! Hannah did not like this section one bit, especially after slipping once and was now starting to struggle with a headache – one of the symptoms of altitude sickness. The final climb to the peak of our walk was an arduous three hour trudge through thick snow which seemed to go on and on and on. Just when you thought you'd spied the top our guide would reassure us that there was another three more hills, two more hills, one more hill. Until finally we'd made it to the Thorung La Pass at a height of 5416 metres. We lingered just long enough for some choice photos and for Hannah to have some garlic noodle soup, apparently good for altitude sickness as by now she was suffering pretty badly with her head. After I started getting pins and needles in my chest and arm and Hannah's face went numb we decided to make a quick exit and we were off down the other side.
We'd thought the descent would be an easy hour or two. We, along with our guide hadn't accounted for the deep snow which made it hard to stay on your feet, also poor Hannah was still struggling with a headache and couldn't go as fast as usual. You'd think it would be easier going down than up, it was just as hard going down. The path all the way was extremely steep and if it wasn't snowy meaning you were slipping and sliding it was very rocky with no smooth surface to place your feet. As much as we both love snow at this point in the day we both couldn't wait to see the back of it. It took it's toll on our muscles too, not used to walking downhill after nine days of going uphill! All in all it took us another five long hours to get to our final destination of Muktinath. After expecting a seven hour day and it ending up being over double that we were absolutely shattered. It was like heaven though when we got there. A real toilet instead of a hole in the ground, a hottish shower and a nice comfortable bed in a big room which wasn't freezing! When we looked in the mirror that night though we saw two very tired, very sunburnt faces looking back! I'd put some sun cream on at the start of the day and towards the end but Hannah... well lets just say she was looking worse than me. We went to bed hoping we would look better in the morning. 

Day 11 (Muktinath Rest Day) 
We'd already told our guide the night before that we'd need the day off to rest so we got up late and checked on our sunburn. Things had got much worse during the night. Hannah was red all over her face apart from where her sunglasses had been. Her skin and lips had also gone extremely taut and was beginning to blister. The tops of her hands were also blistered from where she'd been holding her walking sticks. She was so upset! She'd religiously put cream on every day apart from yesterday. As she was unwell and it was so early when we set off she forgot until the afternoon by which time it was too late. The snow reflecting the sun in our faces all morning meant our faces were getting double the amount of sun than usual. I however looked better, mostly because I'd had a beard to protect me, but I had severely blistered both my lips which were swollen to about 3 times their size. We looked like a right pair so didn't do much on our rest day apart from buy some higher factor sun cream.

Day 12 (Muktinath to Jomsom) 
Today was a really rubbish walk through a very desolate rocky landscape ending up with a two hour walk along a dry riverbed. Made even worse by the fact that a strong wind was picking up the dust and hitting us right in the face with it! Not what we needed on sore sunburn. We gave up on getting to our actual destination and stopped an hour short in the large town of Jomsom. They had internet and an airport here! But we also had a spectacular view of the mountains from our room so we were quite content. Hannah's sunburnt face was now veeery swollen, blistered and scabby which made her look and feel even worse. I did my best to cheer her up but not even my witty banter could raise a smile – although she struggled with any facial expression because the skin on her face had become so tight! She could only eat small amounts with a teaspoon as she couldn't open her mouth to eat properly. She was not happy!

Day 13 (Jomsom to Tatopani) 
Today we only did an hours worth of walking to a place called Marpha. Here they have a lot of apple orchards and sell apple brandy and some very dodgy looking cider! Ooooh arghhhh it's just like home :). From here we got a jeep and then a bus to Tattopani. This meant we skipped three days of walking but as it would have been mostly on road and through similar barren scenery like yesterday we thought it was a wise decision. Tattopani is about 1000 metres above sea level so the climate here meant back to shorts and t-shirts instead of fleeces and coats. A welcome change!
Hannah face update – She discovered she could peel some of the sunburnt scabby skin off her cheeks today to her delight seeing as her face had become one big brown scab. This however also made her feel quite queasy – at one point I thought she was going to throw up!

Day 14 (Tatopani to Sikha) 
We started the day by looking at the hot spring which Tattopani is famous for. We were expecting some naturally formed rock pools with steaming water in them, maybe a few people enjoying an early morning dip. Instead we got something which resembled a concrete square, dirty swimming pool filled with fat Nepalese men eating noodles. An odd sight at 8am in the morning and slightly disappointing to say the least. The walking today was all up hill some of which was very tough, especially as the heat had been turned up again. The scenery was much more lush and green than we'd been used to and it was really nice not to be cold at night! By this evening Hannah's face was now also a more acceptable shade of pink and she didn't look quite so scary anymore. She let us go back to eating in the communal areas again too. She didn't want to go down to dinner the last few nights as she didn't want people seeing her face and eating wasn't easy, poor thing!

Day 15 (Sikha to Gorepani)
More hot uphill walking today but we passed through an amazing forest filled with thousands and thousands of Rhododendron trees all in bloom with their red flowers. You could see them stretching all the way up the hill to Ghorrepani and was really rather beautiful. We passed through various small villages along the way the same as most days. At one in particular we passed a little house with about fifteen kid goats outside. They were all only a few days old. This kept us entertained for a good half hour watching them bounce around and try to eat our bags! :)

Day 16 (Gorepani to Hille)
We got up at 5am this morning to go and watch the sun rise from a place called Poon Hill, about an hour away from where we slept. It was lovely and we got to see the whole mountain range with the sun coming up but because we'd seen so much of the mountains on our walk it wasn't as special as we thought it'd be. It was also very cloudy not making it as spectacular as it should have been which was a shame. There was also many more people there than we were used to which spoiled the serenity of it. The days actual walking was probably one of the hardest we'd done. This was because after lunch we had to walk down around 3,000 or so called steps. They were more like a collection of uneven rocks thrown onto a slope and sort of resembled steps if you squinted at them and the light wasn't very good! Two hours of these steps down hill all the way and our muscles were very sore and tired as well as our brains from having to concentrate so hard on not going over on our ankles. We were in awe of the Nepali guys we kept coming across carrying enormous bags, sometimes as big as them, walking up these steps. They still always had big smiles on their faces though :) We were very relieved to reach the bottom!

Day 17 (Hille to Pokhara)
We were very excited when we woke up because we were going back to Pokhara today which felt like a second home as we'd spent so long there the first time! We walked for less than two hours, got on a bus for another two and were delivered to our old guest house before lunchtime. It was heaven being back in civilisation. I immediately went and had a hot shower, shaved my face, got my hair cut and then obviously bought some beers for us to celebrate with :). We then enjoyed a well deserved lovely meal out to end the day nicely. 

We enjoyed a relaxing few days in Pokhara which included celebrating their New Year (2070) with our lovely guest house owner Raj and his family. We were extremely sad to leave as we felt more like family than guests. Next stop Chitwan National Park for some rhino spotting.