Woke up early again, around 5 am, and couldn't go back to sleep so wrote up some journal entries. It's nice to have a bit more oxygen to breathe plus some slightly warmer weather.

Looked outside the tent & I was delighted to be greeted by clear, blue skies and sunshine! Everyone was in a good mood, humming, laughing and feeling very happy to finally have some nice sunshine on their skin.

It was still quite cold when I first woke up but the sun warmed everything up very quickly and so it wasn't long before I took off the extra layers I'd put on and then even started to feel a little hot!

Breakfast today was Aloo Paratha, salad and pomegranate kernels. Delicious!

After breakfast, we packed everything up and it was a joy to be able to do this in warmth and dry weather rather than rain, then we headed back down the hill.

We made good time, completing the section in under an hour. It was such a beautiful day, it felt like we were being rewarded for all our perseverance this week. Of course, that's not how weather works but that's how it felt!

The bottom of the track is a small hydro facility that channels the river through its turbines to generate electricity for the town.

Indrajit walked off down the road to "find some signal" so we could call the truck to come & collect us & transport all our gear back down the mountain.

I sat by the side of the road, just looking up at the mountains we'd come down from and reflecting on the trek and all the adventures we'd had.

Not long after we arrived at the hydro plant, the support guys arrived and unpacked everything from the mules.

The Mule Guy (they never told me his name) then left early as he walked his animals back down the track. I didn't realise where he was going at first so had to chase after him as I wanted to give him a little extra for all his efforts. I gave him about a day's wages for the average worker ($10).

Unfortunately, he didn't speak much English (actually, he didn't speak much at all) but he was very appreciative & understood my "Shukriya" (thank you).

After about an hour, the 4WD truck came to pick us up. The road is only 10km long but it's such a terrible road, you can't go more than about 10km/hour.

I found it amusing that there are speed limit signs along the road as there's no way you could drive at the speeds on the signs, even if you wanted to!

Since it was a sunny day, there were lizards (approx 30cm long), sunning themselves on the concrete blocks, every 10m or so. Of course, they immediately disappeared over the edge when the vehicle came close.

We wound our way back down the 40 curves of the mountain road & back into suburbia.

Not long after we hit civilisation again, we stopped to drop off Raju & the other support guy. I gave them about $40 to split between them & asked Indrajit to translate as I thanked them for everything they'd done to make the trip enjoyable & for the fun & laughter they'd provided too.

After dropping them off, Indrajit & I had lunch at an Indian/Chinese restaurant in the main Manali Mall. It might seem like a strange combination of cuisines, but when you're so close to China, it makes perfect sense so you see many restaurants with this combination.

The restaurant had wifi so I connected again for the first time in a week & took a quick look at the deluge of messages & notifications that came through.

Thankfully, my flight had been changed so I can leave from Manali (1 hour away) instead of from Shimla (8-9 hours away). Yay!!

I said goodbye to Indrajit & thanked him for everything too. He said he liked my trekking style & I could definitely do even more challenging treks. There's one he described that goes above 6,000m! Wow!

We then parted ways & I decided to go & get a haircut as I'd needed one for about the last few weeks. The hairdresser had pretty reasonable English so I got pretty much what I was after for a total cost of $2!

I felt bad since I hadn't had a shower in 5 days but he didn't seem to mind. He was more interested in my sunglasses & asked how much they cost. He obviously thought they pretty cool as he asked if he could try them on & get his friend to take a photo of him wearing them, then a photo of the two of us.

While I was getting my haircut, I realised that I hadn't given Indrajit the tip I had in mind for him or paid the insurance I owed! Oops!

I went back to the restaurant so I could use their wifi & immediately called him to see if he was still around. Fortunately, he hadn't gone far so within a few minutes, he was able to meet me and I was able to pay him for the high altitude insurance ($8) plus give him the tip I had in mind.

I browsed a few of the shops in the mall but there wasn't much there that I wanted so I headed to my hotel.

The room wasn't quite ready so I waited in the lobby for 15min then headed up.

Unfortunately, the internet wasn't working as there was a problem with their fibre connection so I went & had a shower then started re-packing my bags ready for flying tomorrow.

Unfortunately, the airline I'm flying with only allowed one piece of checked-in baggage up to a max of 15kg. Are you serious? Oh, and you can't buy extra luggage allowance - you have to just take the extra on as hand luggage. What is it with these airlines that can't lift a bag over 15kg or 20kg?

Anyway, I managed to remove quite a few heavy things and put them in a plastic bag or in my laptop bag (which doesn't get weighed at all!). Hopefully, I'll be OK tomorrow.

Reflections on the Trek

I came to India to do 2 main things: see my friends and complete a challenging trek.

I'd planned to do both at the same time but obviously, it didn't work out that way. However, in the end, I still got to do both and enjoyed all the bits in between too. As it turned out, maybe even better than if everything had gone to plan as the trek I was booked to do had to be cut short and from what Hasneet said, the parts they completed weren't as challenging as we'd anticipated and the trek leader wasn't as much fun as Sandeep had been (or Indrajit either).

The trek was more challenging than I'd anticipated and probably more challenging than Indrajit had anticipated too - mainly due to the weather. But we didn't give up, and in the end, the two critical days (the 2 at the end) were both actually very nice weather.

I got to complete a trek that was probably more rewarding, more challenging and possibly more scenic than the one I was originally booked to do, plus we could go at a pace that suited me. I didn't have to wait for slower trekkers or feel incompetent that I couldn't keep up with faster ones.

The support team were amazing and went above and beyond to make the trek as good as it could possibly be.

Trekking is as big a mental challenge as it is physical. You want to give up and go back to a nice warm bed in a comfortable hotel but instead, you keep going. You put one foot after the other and just keep going regardless of everything else that seems to be against you ... and so long as you keep going, you complete the trek. We did it because we didn't give up ... and it's a great feeling of accomplishment.

I don't have a trophy on my wall, a certificate, or even a t-shirt to say that I've done it ... but I don't need any of those things because I have the experience, the photos and the memories.

We did it!