Hi!

So we're back from the trek- still in one piece! It was amazing- the scenery really was breath-taking and we now have about 300 photos of mountains! Think we're going to have to edit those somewhat! Talking of photos, we have obviously taken loads and they will be appearing on the site soon. I'm leaving it to Andrew- I do the writing and he supplies the graphics!

The trek was hard at times but definitely worth it. Lots of stone steps to climb up- on the first day we had to get to about 2000m, which involved 3300 steps. It was quiet an effort on the leg muscles, particularly when the steps were quite high. You can imagine the struggles I faced with my vertically-challenged legs! Having said that, I preferred going up the steps rather than going down! They were really steep at times, often quite slippery, and I had a constant fear of tripping over and falling to my death! Half way through the trek I was given a trekking stick by one of the guides- I think they were getting a bit fed up about how long it was taking me to walk DOWN a mountain- sometimes I was slower than going up! The 'cripple stick' (thanks, Andrew!) helped though as it gave me a bit of extra balance and leaverage!

The highlight of the trip was probably the walk up to Poon Hill, which was the highest we climbed at 3260m. It involved leaving at 5am so that we would be there for the sunrise, and even thought it was constant uphill for almost an hour, it was so worth it. The views were incredible- pretty much the same as the photo used for this blog. Again, plenty of picture were taken and you should be able to peruse them soon! It was obviously very cold due to the time of day/altitude, so I wrapped myself up in about six layers of clothing. About half way up I had to strip most of them off as I was so hot from all the climbing, but once we got up to the top I was cold again so had to put them all back on! You'll see in the pictures that I look like some old gran as I'm wearing a massive shawl and woolly hat- I'd just like to say now that that was the look I was going for! After about 45mins I was absolutely freezing (as most of you know, I don't do well in the cold) and it took the entire walk back down until I could finally feel my toes again!

Right now we're back in Kathmandu until we take our flight to Singapore tomorrow. After all the trekking we're taking it easy! We plan to spend today wondering the shops, checking out the old part of town, and then we're going to have a massage. I'm really looking forward to the massage as my shoulders are quite achey from constantly carrying a rucksack around for the last week or so! We're having a steam sauna followed by an hour long full body massage, all for the bargain price of 10GBP (no Pound sign!) each. Can't wait!

Time for breakfast now!

Jess xxx