"Call it our Christmas present to ourselves." "Christmas comes early!" "Life is for living. When we will have the chance to do this again?" "Indeed, those mountains are youngsters, geologically speaking, of course!" "Besides, I haven't really thought about any other way we would get there." "We could climb...." "I don't think so.....Not on this trip anyway." "We have to be there ...

After a few days in Pokhara it was time to head to the fabled city of Kathmandu. Where Rishikesh in India was a staging post on the 60's hippie trail, Kathmandu was a definitive end point, an almost Holy Grail. Here, those that made it so far, found something akin to nirvana. For reasons best kept to themselves, the ruling monarchy allowed its people to be recruited into the British, and later Indian, Armies, but did not allow any European into Nepal, officially ...

Some people are completely mad. But sort of sane, in a mad sort of way, if you know what I mean. We had 40km, and 4 nights, to trek to get from ABC to Phedi, a short taxi ride from Pokhara. But we met one Frenchman who had met a girl while doing the Annapurna Circuit Trek and promised to meet her in Pokhara on a certain date. Only he miscalculated a little when making that agreement (girls can do that to a guy Ed: yeah yeah yeah!) about how much time he had to ge...

At 4130m, ABC is not particularly high. But its location in a bowl of 8000m peaks means that it is pretty damn cold as the ice cold air descends off the peaks (remember your primary school science and geography? Cold air sinks while hot air rises. Hot and cold are relative concepts, therefore -1 is warmer than -2!) and sits in this bowl. Not only that, but the peaks create their own weather and practically every afternoon the clouds build up, obscure the peaks a...

Annapurna Base Camp. Just 40km away on this trail head that we now stood on. But to get there was going to take some doing. Firstly because it was mid-afternoon and the trail seems to go straight up the side of the "foothill" in front of us. Gulp! Was there a reason why the old Tibetan man had sold us the Tibetan good luck bracelets? Perhaps that other American wizened wrinkled walker passed on the way up ominously said, "You might be laughing now,...