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, but it won't last for long!" We were about to find out.....

Steps. Steps. Steps. Steps. Nepal and its mountain trails are nothing but steps. Gotta get used to those then! Once you had cleared the "foothill" (in other countries this would be called a mountain, but in Nepal only beasts above 3000m with vertical sides qualify as mountains, hence this 2000m was a foothill. That we walked straight up for three hours!), a mean b****** by the way, the trail is the only main "road" in and out of the mountains. Need something taken from point A to B? Get your friendly local porter. Blimey, these guys were impressive; as were their calves. A basket on their back and a strap around their heads (you need hands free here for clinging to the trail as it ascends in some places!) and a load in the back and these guys pretty much run between point A and B! Amazing! Need a quantity of stuff moved? Just call your local pack donkey team!

Nothing quite prepares you for trekking into the Sanctuary. Scenery is stunning and everywhere you look (after clambering up and down near vertical paths) is something new to see. High above you, one peak makes space for another one behind it. You would like to imagine that they are jostling to get your attention, but actually they are so far above that sort of behaviour!

But these mountains are not high because they choose to be so. They were cut and graded by the raging rivers that sliced them like knives through hot butter (geologically speaking of course). But that means getting from side a valley means going all the way down to said river, crossing high suspension wire bridges swaying under your feet and then walking all the way back up again. The total distance suffered for might be nothing more than 1km as the crow flies (clever birds those), but in reality we walked about 3km, but descended 500m straight down and then had to walk 500m straight up! Easy looking at the map, but somewhat more demanding in reality!

Should you ever decide to head up the Modi Khola valley to ABC, beware the stretch from Himal to Jhinhu to Chromrung to Suniwa and then onto Bamboo (yes, it is called this because of the all bamboo surrounding it). The profile map must have been lying because we climbed 1500m practically straight up to Chomrung on top of the spur to climb straight back down to the river to climb straight back up to Suniwa at the top of another spur and then straight back down to Bamboo! Total horizontal distance covered 8km! What?! But we walked for miles and miles! Actually no, we just happened to have suffered the trials of being strapped to the equivalent of a stair master on the highest setting for 8hrs with a 25kg pack our back! Well, we definitely worked those thighs! And calves. And just about everything from the shoulders down! How do these porters do it, we wondered while we huffed, puffed, tripped, staggered and stumbled our way from one lodge to the other?

Not only is the scenery stunning, and the terrain surprising, but the facilities are very impressive! Places like Pothana, Tolka, Jhinhu, Chromrung, Suniwa, Bamboo, Deurali and ABC were far better than we ever expected, and so far from the road with nothing but man and donkey power to get them what they needed to make the lodges what they are. Bathrooms had running water (albeit freezing), toilets flushed and food was, literally superb! Would you think that you could get an apple crumble and custard in the remote Himalayas and a beer if you wished? And every lodge was staffed by nothing but friendly Nepalese. I think that the food tasted so good because of the TLC and smiles that came with it.

The locals are very friendly and seem always to have a smile and almost always enthusiastically respond to your "Namaste" greeting. Should somebody say this to you, you should answer with "Namatse". This translates roughly into "I greet the divine in you" and the response is "I see the divine in YOU". The only unsmiling, unhappy people were the European trekkers who "had all the gear, but no idea!". It didn't matter that they were coming back and had seen something utterly amazing, or that they were heading to see something utterly amazing! You could hear these rhinos long before you saw them - huff, puff, huff, stagger, trip, stumble, shuffle, huff, puff, stagger, trip.... The only thing that we could think was that they don't know when they are in the presence of something far bigger and better than themselves and the lives that they lead (no, not us.....but the mountains that we were in! But thanks for thinking that!). When we passed their guides (they almost always had a train of porters and two guides), we both rolled our eyes and almost always got a wry smile from a guide in return. Either that, or they all thought we were quite possible suffering from attitude or sleep deprivation as we shouted our habitual "Namatse" greeting as we crossed paths. Some people just need to smile......

But having said that, there were also plenty of people that happily stopped and swapped stories from higher up or lower down the path, or we all just revelled in where we were (we're not like THOSE other people). Even the sweat dripping from our noses or trinkling from under arms did not deter these sweet moments that fellow kindred trekkers and travellers share. ABC - here we come!