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Had a brilliant time on the trek, it's one of the best things either of us has ever done. It was hard work at times but absolutely worth it, the scenery was amazing and just the sense of achievement at the end of each day.
A usual day was breakfast at around 6:30 - 7:00, then walking for about 4 hours, lunch (usually dal baht, a traditional Nepali dish of rice and lentil soup) and another couple of hours walking. The scenery seemed to change dramatically every few days - sometimes it was like walking through an exaggerated version of Scotland, at other times it reminded us of an American national park. Some of the villages we passed through seemed like the small villages you get in France, and beyond the pass the landscape became quite barren and almost desert like.
We were so glad that we opted to have a guide, as Milan was a godsend. He really looked after us, especially when we got up to higher altitude, and he seemed to have an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the mountains along the trail. Most evenings we drank Masala tea and played cards with him - he taught us Nepali rummy, and Barney taught him Sludge (a Bristow family tradition)! He also gave us Nepali language lessons as we walked, so we've learnt some useful phrases, including Barney's favourite "Mo lai boglagyo" which means "I am hungry"! Milan, if you're reading this and have looked at the photos of the trek, we've no doubt labelled some of the mountains incorrectly - sorry, but we tried our best!
The high point (literally) of the trek came on day 11 when we reached Thorong La Pass, at 5416 metres. On this day we had to start walking from high camp at around 5am, to avoid the high winds in the afternoon. Although neither of us suffered from altitude sickness, it did really affect the speed we were able to walk at, but we made it to the pass in about 2 hours (a decent time according to Milan) and have never been so relieved to get somewhere in our lives!
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