I've finally finished trekking, I'm now at the end of my 5 weeks of trekking in Nepal having just arrived back from the Annapurna Circuit. It was nice on some days, and um, not so much on others..

We had half a new group, 4 of us remained from the Everest trek plus 4 new people and a new guide, Indra. We started at a much lower altitude than on the Everest one, starting our ascent on the first day from Besi Sahar at 850m, so the beginning days it was hot and jungly looking as its pretty warm at low altitude. It was more Indian looking to begin with than the Everest trek- wandering cows, banana trees, terraced farming hillside villages.

After a couple of days we were starting to get to cold places where they had the cast iron boilers to heat the meal rooms, which we all squash round at night, but at least we were above the spider line, after the incident of the giant spider that couldn't be caught in our bedroom one night... We even had about ten minutes of hard grained snow which was quite a surprise, you wouldn't think we're in the Himalayas in winter from how sunny and warm the days are!

This time, to avoid the crushing altitude sickness, I started taking a course of Diamox at a low altitude, which helps your body adapt gradually as you ascend. Not taking any chances after last time! Technically I should have descended on the last trek to a lower altitude, but in a group with a fixed itinerary and limited time, its not really possible unless you're actually dying. However this time I at first thought the Diamox wasn't working as I was getting breathlessness, coughing and fatigue again like it started last time..

The circuit we followed goes around the outside of a ring of mountains, so every day you have new mountains hoving into view around the ring as you walk, such as Annapurna 1,2,3,4, Nilgiri, Gangapurna, Annapurna South, and so on. It was less touristy than the Everest trek, that was quiet enough but in the whole 3 weeks on this one we only saw about 7 other trekkers! Many places were shut as its low winter season. Its hard to imagine what it would be like when busy.

We had a good team supporting us, 4 porters plus a guide and 3 assistant guides- 8 people for 8 trekkers! Our guides were very good, whether its carrying our daybags for us when we're tired, cutting steps into ice with ice axes for us, or just generally entertaining us and getting our food for us- they put up with a lot and have so much energy!

To get round the circuit you have to go over the Thorung La pass, the world's highest mountain pass at 5416m above sea level. The day we did this was... interesting. To get there before the wind becomes a gale through it, you have to get up in the middle of the night and walk the first few hours in the pitch black by head torch in subzero temperatures. You have to ascend a vertical kilometre to where the air is 50% oxygen and try to get there by 9am, and then descend 1.6 vertical kilometres on the other side, an arrangement which was expected to be a 13 hour walking day starting at 3.30am.

Actually the first few hours in the dark was quite nice. I was walking at the back with Indra our guide helping me cos I was struggling a bit to breathe, and I was following his heels uphill which was all I could in the pool of light from my headtorch. He was chanting om mani padme hum to himself and it was otherwise silent with all the stars of the night sky that you can see when there is no town for many miles..

The pass itself is utterly barren and looks like the moon, nothing grows up in these places, not even yaks can survive. On the other side we walked downhill into the Mustang district of Nepal which is pretty remote. After that though my chest, which was not good for a few days previously, got worse, I was coughing up green and had a lot of chest pain and finally realised it was a chest infection after all, and the Diamox was working since (thank god!) I'd not felt any worse from the altitude going over the pass.

The next 4/5 days we walked gradually down from the heights, coming back to the land of trees and flowers and following the course of the Kali Gandaki river. The whole time I had permanent chest pain and eventually I ran out of energy to keep walking with it, and had to be put on the back of a passing motorbike to take me the rest of the day's walk- which was quite fun on a rubble track next to the deepest gorge in the world! Then Indra recommended I stop trekking and go to Pokhara, the big regional town, to see a doctor- I was only too glad since the next days walk was uphill 2 vertical kilometres, no way could I have done that. I could barely walk half a day down a gentle wide downhill track. So I'm now in Pokhara waiting for the rest of the group to arrive tomorrow, the doctor said I have asthmatic bronchitis so I'm sitting around not doing much and eating to try put weight back on!

I'm quite pleased in many ways to be done trekking, because it is too much, but if you could do it gently at your own pace, walking as much in a day as you wanted yourself and taking time to enjoy the landscape, it would be amazing. But when it becomes like boot camp it quickly drains it out of you! Half the time you don't even look at the view, just at the rocks under your feet cos you're trying to keep up walking so far and so fast.

If you were thinking of donating on my behalf to The Stroke Association, now's the time on www.justgiving.com/jennysanders100. Any donations very much appreciated!

Sunday I'm supposed to be flying to India to begin the next trip- a month sightseeing there, not involving any more trekking! :)