Poor me I am ill. After nearly 3 months away my stomach of cast iron has dissolved to an unpleasant mulch leaving me feeling rather weak and pathetic and unable to do much. Luckily for you this means I can post yet more random stuff from the past few weeks.

Coming down from the mountains you immediately start to notice the change in dominance of Buddhism to Hinduism - no where more so than in Poon Hill where we were to experience the first of many 'tika' giving ceremonies. This involves a dollop of raw rice mixed with yoghurt and red dye being placed on the forehead and a flower behind the ear. I understand this to be the giving of good luck ... that said Clare's looks more as though she has been stabbed in the head and mine looks like a dirty great scab.

Partying Pokhara

Finally arriving in Pokhara to relax .... apparently guys must where hats and girls have scarves but

the significance was lost amongst the Everest beer.

Please note in particular Paksang's attempt at a sad face - as you can see it is a physical impossibility for the guy - he just looks asleep!

It all got very spirited and with the guys in their Nepali hats - off we went to the disco where Mark promptly lost his. Don't worry I haven't become an angry little Gurkha - just a trick of the camera in answer to Clare's photographic direction.

with me

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The way down

The way down to Pokhara passed in a bit of a haze - the snicker/mars/pastry/general food intake increased as more and more ingredients became available and the price of beer became more reasonable and by now we had wised up to Ram's dire warnings that everything was dangerous ... as you can see I even made friends with Nepal's legendary dangerous.

The communist slogan is an election poster for the forthcoming April elections - the swazstika that bizzarely appears alongside is apparently the equivalent of a cross marking your wish to support that party ...

The top

To get to the top (some 5,400 metres above sea level) we had to get up at 3.30 am to leave at 4, walk up 900 m immediately to a teahouse and then across the pass making sure we crossed before 10 otherwise the wind would get up and rip through us. Having now had some slee the climb went fine and I was practically skipping to the pass having been told that it was 'pretty much flat thereafter' ... in actual fact you have to climb up and down across icy slopes, getting higher then lower until you eventually get to the top where it is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cold i seriously thought I was going to lose a couple of fingers and toes to frostbite. Testiment to the cold is Paksang's down outfit and as you will see he is still smiling notwithstanding the fact that it is about 5 in the morning and he's been up for 3 hours already - a true sherpa. By nowI am sporting my rather elegant gaters in readiness for the snow fields we had to go through on the other side of the pass.

In case you are wondering how Mark managed to get to these dizzy heights whilst suffering from AMS ... the answer is Diamox - a great drug that propelled him up the mountain so fast he had to sit on his own in the freezing cold for half an hour before anyone else could get there.

Bleaker and bleaker as we go higher and higher

In the last couple of days before the final trek up to the high pass the landscape becomes so barren it is incredible that anyone can survive up there. The soil is so poor nothing grows, rocks litter the ground and the cold is unbearable. Having acquired the all important Hoad Hat in Kathmandu I felt pretty prepared for what was to come ... that is until Lila thought we would appreciate staying in a B & Q style shed perched on the side of the mountain ... I didn't sleep a wink as it was so cold and that was wearing two layers of thermal underwear, one thermal top, one long leeved t-shirt, two fleeces, three hats, two pairs of gloves and two pairs of socks whilst lying inside a 4 season sleeping bag. I rose yeti-like in the morning to find that my water bottle had frozen in the night...Mairead found her face flannel frozen to the door. I am pretty horrific when I haven't slept and to follow this with a hard 6 hour climb to 4,500 m meant this was my worst day

of the whole trek with an abortive attempt at crying (as I discovered it is very difficult to cry when there is limited oxygen) - the picture of Mark and me was taken shortly after I limped in to the teahouse

Just before the going the land starts to get unrelentingly barren you walk through a bizarre grassland area where horses graze in valleys with towering snowy mountains on either side. Oh yes and you are now heading up along the Tibetan border so there are thousands and thousands of buddhist monuments (Ram was a little vague on their significance other than knowing that they were buddhist monuments)

The all important food

As you all know I love my food and walking up and down mountains gave me the perfect excuse to increase the amount I could eat exponentially every day without becoming the size of a house. The food of the Annapurna Circuit is a bit artificial as the menus are all agreed by the district councils and panders too much to western tastes but that said there have been some memorable moments including...

- Mark's ability to eat 8 Dahl Bahts in a row (immediately prior to the onset of AMS so this could be a hitherto unknown early warning for the Sickness),

- the chow mein that crunched when you cut in to it,

- cups and cups and cups of mint tea,

- the fact that the only vegetable that seems to survive at high altitude is cabbage which I think is to blame for my windy descent over the last few days,

- Calvin Klein roasting buffalo meat for me in an open fire

- the ability of Clare, Mairead and myself to eat at least 2 snickers a day for at least 10 days of the trek and

- sticky buns that looked great even if they were a little stale

Some scenery shots

One thing I have realised on my travels is that I am pretty bad at taking photos (light, flash or not to flash, pixels urg) but as you will see even I cannot mess up pictures of the Himalayas. These are all from the first half of the trek when we are climbing up towards the upper reaches of the mountains and acclimatising in readiness for the ascent to 5,400 m at Thorung la (being the world's highest pass - a fact I didn't know until a few days before we got there when Mark developed the first signs of Acute Mountain Sickness).

Some of the key characters

As with all trips you meet lots of lovely people who become a big part of the memory so I thought it would be good to introduce you to some of the important Nepali guys.

Top is the main man Ram who guided us round the circuit warning us of the ever present dangers at all teahouses and bakeries around the circuit other than those which he took us to (where they kindly gave him free food) as well as the absolute dangers to be found in all dogs, mules, donkeys, spiders...

From left to right the first is a mistake post but I have no idea how to remove pictures once they are up but it goes to show the size of a westerner vis a vis that of the average Nepali who as you will see is carrying the weak westerner's bag. In red trousers we have 'Calvin Klein' so called because of his incredible good looks - cheek bones to die for and eyes you can sink in - sadly he didn't speak a word of English and was 20.

Next is Paksang without whom I would never have got to know Nepali folk music (oh yes you will all listen to it and love it) - he is unable to not smile and is the fittest human I have ever met - tried for the Ghurkas and probably didn't get in because he is too good a human being.

Finally Lila. I love Lila a lot. The only problem being that our mutual language comprehension needs to be worked on. It is hard to describe him but he is incredibly kind, unintentionally funny and about as bad as me at pool.

Getting to know the mountains

After the first couple of days I was incredulous at how easily I settled in to the pace of the walk and pretty soon the Himalayas and all of their peculiarities started to unfold... The first being the importance of 'the snack' - above Mark happily models the Mountain Man mix that enabled him to become at one with the mountains. The next being how to make water boil when electricity is sporadic if not non-existent - make a reflective kettle drum and place the pan in the middle and then wait ... a fairly long time. Marujana plants growing in amongst the stones on the paths ... packets of detonators lying around and romance starts to blossom between Mark and lovely Mairead ... ahh the sweetness of the Himalayas

Trekking around the Annapurna - Getting Started

I first decided to go to Nepal for two reasons. The first was to see the Himalayas which as everyone knows has a few of the world's highest mountains. The second was to see the Rhoddendron forests. So one day at work I was talking it over with Miss Corby and she found a 22 day trek around the Annapurna Circuit - seemed like very good value and having never really trekked before it seemed like the perfect solution ... I gave it no more thought until after Mark (Lois's brother) decided to come along too and I met Lois who wondered whether I had actually looked at the itinerary as it seemed 'pretty full on'. Giving her point all of about 5 seconds consideration I put it to the back of my mind until the day before the trek was due to start when our guide Ram started talking about the equipment we would be needing ... down jackets, a sleeping bag to withstand temps of -20 c, gaiters (errr...?) .... it was only then that I realised we would be walking up and down mountains for anything between 3 and 9 hours a day rising to an altitude of 5400 odd metres. The next day we set off amid a massive petrol strike and demonstrations to Besishar ... the only comforting thought was that Dilly would be carrying my bag.