I have to admit I hate starting the day with a strenuous climb. The body hasn’t woken up and the last thing I want to do is to break into a sweat. But that’s how it was departing Manang at 0720 in poor light and thick cloud which didn’t lighten the mood of the morning […]

Being good people, after six days of toil, we have rested on the seventh day. Never mind that it’s a Saturday – that’s a minor issue. Resting in Manang isn’t a great hardship. Our hostal is relatively excellent – the bedroom may be unheated, cold and damp but we have an ensuite squatter toilet. At […]

We had a plan. If the weather was good we would trek the high route and, if not, we would go to Manang on the low route that followed the river. All the locals, all the guides and all the porters tell us that the high route can’t be done because it’s too difficult/too dangerous/too […]

Trekkers have a split personality. When they are moving on the trail, it’s everyone for themselves. It’s about being faster, stronger, better than others who occupy the route. But when they stop — for a rest, for the night — they are all hale and hearty and sweetness and light. As we all tend to […]

I have used an entire tube of superglue on my boot and I hope it works. I also hope the superglue wasn’t counterfeit, as are so many things around here, but I paid a reassuring equivalent of GBP 1.50 to a chap with one eye, one leg and a parrot on his shoulder, so what […]