We're back in India having made the deeply uncomfortable 24 hour bus and train journey from Kathmandu to Varanasi. I believe Grapes has already alluded to the Nepali fun sized tin box bus on truck chassis experience, but this one was at least air conditioned. We managed to get ourselves old skool 1st class train tickets for the Indian side of the journey - our very own compartment with natural aircon due to the lack of glass... This is of course a good thing as the daytime temperature here is 45 degrees and the nightime minimum is about 25!

Varanasi is a weird place. It's India's holiest city and people come from all over to take a dip in one of the worlds most polluted rivers. To quote the Lying Planet, the level of faecal bacteria in the water is 1.5 million per 100mL of water, when the safe bathing limit's around 500. And that's just the shit. When they're not swimming in it they've got funeral pyres in full view on the shore, but we've not had the experience of seeing a dead baby floating in the water...

We're staying in a really nice (air conditioned) room right by the river, and this morning got up at 4:30 for a dawn boat trip. The city seems fairly quiet and laid back compared to our expectations, maybe due to the time of the year, but the bathing ghats are still pretty busy in the morning. It's also rather nice to be eating proper curries again!

Anyway, as promised a little more about our trek.

We left Kathmandu at 7am for 3 bus trips which took us as far as a place called Bouleboule. This is a little way up from Besishahar, the traditional start for the Annapurna circuit but we didn't particularly fancy a 4 hour hike up a hot dusty road being overtaken by busses and jeeps so we took the easier option.

The weather started out pretty hot and humid for the first few days so I was soaked in sweat most of the time. Grapes was mostly OK as the condition of her agreeing to go on a trek was that I carried all the stuff so she only had a small day pack. Most of the first section was up and down through rice terraces - big mountain views were lacking but it was still exceptionally pretty.

As we climbed the valley narrowed into a series of spectacular gorges with the river thundering through, and the teperature dropped to comfortable (for walking). The scenery changed to pine trees and orchards as well as our first glimpses of snow capped peaks. We'd left the lowland Hindi culture behind and had entered the Tibetan influenced Buddhist areas of Nepal.

The higher we got the more the valley started to open out and the better the views became. This picture is of Annapurna II at about 7900m (if I remember right!). We were now in the rain shadow of the main Himalayan chain and the terrain was drier and the weather stayed clearer for longer.

This is us at about 3700m between Pisang and Braga. You can see my huuge backpack and Grapes diddy little handbag but she's still smiling, I've not been killed and it's worth it! Around here we start meeting more trekkers - as you get higher your stops become constrained by maximum daily altitude gain and we align ourselves with the stops listed in the Lying Planet.

This is Braga village with the monastary (gompa) in the background (the red building). We stayed in Braga for 2 nights at 3500m to help acclimatise the the altitude before the high pass. All the villages in the region have barely changed since the middle ages, with the possible exception of the overhead power cables (which have only been here for around 5 years). On our day off we attempted to walk to a nearby ice lake at 4500m. Walks like this help with acclimatising to the altitude. Grapes gave it up at 4300m, knackered. I made it to 4500, and had to turn back 10 minutes short of the lake too dizzy to attempt to cross a steep snow bank with a 1km drop down the side...

After Braga the weather got cold, and these happy little fellas started showing up. This is a yak, every village has a hotel called the Yak - some have several. On the course of our walk we also saw eagles, otters, vultures and weird hamster type things.

This is the view at the bottom of the Thorong La on the east side at around 4400m. The nearest settlement on the west side is at 3700m so you can see why most people cross it east to west. It's a barren area - only a few clumps of brown grass cling to life up here, and everything's expensive having been portered and mule trained up along the same path we've taken. To while away the time everyone huddles in the dining room as its the only heated room in the lodge playing cards and reading books.

This view is nearing the top of the pass at over 5km above sea level. We set off at 6:30am to give us enough time to summit by 10am before the wind and cloud build up. Near the top there is a never ending series of false summits, and at this altitude there is only 50% of the oxygen available at sea level. In spite of spending time acclimatising we manage to walk for about 1 minute before we need a 5 minute breather to recover! I've probably never felt so exhausted in my life...

Three and a half hours later we've made it! Look how flushed with success Grapes is! Doesn't she look delighted? Bet she can't wait to do that again! Also marvel at my day glo yellow fake North Face jacket - bought for 4 squids after my rain jacket got nicked by some pesky kids (probably). We're at 5416m which is 4 times higher than Ben Nevis and over 600m above Mont Blanc! There is a small cairn 50m higher so like a small child I dash up there just because I can. We also partake in Nepal's most expensive tea and super noodles. The tea cost about 60p and had to be carried 70 miles up there (along with the kerosene to boil it) by some porter and is still cheaper than Starbucks. Sadly the worst is still to come - a knee destroying 1700 metre descent to Muktinath where a cold shower awaits me (though not Grapes who uses the last of the lukewarm).

Down the other side this is the view over the medieval village of Jharkot. We're now geographically and culturally (if not politically) in Tibet. The landscape is dry, barren and windswept. The Star Wars feel of the place is enhanced by the 100cc motorcycle taxis that have started to use the new dirt road and wheeze their way up and down the valley carrying fat Indian pilgrims to the temple complex at Muktinath. Sadly (for us and the lodge owners) this new road is a feature of much of the trek down to Tatopani though it has yet to link to Nepal's road network.

We join the main river valley the other side of the pass at Kagbeni, 2800m above sea level. Here the river bed is 1km wide and a savage wind rushes up it every day after mid morning, sand blasting everything in its path. This is also the deepest valley in the world - further down the valley floor lies at 2500m while two 8000m peaks (Daulaghiri and Annapurna I) lie either side. (The mountain in the picture is Nilgiri)

A few days trek down the valley (passing through Marpha - the apple capital of Nepal!) we reach Tatopani. The food is pretty good down this side of the circuit and there are hot springs here so we decide to spend a rest day here. It helps that our friends we met on the circuit, Amanda and Chris are staying here too... After Tatopani the route climbs back up to cross a ridge at Poon Hill - the views back to the Annapurna range from here are stunning, as you can see...

After Poon Hill by some miracle I pursuade Grapes to carry on as far as the Annapurna Sanctuary before heading back down. It adds about 5 days onto our trek, but it's a truly amazing place. On the way up low cloud blocks the views but on arrival at Annapura Base Camp (4400m) we're treated to a clear sunset. The Sanctuary is a small valley high in the centre of the Annapurna massif. Once inside you are completely surrounded by mountains - most are over 7000m. It's a different world - glaciers, avalanches, moraines, ice lakes. We stay the night there and the views early in the morning are just as special, even though the temperature in our room was below zero.

This is Annapurna I (8070m) from A.B.C. This may also be the first time we've bothered to put a photo of Francois the Camel on the internet - it would have been fairly pointless to have lugged him 150 miles by foot otherwise...

On the way back down the valley to the trailhead it rained a lot. The weather is building towards the monsoon and every afternoon without fail we got treated to a large thunderstorm, usually with hailstones the size of 5p pieces. Grapes initially vowed never to do a trek again, but has since mellowed and admitted she actually enjoyed (most of) it. I shall be doing the Everest Base Camp trek at some stage - it's a bit tougher than the circuit (apparently) but you do get to see the world's highest mountain...

We rested up a few days in Pokhara, a city with nothing to do. At all. It's extremely pleasant with a beautiful Himalayan backdrop (when it's clear) and a nice lake. All we did was plan which nice cheap restaurant to eat in next. In one (Bistro Caroline funnily enough) I ate one of the finest steaks I may ever eat - it was barely warm, huge, tasted devine, melted in the mouth and came with fantastic peppercorn sauce and cost 3 quid! Bloody hell!

Once we'd got bored of eating we headed back to Kathmandu before hightailing it here a couple of days later. We're flying to Singapore on the 4th so Grapes can do some shopping and I can have a really expensive Singapore Sling in Raffles hotel. It should prove to be quite a contrast after the filth, stench and chaos of India...