The last week has been absolutely amazing, trekking through the lower Mustang valley. We flew from Pokhara to Jomson and then trekked up to Mukthinath via Kagbeni, to a height of 3800m. This is the last village that one can go to before heading over the 5400m pass to the other side of the Annapurna circuit. Having been on the EBC trek we had no problem with the altitude. We practically ran up and down the mountains doing the whole trek in just 6 days. Usually it takes between 8 and 13, so our feet and knees have taken some abuse. Never though that blisters could be so disabling. By the end of the trek we were more hobbling than walking. I think Isa suffered the most as it was I who set the pace.

The dry desertic landscape was utterly breath-taking. I know I'm repeating myself here but the mountains of Nepal are mindblowinly beautiful. Too beautiful for words. You have too experience a trek here to know what I mean. I think I must have taken about 200 photos in the first 3 hours. Of course I had to delete them later on to make room for the next day. But, there is so much that you want to capture and remember for again. that it's easy to get carried away. We didn't pass any Yaks on the trail. It's not high enough for them. Instead we had the sounds of 'cowbells' made by donkeys, sheep and goats to accompany us on our trek. The donkeys do most of the load carrying aroung there saving the locals from having to carry the crazy weights that we witnessed up in the Khumbu valley. The Jomson trail was formerly a trade route for Tibet and most of the locals of this region are Tibetian in apperance. We could'nt believe the hospitality and the standard of the food and the lodges themselves. We slept in warm beds and ate the best of food that would rival anything that we had in Kathmandu. We even had an en suite toilet in every place that we stayed. A luxury that we could have done with on the freezing cold nights in the Everest region.

Tomorrow morning we head for the Royal Chitawan Park. Apparently the best wildlife reserve in Asia and an opportunity that we couldn't pass up. We'll be there with the elephants, rhinos, tigers, crocodiles and various other exotic wildlife for 2 nights and three days. Hopefull we'll get to bathe the baby elephants. Something that we are keen to do. After that we have two days in Kathmandu before saying goodbye to Nepal and heading onto Thailand. Hard to believe that we've been on the road for about 10 weeks now. We've really loved our time here in Nepal and will be a little sad to leave. But we'll definitely come back. It really is an incredibly beautiful place.

Village house

Jagkot

Donkey trail

Someone switched the light on!