Washing day

Hi everyone 

We made it to kagbeni and stayed in a hotel with ensuite hot shower and proper toilet.  The height of luxury.  We ate dinner sat in the lounge watching a documentary about elephants in India(first TV since leaving home) snuggled under a fleece blanket to keep warm.  Best nights sleep so far.  We are now in Jomson just checked into another  hotel with full ensuite facilities gone for lunch then the boring task of washing so we have a supply of socks. You can imagine the niff with them lying around 😄. Much improvement from the night we completed the pass as we stayed in a mud hut! Yes! you read right a mud hut. It did have doors and windows but it was another night freezing. We're getting used to going to bed fully clothed.  Hopefully it will get warmer the lower down we go.  This side of the pass seems to be more in touch with the modern world with wifi available in the bigger locations.

Again thanks everyone for your posts it's lovely to hear from you.

Lots of love 

Sarah & Dave😘

Happy Birthday Mum

Hope you have a great birthday Mum. All our love Sarah and Dave. Also great to see that you have managed to blog. I understand Sam has been training you!😃

We made it over the Throng La pass 5416m at 10am 28th November

Yesterday was the hardest day of the whole trek. We completed our acclimatisation over the previous day's by walking 600 to 800m each day (vertical height). Sleeping at 4900m the night before tackeling the pass. Not to make a big deal of it but the pass is two thirds the height of Everest. We got to the top  in 3 hours and 10 mins. The trek down was awful, scrambling over ice and deep snow. Sorry no pictures from my iPhone to blog as its frozen (literally). I did take pictures at the top with the camera but can't blog those yet.  

So here's the treat time. Mum and I are sat in Muktinath at Hotel Bob Marley waiting for our fajita and enchilada. Who guess you could get this type of food at 3760m?

Lots of love and thank you for all your posts Sarah and Dave. P.s. Not sure when we will be in a wifi area again. 

We’re still here

Hi everyone I know it must seem like ages since we've been in touch but this is our first wifi op.  We left for Bhulebule on a "tourist deluxe " bus.  When they say deluxe they mean a bus crammed with as many people as it can seat and a DVD player so you can endure 6/7 hours of very loud wailing films or music DVDs in Nepalese.  We were booked onto the 6:45 bus but it was cancelled so we went on the 8:30 instead with 2aussies and an American who were also meant to be on the earlier bus.  Mustn't be enough people for the earlier bus so dumped us on the later one. A cold start to the morning waiting around in the open bus station but someone got us some tea.

The bus ride was different ,they charge extra to put luggage in the boot but really they should give us money to have our luggage cleaned.  It was filthy covered in dust but we've now come to expect that as everywhere is dusty.  Our bus journey took 81/2 hours longer than flying from London to Kathmandu but at least we got there in one piece.  We found a nice tea house to stay in very quaint with a lovely hostess.  Prices crazy if you eat the room is next to nothing.

Started our walking ,the bags feel very heavy but it's life in a bag!!!!!!!!! We've met some lovely people and stayed in a variety of places some brilliant some not so.  It's amazing how much value you put on a hot shower at the end of a long days walk ( always uphill until through the pass)  no trouble sleeping though as tired out by 7:30/8 and up for breakfast at 7.  Foods not bad in fact some has been very nice and freshly made when you order so you have to take a break while it's cooked. We've mastered the art of ordering meals when we stop so we get them about the time we want.

We've reached our rest stops and decided to stay just outside Manang in a medieval village called Baraka.  It has a bakery attached to the hotel and the goods are delicious as Dave can testify to.  Celebratory Apple pie en-route for his birthday.  We've attended a safety talk about altitude sickness and had a check over both fighting fit and no symptoms of altitude sickness or anything else including the dreaded"Delhi belly".  You wouldn't think it though if you heard me puffing and panting up the very steep inclines.  As I said the bags are heavy mies about20kg and Daves about 24kg. I know mines lighter but in relation to body size/percentage not so.  We've organised a porter to take 1backpack and the tent for the next stage to the top of the pass to ease the weight for us both as we will put essentials in the daypack.

At the moment we have been for a walk(up a steep hill/mountain) as usual and Dave is taking photos around Ganggapurna Lake(Turquoise Lake) while I compose this for you.  Then climb into Manang  for a hot lemon tea and snickers before returning to hotel for some r&r!!!!!!!!!! 

This post was due to be sent on 25/11/14 but local wifi failed. 

Last post for a while

It's 5am and we are setting off for the bus to a place called Bhulabhula (or something like that). It's a 7 hour bus journey. Anyway in the Annapuna mountain range were not sure if there's any wifi so it may be 3 weeks until you hear from us again. Don't worry we're all good. Love Sarah and Dave

Rickshaw Ride to Gungba Bus Station

The only two fools to travel the length of Kathmandu in Rikshaw. We had many strange looks from the Nepalese locals. Experience never to be repeated. We went straight through this traffic. Highway Code is aim and GO!

Maybe in Nepal but just had our first Mexican burrito

No jalapeños though!(thank god says Dave)
Nice roof top restaurant with interesting view, see below. It'll give spaghetti junction a run for its money.

Arrived in Kathmandu

We've arrived here after a very long journey. 11:30pm Friday evening local time. But we worked out it will not be as long as the next jump to Australia!  The taxi man was waiting at the airport thankfully. However, he had a little bad news as the hotel we had booked 4 months ago was full, not what you want to hear when you arrive. So we had to stay in one nearby. Sarah was not impressed!!!!

Anyhow, today, Saturday has been a nice day in Kathmandu. We've sorted our trek passes and exchanged money over, our bargaining skills worked well. Everything in Kathmandu is up for a haggle. Never take the price quoted!
Wow it's a colourful but dirty place as I expect are many poorer countries. It looks better in the day than at night.

Last night on the way in we had to slow down for a herd of "sacred cattle" roaming through the streets. Lucky the rabid dogs didn't eat them. Hah! Hah! Did not get photo unfortunately. Also, we had full view of a motorcyclist who clearly had never ridden his motorbike before, he pulled out in front of us going about 5 miles an hour when we were doing 25 our driver stopped then 30 seconds later the motorcyclist swerved in front of another car turning right but this time skidded off into the gutter. We checked he was OK and then carried on. 5 minuets latter he was on his bike speeding passed us. We gave him a wide berth from then on.

We are now in the hotel we should have been in. Arrived for breakfast at about 9:30am. Dave must of had a hand in the decor choices for the room! (See photo)

Here's a photo from the balcony towards the mountains out of Kathmandou. You can just see a temple  on the right. If you look very carefully.

Big thank you to everyone

Just want to say thank you to Sam, Leanne, Ben and Nathan. We enjoyed our breakfast with you all this morning, thanks for the send off. Sam and Leanne we appreciate the time taken to take us to the airport and for not crying too much (although Sam we can't include you in that). Ben hope your feeling better when you read this and today's clients haven't tired you out too much. Nathan thank you for accompanying us to the airport and to all of you we love you and will be thinking about you. Sarah and I are sat in Heathrow contemplating the next 24 hours before we make it to our bed.
Thanks to everyone for your support and early Christmas gifts. We very much appreciate it.

My glasses look like comedy glasses (Aka Eric Morecombe).