I travelled to Nepal in spring to trek the Himalayas. It was by far the most physically demanding, challenging, yet most rewarding thing I've ever done.
Imagine turning your phone off for three weeks, living high above the clouds and exploring an ever changing landscape each day. From snowy Himalayan peaks to traditional Tibetan Buddhist villages, pine forests to rhododendron forests, glaciers to ice lakes, tropical rainforests to deserts and river gorges to open plains.
Up each day at sunrise, it was easy to fall into a routine. Trekking until noon, eating Dal Baht for lunch (and sometimes dinner too), exchanging “Namaste’s" (hello) with friendly locals along the way, drinking copious amounts of tea, staying in colourful wooden tea houses, taking afternoon naps, playing cards and hitting the sack exhausted every night before sunset. I was in heaven and ended up staying in the mountains for 26 days.
Don't listen to any of those trekkers who try to tell you the Annapurna Circuit is just "too commercial these days". It's simply stunning and it literally took my breath away.
Upper Pisang village on the Annapurna Circuit after a sprinkling of snow overnight
Tibetan Buddhist prayer wheels have rolled up paper inside bearing a mantra, and it is believed that spinning the cylinders emanates positive energy
A colourful teahouse in Chame with perfectly displayed crockery
A view of the Manang Valley on a side trek up to Kilcho Tal ice lake
A grandmother and her granddaughter in the pretty village of Tal
A porter takes a break from carrying more than his own body weight in pots and pans
A view of Mungi and the valley below
A little boy in Manang, a village at 3,519m where trekkers stop to acclimatise for a couple of days
A nerve wracking trek across this terrain to reach Tilicho Lake base camp
Trekkers rest after a strenuous trek to the frozen Tilicho lake at 4,919m… this side trek helps with acclimatisation for Thorong La pass
Snow fell the night before our big ascent to Thorong La pass at 5,416m
It was no mean feat making it to the top at 5,416m… many people turned back due to altitude sickness, some were carried up on horses and others were even air lifted out by helicopter
Ranipauwa at the foot of Thorong La pass is a stop-over for Hindu and Buddhist pilgrims on their way to the Temple of Muktinath, and weary trekkers
First view of Kagbeni in Upper Mustang after clambering down a crevice enduring high speed winds, which turn up every single day after 11am… be warned
A little oasis called Tiri in Upper Mustang, which you can reach by walking along the Kali Gandaki river basin
View of Machapuchare “the fish tail” at sunrise from bed in Tadapani… didn’t even have to get out from under the covers