update from kathmandu

We've finally now arrived back in Kathmandu, the bus journey yesterday took us 11.5 hours (yes really!). The reason for this were Maoist party activity in one of the towns on the way (i.e. they had blockaded half the road, and out of respect, most people didn't bother going past them, so we sat there for a couple of hours). Then there were strikes in Kathmandu, so we joined a queue of buses, lorries etc trailing for 10km outside of Kathmandu. As a result we got in really late and struggled to find a (decent) hotel, ended up staying in a hole of a place last night.

Getting a bit tired of the chaos here now, the traffic has to be seen to be believed, no traffic lights, no signs much, no organisation and bikes in every conceivable gap. Could do with holiday now...

c

see http://picasaweb.google.com/cyclingspongecake/Nepal2009# for 3 pics, sorry won't be more until I get back.

c

Finished...

We've finally finished the trek itself yesterday, with a very long day (steep downhill all the way), with one section of over 3000 steps, and thats less than half the number we went down during the day, from approx 3000m altitude to just over 1000m ish. We are now relaxing in Pokhara for 3 days before returning to Kathmandu/India for a couple of days sightseeing. I'm sure I've lost weight, but I've bought the t-shirt (with a map of the circuit on it!).

Hi all,

another quick update from Jomsom. Can't upload any pictures, not enough bandwidth. We've now been over Thorung La pass, at 5400m, which involved a 11.5 hour day walking, with large an heavy packs at altitude, which is the hardest walk I've ever done. As we're all a bit jaded, exhausted we've had debates about whether we give up from here as we've done the best bit of the walk, and go and relax somewhere nice, but we'll see.

I've certainly lost weight, generally you don't feel hungry at altitude and we hadn't budgeted all that well so had to be a bit careful of cash until we found a cashpoint here..

Gotta go now, hope work is fun etc.

c