Day 96 Wednesday 6 December, Ghorapani to Pokhara, Nepal

Its I4’s birthday and the start of our second month in Nepal. We’re up at 5.15 for the stiff climb to Poon Hill (3210m) above the village for the sunrise. Its a bit like a pilgrimage with close on a hundred visitors trekking up the hill by the light of the full moon with the peaks of Annapurna and Dhuraligiri glistening in the moonlight. We reach the top after a 40min slog where the sky is beginning to turn orange. Its very cold and the ground is covered in frost. After a while the sun catches the tops of the mountains turning them bright orange. Many photos later we descend to Ghorapani for breakfast before commencing our trek back down to civilisation. Basically its a 2000m twisting stone staircase through villages, terraces and landslides (one in July wiped out an entire village killing 29 people) to the Mardi river and then on to Biranthanti. Descending is more tortuous than climbing up as it puts lots of stress on the knees so progress is quite slow and we arrive back at the road at around 4.30pm just as the sun is setting. I2 is waiting anxiously having reached there the day before. Fortunately the bus is still waiting and we head back to Pokhara for showers and dinner.