Day 6 - Poon Hill and Ghorepani to Banthanti

I was awake early for the start of our VERY EARLY hike up Poon Hill to watch the sunrise. A bleary eyed, head torch wearing group set off in the dark. What a strange sight it was. We discovered that Ghorepani must have a hell of a lot of accomodation as there were what seemed like hundreds of people all processing up the steep stone steps in single file. The steps were huge and it was hard going as there was a pretty important deadline to hit - SUNRISE. So everyone was pushing themselves really hard to make it up in time. Falsh summit after false summit but eventually after a tough 50 minute climb the watch tower came into sight and we all gathered in a quieter spot to watch the amazing scene unfold.

Poon Hill has a 360 degree view all around and a 180 degree view of the mountains. We could see the beautiful Annapurnas, Machapuchare, Buttefly Mountain, Dhaulgiri, Tukche Peak, Nilgiri but I didn't really care what they were called they were so awe inspiring. The sun coming up behind them was amazing and we were snapping shot after shot. I hope I have some good ones. The tops of some of the snow covered peaks had a drift of snow blowing off the tops like strange clouds - it was so beautiful. We were at the highest point of our trekking here at 3,200m and boy what an amazing view. It was really cold so we had all taken loads of warm clothing to cuddle up in, all except Marc who looked like frosty the snowman with frost on his hat and thin fleece.

We dragged ourselves away, reluctantly and made our way down the mountain. This was such a highlight for me it was really quite emotional having to go back down, realising this was the last day we would be up so close to the mountains. So it was a rather subdued breakfast we had before setting off on the way back down heading towards our overnight stop at Banthanti. We kept looking whistfully back at the mountains as they slowly got further and further away. The scenary was changing back into the terraced hillsides we had seen at the start of our trek. A sad, plodding group made their way slowly down mentally saying goodbye to the mountains.

We settled ourselves into the last Tea House of our Trek and prepared for an evening of goodbyes. We would be losing our porters the following day so Raj had got some envelopes with their tips and also for Govinda and Krishna. After the presentations Linda and Phil gave lovely speeches of thanks and we sang a rendition of Resaam Phiriri (Raj's favourite song) to round off the evening.

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