The Rather Long Staircase

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We set off on a two day trek in the Annapurna range of the Himalayas. Our guide and porter met us outside the hotel with a minibus and it took us about 45 mins to reach the start.
The trail was a set of stone steps that went up and up for 3000ft, although, we didn't know that at the time. We passed through forests, fields of rice and sweetcorn and clumps of Rhododendrons. There was a mix of sun and cloud, so the conditions were favourable for hill walking. Our destination was the stone housed village of Dhampus, to a tea house that was pure backpacker ie run down, scruffy, someone's home and home cooked food.
Tom had a dodgy tummy and he was feeling poorly by the time we got to the top. So, we put him to bed at 1.30pm with lots of water and flat coke and he slept till 5.30.
Cas, Bob and I sat under a bamboo canopy and chatted all afternoon. Bob also started feeling a bit unwell and so he crashed out too. Hat and Ed played with sticks for the whole of the afternoon and had a variety of games going, many of which seemed Star Wars inspired. The local village children kept looking over the wall to peak at these curious western children flailing and twirling sticks.
It was around 5.00 that the clouds cleared and we had tremendous views of the Annapurnas which rose to phenomenal heights in front of us. Directly ahead was the sacred mountain Machhapuchhre, 23,000ft, to our left was Annapurna 1 and III, to our right was Annapurna IV and II. The highest is Annapurna I which was the first of the fourteen +8000m mountains to be climbed, weighing in at a lofty 26,545ft.
Tom resurfaced and was feeling much better and then Bob popped up a later on. We ate together and the Nepali food was excellent, all cooked from scratch. To finish the night off we played some funny rounds of Scabby Queen. Tom still never lost, despite being put on a diet of chicken soup. We also passed around a well-tuned acoustic guitar; strangely, not much was recognisable.

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