Sleeping at:Paiju Sleeping Altitude: 3450m Trekking Distance: Rest Day Day 12 The Sky is Falling I’m going backwards on this day as the most significant thing happened after we’d gone to bed for the night. You know that feeling when you’re tired but relaxed?- it’s been a good day and you’re almost asleep listening to the raindrops on the tent roof. Well, that was how it was. Until.... All of a sudden there was a massive whoosh, to me it sounded like a fire had started. Except that there was no fire light or burning smell and the noise kept getting louder. Neither of us could work it out and the next thing was Gen, fully dressed in wet weather gear, saying not to panic but to get packed up and into wet weather gear and ... read more

Sleeping at:Jula/Jhola Sleeping Altitude: 3200m Trekking Distance: 22.8km, Ascent 530m, Descent 410m Day 10 Average sleep, up before 6 for breakfast- the dining tent is set up with a very hearty amount of cereal, chappati, jam, nutella, eggs, tea and coffee. The aim is to be on the trail by 07:30. It's pleasantly cool and we're raring to go. We have already got our duffel bags that the porters will carry packed up and left outside the tent. I think my duffel weighs in at under 10kg. Our day packs are ready, everyone is carrying about 3L of water as it's going to be hot. I've snaffled one of the empty coke bottles to fill in addition to my other bottles (cool drink bottles are great because they weigh nothing). Owen (Irish guy) is keen to ... read more

Sleeping Altitude 2230m or maybe 2310m depending on your info source Day 8 0512 sunrise across the mountains, open up the door to let in some cool air. We don't have much of a plan for today as it's mostly for the company to get the permits finalised, organise their porters and cooks and purchase food supplies. Still feel slightly subpar in the gut so decide to hit up my drug stash- Azithromycin, Lomotil, Buscopan and Ondansetron pre breakfast ought to finally knock it on the head. No idea when breakfast is so after a hot bucket and ladle "shower" wander down to the restaurant area. There are several tables occupied - the large French group (actually all svelte, just large in number), a Spanish group (animated), an Irish group (slightly animated- probably less so than ... read more

Days 5 and 6 Aug 3 My stomach hurts, you know in that crampy way. Lousy night, clearly I was a very considerate roommate- Mary had no idea I'd been up half the night. She slept well in between coughing and had no issues whatsoever with her chicken last night. Headed gingerly into the Shelton House dining room where we met 2 of our group- Lynton from Victoria (who I had conversed with by Messenger in Aust but hadn't actually met before- I think we "met" when he made a post about the trek on the Australian Long Distance Hikers FB group!) and Danny from the NT. Attempted small talk between crampy waves, trying not to let it show ahead of our big expedition. Forced down some tea and toast. Made the executive decision that Mary ... read more

Lahore Day 3 Wake up to another visa "request for more information", resend all the documents again. I am confounded as to what information is required, they have every single document I had originally submitted and there is no one to ask about the specifics. Third time lucky? Pretty slow morning, given the short time we have in Lahore, we decide on the Badshahi Mosque and Shahi Qila (Lahore Fort) in the Walled City. It's an Uber ride away (200 PKR), we leave the hotel in bright sunshine but within 10 minutes it feels like a cyclone is coming through- the sky is black, the temperature drops and a monsoonal deluge descends. The uber driver dutifully takes us to our drop off point, it is still deluging and we try to get him to drop us ... read more