Nayapul to Ulleri

Friday 18th - Trekking begins
Nayapul to Ulleri
Met our trekking guide Ram in the morning and chatted before we left, he's been a guide for 20 years so think we're in safe hands.  Taxi to the start point along bumpy hilltop roads, i say its a road but its crumbling so much its better described as a collection of potholes linked by occasional strips of tarmac.  The walking starts quite easy and gets progressively steeper and steeper.  I'm sat right now at the Meera Guesthouse in Ulleri about 2200m high in the hills, its been misty today so no views of the high mountain peaks yet and now the fog has settled in we're literally in the clouds with visibility up to 10-20 metres max.  On the route up here we passed through stepped rice fields, little farm settlements, footbridges, crashing waterfalls, men herding donkeys with packs, locals carrying loading baskets on head straps, forests, shrines, children scampering home from school and some awesome awesome views across the hills and valleys.  It really is impossible to describe how picturesque and amazing it is up here.

Its very cold now its gone dark so we're wrapped up trying to keep warm.  We've met a Dutch girl called Sanne who is very nice, she is in Nepal for 2 months by herself and is doing a 10 day trek to Annapurna Base Camp alone with no guide, very admirable.  I told Bec I like the idea of travelling by myself but she doesn't understand why I would want to go without her.  I enjoy travelling with Bec for the shared experience and although maybe I'll never do it now I understand why travelling alone would be a different adventure and an experience of real independence.
Enough writing for today, I'm tired.