Trekking Annapurna!

The trek begins at the roadhead town of Besisahar, at just 760 metres before climbing slowly through lush green scenery above the Marsyangdi River, which it follows almost until the Thorung La pass is crossed.

The joy of tea house trekking is that you need carry only a sleeping bag, clothes and a few essentials. A bed for the night is as little as 50 pence and you can buy everything you need to live in relatively idle luxury. Very mellow.

As the trail climbs, the scenery changes with the land becoming more barren and big mountains hoving into view. This is Annapurna IV - 7,525 metres - viewed from the small village of Ghyaru - 3,670 metres - near Pisang, one of the most stunning parts of the trek.

Small towns and villages clinging to the bare hillsides have an almost medieval feel. This, we think, is Ghyaru perched below Pisang Peak and beguilingly bleak.

Manang, a big town by cicuit standards and home of some of the best lodges and food on the trip, which makes it a great place for a rest and acclimatisation stay of two nights. The town's dominated by views of Gangapurna with its glacier and glacial lake. At only 7,454 metres, it's out-gunned by the various Annapurnas, but still a beautiful-looking mountain in our book.

Up close and personal with the Gangapurna glacier during an acclimatisation hike along the morraines...

Big scenery as the altitude starts to bite at over 4,000 metres. The wide open, barren area above Manang is often compared to the high altitude plateau of Tibet or Bolivia. The 5,000-metre plus Thorung pass lies at the top of the valley below the snow-capped peak.

Not a bad view from the toilet window of a handy tea house somewhere between Manang and the interestingly named Yak Kharka. The mountain, we think, is Tarke Kang, but maybe not. One of the best loo window views we've ever seen anyway....

Crazy cliff scenery from the base of the Thorung La at around 4,100 metres. From here it's a pre-dawn start to climb to the 5,416-metre summit of the pass where there's often snow lying and, from noon onwards, a fierce wind sweep down. For most trekkers it's the highlight of the walk and the lack of oxygen at 5,000 metres plus is a real shock for anyone who hasn't been to altitude before...

A tired and happy OM editor at the summit of the Thorung La after a stupidly fast ascent aimed at spending as little time up high as possible. A good idea but somewhat negated by a 30-minute wait at the top for a French friend. Nice run down the other side though with headache and nausea providing the spur.

And the view from the pass with big, snowy mountains in touching range. This one is just over 6,000 metres and if you think it looks enticingly accessible, well, apparently the odd mountaineer has just popped up to the summit on a whim before now. Not that we'd condone such behaviour, oh no....

On the other side of the Thorung La, the scenery changes again to the massive dried river beds of Lower Mustang, much of the next few days trekking is actually along the dramatic river bed and generally into a stiff headwind blowing powder into your eyes. Absolutely brilliant....

Check the suspension bridge complete with loaded donkeys to get an idea of the scale of the river bed....

The classic dawn view from Poon Hill above Ghorepani. Reaching the view point means getting up at 5 am and walking uphill for 45 minutes or so, but the effort's well worth it with stunning views as the sun lights up the entire Annapurna and Dhaulagiri ranges. Awesome.

And this is 6,993 metre Machhapuchhre, the so-called fish tail mountain - take a look - that stands at the entrance to the Annapurna Sanctuary. Beautiful.

And fast forward to lunch in the Sanctuary with stunning views up towards Annapurna 1 on the right and Annapurna South to the left. Nice....

And then, for dessert, a big serac high on Annapurna South collapsed, triggering a scenic avalanche as tons of snow cascaded down the mountain side. Sobering as both Ian Clough and more recently, Andre Boukreev have died in avalanches in the area.

And wow, from Annapurna Base Camp itself, the highest point on the sancturay trek, the view is even more stunning.

Machhapuchhre from Annapurna Base Camp as the sun sets. One of those total wow moments when you can't tear your gaze away from the mountains. If you have a to do list, add sun-set at Annapurna Base Camp to it now. You won't be disappointed. Promise.

And finally it's good by to all that. Looking back at the mountains from the walk out towards Pokhara with a haze of clouds on the top creating a weird halo effect.