Well bless my soul I’ve just finished packing for my return to Nepal and I’ll explain why it has been rather stressful in a moment but first ..

I’m travelling a deux for the first time. No longer a lone traveller with you dear friends as my companions from afar, this time I’ll actually have someone with me to share the sights and smells. Ross with his dear open heart is coming (of his own free will) along for the ride. You will learn plenty more about him over the next two weeks ..

So yes the packing challenge - 2 weeks includes 6 days of hiking, 2 days of travelling and 6 days of partying in Kathmandu - all with an 8kg allowance. The packing order starts with the best antiperspirant money can buy and a wash kit par excellence (of which there will be much more to say in due course). Everything else is small, light, warm and multifunctional. My earrings double up as ear plugs and my toothpaste is a hand wash. My nutty bars also function as a face scrub.

During the past 24 hours in spite of my normal level of chill, I have experienced mega stress. Here’s what happened.

When booking the flights, during school holidays, in order to save a few hundred pounds, I came up with the idea to fly to Delhi and from there to Kathmandu. All this without thinking that you need a visa to fly to India. As an aside I really should know this as 10 years ago I turned up at the airport to catch a flight to India without a visa and I know it just doesn’t work.

However, with sufficient googling you can find out that if you are in transit and don’t leave the airport you don’t need a visa. However, the two airlines involved share a point of view that you can’t check in till 24 hours before travel and, wait for it, you can’t check in without a visa. And it takes 2-3 days to get a visa.

We arrived at Heathrow at 5am giving it a 50:50 whether we would get on our flight. We had time to consider a plan B and thought we would make the most of it if we didn’t get on the flight by going to Thailand, or Cambodia, instead. You see the weather forecast is truly shite. The point of the trip is to witness the majestic landscape of the Himalayas in full spring bloom. With the rain and thunderstorms planned for the whole week we could have just as well have walked up the Golden Cap. Getting a bit excited about plan B we got checked in for the whole journey and so Nepal here we come.

To lend a little piquancy to proceedings I had a small cosmetic procedure a couple of days ago promising to smooth out under eye wrinkles and which instead has left me, hopefully temporarily, with bruises and under eye pouches so no selfies for a few days.

We kind of knew that the Indian love for bureaucracy would be there to greet us in Delhi. And here we have it - the desk of efficiency. Whose function was to direct all passengers in transit to the next desk.

After all that we \240arrived safely in Kathmandu and were called out by the siren of cheap beer, rooftop bars and loads of spangly lights. So much so that afterwards it was impossible to work out what to take on the trek and what to leave in the hotel. On the other hand it was an awesome night out. On the other hand this morning doesn’t feel great and my meticulous planning has all gone to cock.

I don’t know how to convey in words the bone rattling nature of the 6 hour drive out of Kathmandu except to say we were jiggled to within an inch of our lives and have no teeth left.

I think I mentioned that the weather forecast was not promising. I can tell you that it delivered on expectations. Although we are walking in the Himalayas we cannot see them at all. Nothing.

We had a 3 hour hike after the ride and I have to say that was surprisingly tough going. Our lodge is basic. We have a mountain ’toilet’ opposite our room which is for everyone to share. There is a lovely temple for us to send a few prayers to the universe. We have quite a few, truth be told.

As you all know, no matter how meticulously you research and plan, things don’t always work out the way you wanted. The test of character is how you deal with it. So, the walk yesterday, instead of panoramic vistas of snow capped Himalayan peaks, presented us with thunderstorms and visibility of about 50 metres. But did I sob? Only on the inside.

I’m sorry that there are a few days now to catch up on but the trekking has been hard and rather dismal to be honest. The altitude makes walking a lot harder and I’ve had to dig deep not to sit down and cry.

I think you’ve got the picture by now that the accommodation is basic. In most places you can pay for a ‘hot shower’ which means tepid trickle. Just the thing. After hiking all day. Being cold, damp and grimy is wearing on two normally cheery souls. One of whom has been immensely cheered up by winning every single game of cribbage 😂

Foodwise you have a choice. Dal baht which is copious quantities of white rice with a thin dahl and some greens, or Sherpa stew which is vegetables with potatoes and pasta. All very healthy and tasty and always the same.

The trip back to Kathmandu took 10.5 hours of rolling, churning torture.

After a week of trekking in the mountains where the only sounds were the wheezing and gasping of your breath and your heart pounding, to arrive in Kathmandu was an assault on all the senses. Everything everywhere all at once. Walkers, mopeds, cars, rickshaws all jostle for space on the narrow streets. Anyone who can blast a horn does so no less than once a minute. Every shop owner wants to know where you come from and has very cheap items.

This trip has been an adventure to the edges of everyday experience, blasting through the boundaries of comfort and familiarity, the way adventures should.

We have had to dig deep to keep going in the breathless ascents through the cold mist, and settle our minds to the spartan accommodation when we were tired and wanted comfort and warmth.