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Amazingly we woke to another cloudless blue sky, and were pleased to find that our t-shirts had almost dried out (we'd given them a rinse the night before as they were getting quite ripe already). Porridge with slices of apple was a warming and tasty breakfast.

The day started with many small but tiring climbs followed by descents as we crossed the river several times over suspension bridges. Then followed a steep and dramatic zig-zagging ascent to the pretty town of Tal (name meaning lake), which sits next to a wide stretch of the river. The valley here is suddenly much wider and Tal is almost in a basin, perched at the top before the river is squeezed and then drops down a steep waterfall into the valley that we had just come from.

We stopped in Tal for lunch. By now we'd formed a bit of a group with a couple of other pairs of trekkers and their guides - two Israeli brothers, and a Belgian trekking with a Nepali friend. In general there were more trekkers in evidence than we had seen before although we are not sure where they appeared from as the trail was remarkably quiet. Apparently in the high season, all lodges can become full and there are traffic jams on the path. We were glad that so far our gamble of trekking during the tail-end of the monsoon seemed to be paying off - we were enjoying the combination of good weather and having the circuit almost to ourselves.

Tal was the first place offering the Safe Drinking Water service, which we were to use heavily. This excellent scheme aims to reduce the amount of plastic bottles which are discarded along the trek every year - the installations use electricity to treat water with ozone, producing lovely clear cool water which is much more palatable than using iodine. Not everyone was convinced the water coming out of big black plastic barrels was as safe as that from a bottle, and they suggested they'd start trusting it if we were still healthy in a couple of days!

After lunch, it was back to ups, downs and across as we made our way gradually up the valley past numerous more landslides. It was a rather sombre site to see the wreckage of a house and part of a village destroyed by one particularly big slide. The river had washed away a bridge in another place and we had to tentatively cross a waterfall on stepping stones compromising between getting soaked by the spray on one side and going too close to the drop on the other.

It was a long day and we arrived in Dharapani around 4 very tired and sweaty. The valley splits in Dharapani (meaning clear water) with one valley heading up towards Manaslu and the other along towards Manang; we had a great view from our room across the river.

Dal Bhat for dinner; 6 out of 10 - mayonnaise salad, cold curry, rice served in a bowl shape. Very hot raw red chillies, seconds was dal only.

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