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We opened our curtains early to watch the shafts of sunlight appear over the mountains. Before breakfast, a quick wander along the street gave us a glimpse of a huge snow peak along the valley, now seeming a lot bigger and closer than on day one. We broke with tradition and had muesli with apple and hot milk for breakfast, and were on the way by 7.30.

There was a marked change in surroundings as we had now reached the level of pine trees and there was much less habitation and terracing. The first hour or so was a pleasant gradual climb alongside the river, before a very steep long climb up stairs got the heart going, and sweat dripping off brows. Before the climb we got our first glimpse of one of the Annapurna peaks - we were starting to appreciate why the first several chapters of Herzog's book is about them trying to find the main peak!

The climb gave us amazing views back to Manaslu (the eighth highest mountain in the world at 8156m or 26,758ft in old money). This brought it home that we were now walking along in the middle of some huge Himalayan mountains, with eight thousanders behind and ahead of us. We reached the lunch stop in Thanchowk by 10.30. However we were ready for the break after a fairly exhausting morning. Thanchowk is a fairly large, pretty village with apple trees and pink buckwheat flowers in the surrounding fields.

We spread clothes out to dry and relaxed in the baking sunshine. Momos for lunch, which are steamed Tibetan dumplings that look like tiny uncooked Cornish pasties, but taste much nicer than that probably makes them sound.

The afternoon was a very pleasant stroll through pine forest along a wide gently climbing track, with breath-taking views of Annapurna ahead. As the day wore on, clouds started to gather around the peaks. Generally the mornings have been very bright and clear, with clouds forming after lunch - the only real rain has been a few showers in the evenings when we're safely ensconced in the lodge. We were fairly sure we were now in the rain shadow of the mountains, and counted ourselves very lucky to have enjoyed such fine clear skies at this time of year.

We got to Chame nice and early at about 2pm, so had time to do some badly needed washing and enjoy warm showers (several although not all of the lodges have basic solar hot water - which usually means a race to get in the shower early before all the warm water is used up). Generally when arriving at the lodge in the early afternoon it's a bit of a rush to get sweaty clothes rinsed and hung up in time to dry at least a little. This morning we had slightly damp t-shirts, but we're so sweaty very soon after getting underway that it doesn't bother us for long. The rucksacks make a good mobile drying line with underwear often hanging off our backs.

Drew commented this morning that so far he's been feeling fairly invincible for the first couple of hours of each day, and overcome with joy that we're here and doing this. The elation has usually given way to fatigue by lunch time, and the afternoon consists of looking forwards to getting to the day's destination. It's a happy tired feeling though, and very pleasant to really feel you've earned your dinner!

Now at 2700m, we were starting to feel the chill in the evenings, as the sun drops behind the mountains by 4pm or so. This prompted us to invest in some fetching thermal under trousers as we weren't sure they'd be on offer in some of the smaller villages higher up; Chame seems like a sprawling metropolis with a cyber cafe, snooker bar and chocolate digestives for sale! The lodge was cottages style, which meant we had a little chalet-type room set in a lovely garden of pretty flowers.

Dal Bhat for dinner; 7 out of 10 - two curries of fried potato and cabbage to start, with a different potato curry (hotter and tastier) produced for (generous) seconds, plenty of fresh green chillies.

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