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Heather's birthday! We woke up early as usual to clear skies and great views of Dhaulagiri. We were on the road by 8, and it was a beautiful walk down the valley through interesting villages which were like oases in the arid landscape, and had a very Mediterranean feel about them. It was very dramatic landscape - mainly rocky and barren with squat thorn bushes clinging to the ground, but with fields of pink flowering buckwheat along the valley floor.

Then followed a steep descent into the riverbed of the Kali Gandaki (which eventually finds its way into the Ganges) after Kagbeni. The riverbed is very wide and dry, and we had to get our sarongs out to use as masks as the strong wind blew clouds of gritty grey dust at us (sarongs are like the magical towels in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - you should always know where yours is when travelling!). It was a slightly trying 7km trudge along rocky uneven tracks which seemed to go on forever along the valley floor. Heather's feet had started to blister having been fine up until this point, and for a while she was not enjoying her birthday very much.

After a hard 4 hour walk into Jomsom we were surprised to bump into the Israeli brothers who we had left in Yak Kharka suffering from stomach upsets - they had been over the pass that morning and caught up with us by getting a jeep from Muktinath. We were wondering whether the fact that you can jump in a jeep and skip this part of the trek (and many people do) was making it harder for us to walk it. The group was reunited for lunch and we discussed our experiences of the crossing the pass, and debated whether to carry on walking further that day. The brothers had already had a long day and wanted nothing more than a warm shower and a clean bed. They were planning on travelling a bit further by jeep and resuming the trek on foot later on.

We decided to carry on to Marpha (the Delightful Apple Capital of Nepal which is famed for its apple brandy) which took about another 2 hours along the river. We were pleased to have made the effort, as Marpha is a very pretty village (Jomsom is mainly known as a jeep hub and airport, and is rather functional) with white houses along narrow cobbled lanes, surrounded by orchards. The main lane through the village has an impressive ancient looking irrigation and drainage channel underneath its large flagstones, and it's easy to imagine not much has changed here for a long time.

Everyone was very excited about the famous Marpha apple brandy, and the guides led us on a bit of a wild goose chase to find the distillery. When we finally found it, they had sold out the previous day (Saturday being their busiest day) but it was an interesting place, and they gave us some delicious apples as consolation. On the way back Drew bought Heather a birthday present of a very pretty necklace made from yak bone and horn in one of the many Tibetan craft shops (it looks like chocolate buttons, which Drew had to admit is what caught his eye!).

We were staying in a guest house with a very pleasant court yard where we sat and enjoyed a fun evening celebrating with plenty of beers and some of the famous apple brandy (which there was still plenty of in the town, and is a very agreeable tipple mixed with a little hot water). The evening was topped off with apple pie birthday cake complete with a little candle (did we mention Marpha is famous for apples?).

Dal Bhat for dinner; 9 out of 10 - Thakali style, looked quite nouveau-cuisine presented on an enormous plate

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