View point (approx 4300m) with the Gonks

We got up early today to watch the sunrise. We were the only two people watching from the small peak we climbed. It was pretty spectacular and an amazing experience watching the different colours as it rose above the clouds and behind the mountains.

We both actually managed to get some sleep and were warm enough although woke up a few times. After breakfast we headed up to view point which our guide said was a couple of hours but quite hard uphill. From there we could decide if we wanted to continue to the Mardi Himal base camp. Apparently there is nothing much there and the view is better from view point but we thought we'd see how we got on as it would be a further two hours or so.

The trek was hard. We were both feeling the altitude and had to rest often. A portion of it was also very close to the edge with quite a precarious scramble/climb and Freddie's fear of heights wasn't liking it! She was more worried about coming down than going up but Dharma reassured us that it got easier and we would find a different route down.

After about two and a half hours we reached the view point and it was spectacular with 360 degree views of the mountains. The Gonks, once again, managed to stow away in our bag so we had to include them in the pic ... as you can see they are looking far cooler than we are! In the background you can see Fish Tail and the Mardi Himal peak is just behind Andy's head.

Andy also took his violin up and played Peaches en Regalia (Frank Zappa) and Bach's Violin Sonata in E which our guide loved. We decided not to continue to the base camp and so made our way (via the buffalo trail) back down to High Camp for some food. We spent the rest of the day relaxing, reading and talking and keeping warm by the log burner. We were joined by a few locals at one point but, again, we were the only guests.

The night sky here is spectacular as you can imagine so we also spent some time gazing upwards before returning to the warmth of the log burner and then to bed for another early night.

Haiku
Homage to Zappa and Bach
Violin at 4.3K up
A musical high