This is somewhat typical of the trail. We followed this river for what seemed liked forever. Note the sheer cliff face just a few steps away. There were parts of the trail that had been wiped out by landslides and you only had a few inches of space to put 1 foot, and the rest was a drop-off, much like what you see in the photo. As scary as it sounds, it wasn't that scary when we went around these spots.

I'll never forget this guy. First off, let me describe the bridges in Nepal. As I've told people before, they range anywhere from somewhat scary too completely terrifying. This bridge was somewhere in the middle. If you look closely, you'll see it's only about 5 feet above a major rapid in the river. Also, note the construction skill of wood bound together by rope and the wood held in place by rocks. The bridge was about as wide as your shoulders and there were no handholds. This guy tried to get his goats to cross and as you can see, the goats had another idea. On another note, we met a German guy, who crossed this bridge doing a handstand, and I saw it with my own two eyes.

This is looking north, in the Tibet area once we crossed the mountain pass. If you look closely, you'll see a very small village. The scenery was just amazing.

I just happened to have my camera out when I noticed this young woman going about her daily chores and stopping to admire the view. The basket she's carrying is typical of the culture, and they carry everything this way.

Just the trail with the mountains in the back, pretty cool, eh?

This is a young boy, moving the cows on home. Children learn to handle responsibility at a very young age.

We woke up at 5 am to walk up a very large hill to watch the sunrise. It was freezing cold, but spectacular. That peak is Dhauligiri, and at 8,167 meters it was the tallest one on the trek, just 681 meters lower than Everest.

This was Yak Kharka, the COLDEST place on the circuit. Here you see the view out of my window. It so cold here that they cover the tables in thick wool blankets and then put a bucket of hot coals under the table to keep you warm. It's probably not he safest way to stay warm, but it certainly works.

I'm actually standing at a police checkpost behind the camera. My guide was talking with the police officer, whom he knew. Apparently, they were both from the same village. The police officer was writing a note for my guide to carry back to his village; it would be about 6 days before it reached its destination.

Here you see a bunch of kids walking past a trekker on their way to school. Note the way they are carrying their book bags, they learn at a very early age. Sometimes the school is close and other times it means a walk of several kilometers. School hours are 10-4, Sunday-Friday. Saturday is the worship day in the country.

Here's Chandra skipping across one of the more sturdier bridges. This was actually the very first bridge we crossed on the very first day. At this point I had no idea what lie ahead for me...

Here's a boy that stopped his playing just to watch us walk by.

This is a porter, someone that carries things along the trail. This load is nothing compared to what they are capable of carrying. Everything in the mountain villages is supplied by either porter or donkey, and you see plenty of each. They make you feel so out of shape when they pass you on the trail carrying a huge load and without shoes.

This is the village of Manang, where I started to get very sick. Thankfully, there was a health post here where I was able to get some Diamox for my altitude sickness. Yes, people actually live in those houses. You can tell that it's a Buddhist village by all the prayer flags.

This is the trail a few days after we crossed the pass. Notice the ledge on the right. That is for trekkers and porters to rest their loads on. That trekker is demonstrating its correct use.

I thought that this view was amazing, mainly because that bridge is pretty cool.

Looking north into the Tibet area. It was really beautiful.

This is looking north from the village of Kagbeni. This area in view is known as the Mustang and the government charges $700 for a 10-day permit to go into that area. That explains why you don't see anyone.

A potentially precarious situation. Always keep an eye on the tail when passing...

The village of Manang as seen from the glacier. We hiked up here to do an acclimatization hike. The village is built on a cliff right next to a river and the valley is completely surrounded by snow-capped mountains. It was one of the most scenic places on the trek.

The panoramic view from the Thorung La (the pass). Look at that blue sky! It was really beautiful up here, but you can't stay long as the altitude will get you real fast, so you take a few pictures and then get down. You can see the path leading down to the other side. All the flags are Buddhist prayer flags. It was so great getting up here that I kept hugging Chandra.

This was one of the first rapids where we had to get out of our kayaks and scout it, and also one of the first rapids where I seriously questioned if I should be doing this. Val was sick this day and couldn't kayak so she was on the shore taking pictures. That's our guide, sticking his paddle up, telling me behind him to follow his line. Does he mean that big drop off??? These were good rapids though, because it prepared us for some that were much bigger than this.

Yeee Haaw!!! You'd think I was a pro, look at that form and concentration! (Great photo Val!)

This was me and our kayak guide cooking dinner. I really wish I could remember his name, it was something like Booboo or Bubba.

We had camped at this beach one night and Val jumped in the water for a swim. A little village boy was curious about her, so he went to go check her out. The villagers use this boat to ferry people across the river for extra income, with most of them being farmers. The boat you see was really amazing, it was hand carved out of one really big tree. One of our guides paid the kid to paddle this boat across the river and then walk to the closest village to buy him some cigarettes. It took the kid about 2 hours or so because the village was pretty far away. The guy paid the kid 10 rupees for his service, about 14 cents, and neither thought anything of it.

These are the villagers that came down to the beach to play their drum and sing for us. They had the young ladies of the village dance for us. They were a hoot, really a ton of fun. As you can see, there were quite a few kids, and that made the evening even more fun. I like to think of their "band" as, The Village People.

This was one of our guides, getting down with the ladies and enjoying every minute of it.

2 of the locals dancing for us. I danced with the one in the white scarf later in the evening.

This little boy's name was Lill. He had such an incredible smile and just kept clapping like crazy to the music. Both Val and I played a lot with him, and this is probably the best picture we have of him. Once we snapped a few photos of him, he got shy, so we put our cameras down and danced with him instead.

Another picture of Lill

This little girl was very meticulous about having her shawl just right, just like her mother.

These are some of the village kids just hanging out with us. They're very curious about westerners and will just sit around watching you.

That's Val and I at the end of our journey. We were so incredibly beat at this point that the end was a welcomed sight.

This was the take-out point of our trip. You only see a fraction of all the gear that the guides brought. Our bodies were pretty sore by this point, so we didn't mind the trip being over. The only thing left to do was pack up and get on the bus to Kathmandu.

This was taken at the take-out point too. The ladies were just sitting there, watching us pack up all our gear.