As we had already completed the trip to the lake the previous evening, we had avoided the 4am start and instead made our way to breakfast at a much more respectable 7:30.
The hike itself traced the same path that we had come along on the previous day, back to Shree Karka, but we had a few surprises in store.
About an hour into the trek we came across an in progress land slip and had to wait for it to subside before making our way across the area. Luckily, in this case the path was still clear.
The next land slip had, however, washed over the path and covered it with loose shale, making the crossing extremely hazardous. Again, with help from Raj, Ram and Navin we all made it across safely.
In order to make up some of the lost time we chose a slight short cut, over a steel rope bridge. Unfortunately, a recent land slide had completely collapsed the path leading up to the bridge, meaning that we had to climb down some rocks and under the bridge, before climbing back up to the bridge in order to use it to cross the river below.
Some time later we made it back to the site of our previous stay at Shree Karka for lunch of yet more Dahl Bhat and the discovery of whole packets of biscuits, very similar to British Bourbon biscuits for only 70 rupees (around 50p).
After a quick stop and topping up our water bottles we made our way towards Yak Karka. The path is physically gruelling, with a great amount on undulating hills as it follows around the mountain side before turning left, away from the valley we had been following for the past few days and along a new valley towards the Thorong Pass. After around an hour the path begins to drop sharply towards the valley floor and a steel rope bridge, through what appeared to be a Silver Birch forest.
On the other side of the bridge over there river there was a lovely tea house that served as our drink stop for the afternoon.
After a quick drinks stop we climbed steeply up the side of the valley towards a path that contoured along the side of the valley towards our final destination.
The tea house that we arrived at had an amazing surprise, an on site bakery, serving chocolate and cinnamon rolls. Also it had (very) hot showers, which felt amazing after not being able to shower for the last two days.
Dinner was equally surprising, vegetable cheese burgers and pizza, both made with locally made yak cheese. A real luxury after days of near continuous Dahl Bhat or fried noodles and rice.
We made our way into the lounge area, which was heated by a wood fired burner and was very cosy, where we had some great conversation with Raj, Ram and Navin, before finally making our way to bed after another tiring day.
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