I got out of bed at around 8am as breakfast was ready. I wasn’t expecting much given the lack of running water and electricity, but they had made some porridge, toast with jam, a boiled egg, and we had some bananas. Everyone in the house woke up over the next hour and got ready. We left the house as soon as everyone was ready, and after just a few seconds of walking, my left knee was in agony! Every time I moved it! I knew that this was gonna be a long day! We still had a lot to walk down that morning. I stayed at the back with the guide and tried to take it as slowly as I could, trying to figure out how to walk down without bending the knee. That combined with my trainers that kept slipping didn’t help! The guide was helping me a lot, taking my hand to make sure I didn’t fall, but it was still tough. The pain was getting worse. Coming down involved a lot of jumping down from rocks and walking down steps so I was putting more and more pressure on it. I started crying from the pain and asking myself why I was putting myself through this! The guide kept asking if I wanted to stop and take a rest but I just wanted to keep going and get it over with so I could get down to base camp and rest my leg. It took me around 3 hours, but I finally made it down to the camp! I sat down trying to hold back tears from the relief! We had lunch, and then I just rested for a few hours. I lay in bed with my leg raised. I got a little bit of phone signal down there so let my family know it was ok and sent a quick email to the organisers to ask about my passport. We had sent it off to get the visa extended just a week prior and we should have got it back by now but we hadn’t yet the last time I asked. They replied a few minutes later saying there were problems and they needed the details of my flight leaving India. I sent the details and waited to hear the outcome. Dinner was served shortly after. I had just had the 1st mouthful when I got a call to say that I needed to pack my things and leave right away to head back to Jaipur as I have to be there in person to collect my passport. I quickly started throwing my things into my bag. The last bus was leaving soon so it was a real rush. I said bye to my group hoping I would get to see them again in Delhi on Saturday morning when we fly out, and headed to the bus station. I started getting emotional on the journey, just from the stress of the day. All I wanted to do was rest and instead I was forced to say goodbye to the people I had spent the last 3 weeks with and rush out in the hope of getting my passport back before my flight. I had a long journey ahead with a 12 hour bus ride to Delhi followed by a 5 hour bus ride to Jaipur. I just managed to catch the bus to Delhi with a few seconds to spare.

Here are some photos of the trek: