1   Up in the dark again today and it was worth every minute!   A short drive and then a climb, all in the dark and finding our spot to watch the sunrise but first the full moon had to set behind the hill.  The sun rising over this range of mountains was so incredibly beautiful. Just look at the photos.

The full moon setting over the hill

Sunrise beginning over the Annapurnas

The beauty of sunrise

Layers of foothills beginning to appear

Sunlight just reaching the peaks

Sunrise

2   We’ve been lucky enough to be in Nepal during a very special festival, Dashain, a festival of Prosperity, Happiness  and Belongingness. I think that is so beautiful! We have been greeted many times with the tika, the red mark on the forehead and I was lucky enough to be given one of the special ones when we crossed the bridge the other day.Have a look here.

Another feature of the festival is the constrution of huge bamboo and coconut rope swings. We’ve seen them in every village that we’ve driven through in Nepal. It is considered good luck to get both feet off the ground during this festival. “There is a tradition to swing at least once in this festival. People say if you leave the ground swinging in Dashain,  the swing will take away ill feelings and replace it with newness and rejuvenation inside oneself.”      You can find out more here

Bamboo swing

3   Being rowed across Lake Phewa with the snow topped mountains towering above was yet another wonderful experience.  I can’t quite believe we’ve been doing all this!

Lake Phewa

Some of our group on the lake

Nepali family enjoying a day out

The dragonfly is the same colour as our boat!