Mary and I left the following day, hitching a ride to the airport. In my book all holidays are holidays of a lifetime but this one was a bit special. We had visited a part of the world we hadn’t been to before, we had met some extraordinary people, we had sampled the ‘third world’, we had been on our first ‘group’ holiday and we had achieved something we didn’t know we could do. We had reached the bottom of the top of the world.

Nepal is hard work, no doubt. It is a challenge to get around. The infrastructure is broken – we had power cuts most days. The poverty is palpable. It is a real assault on the senses. But of course, being a wealthy foreigner eases all this. And also the rewards are there to be experienced, especially when you leave behind the melee and head for the mountains – of which there are rather a lot. The valley up to Everest Base Camp is rather unique, and relatively affluent, but the people are genuinely happy to see you and the trekking experience is breathtaking – literally. We hope to return.