'This is by far the toughest day..'

We started today with these words of encouragement/motivation/foreboding from my father. First of all we went up and up from our overnight stay, before descending down and down and down to a river forging through the mountains. Crossing this we proceeded on upwards, up and up, and up some more. Two hours of unrelenting uphill, with the sun beating on our backs. .

Here we are caught between relief/delight at reaching the top and also concern/grief at having to smile for another photo.

Incidentally, despite being told that there weren't really that many more uphill sections of the trek, the next few days were remarkably upwardly inclined!