The trail follows the Himalayan range for 1800km.

Arriving at the tail end of the monsoon season, we started with a two week section in central Nepal - the Helambu and Langtang areas.

At lower elevations we had to deal with the heat, humidity and afternoon storms. Very few people were on the trails in this section as it was not quite trekking season yet.

The area where we started doesn’t really see any tourists pass through, and there was quite a difference in the lodges when we made it to the more visited areas. Highlights in this section were Gosaikunda Lake, eating fresh Yak cheese and the beautiful Langtang Valley.

On day 14 we transited back through Kathmandu to fly to the eastern Nepali town of Bhadrapur from where we were driven along the winding roads to Taplejung. We hired a porter/guide for five days to help us with the first section to help us carry some of our equipment and food.

From Taplejung our first highlight we reached on day 25, was Kanchenjunga Base Camp at 5143 metres above sea level.

This is also the most easterly point on our Great Himalaya Trail journey. Mt Kanchenjunga is the world’s third highest mountain at 8586m and the view of it’s entire north eastern face was a grand sight.

Three days later we were heading off the main trail by ourselves with heavy backpacks to camp on the way to the Makalu area. This section was incredibly interesting as it’s virtually untouched by tourism and influenced by a mix of Nepali and Tibetian culture.

We even passed a traditional yak caravan bringing traded goods from Tibet. One of our most spectacular campsites on our trip was on day 30 near Lumba Samba Pass at 5060m. Looking west we had incredible views to the 8000m giants of Mt Makalu, Mt Everest and Mt Lhotse, and looking east was Mt Kanchenjunga.

We found a welcoming local in the village of Thudam who let us stay at their house for the night on day 31.

Houses in this area are built of wood and inside was just one main room for living and a second room near the entrance to house the family’s sheep at night. The main room has a central open fire for cooking and heating, above which are strings of cheese drying out and near the fire are simple low benches along the wall serving as beds.

READ: The first half of Matthew and Anna's epic trek across the Great Himalyan Trail

The section after Thudam we found to be the most challenging of the whole trip for us. It was a test of our resolve to continue on being faced with rain, a steep slippery muddy and overgrown track which was difficult to follow and a constant barrage of leeches.

For this two day section there was only two sites that were large and flat enough to be able to pitch our tent for our 32^nd night, but we were so relieved to get inside our tent and close the door to all the leeches that we continuously had to keep pulling off our clothes during the day.

Getting closer to the Makalu area we came into more populated areas where the trails were more used by locals and there were less leeches. Using our satellite messenger we arranged for our next guide and two porters to meet us at Makalu Base Camp on day 43.

The trail up to Makalu base camp is serviced by lodges and tea shops at 3 - 4 hour intervals which makes the 6 day trek more comfortable, however we had more rain and for the first time on this trek, snow falls to deal with.

At Makalu base camp (4870m) we were at the foot of the world’s fifth highest mountain with spectacular views of the mountains above.

From Makalu base camp we took the adventurous way - the path less travelled, spending the following four days with our guide and porters crossing three passes up to 6200m to get to the Khumbu (Everest) valley.

The passes involved some rock scrambling, using mountaineering equipment and a 200 metre abseil down a steep ice wall. On day 46 we were forced to camp high at 6020m on a glacier near Mt Baruntse after crossing West Col at -12 degrees Celsius.

This was our coldest night on the trek.

We managed it by wearing all our clothes to bed and melting glacier ice to cook and have tea with. Stepping out of the tent here exposed you to the strong biting wind which instantly numbed your fingers.

Two days later and having crossed Amphu Labtsa (5845m) we were in the comfort of a lodge in the popular Everest area. We left our guide and porters and joined the tourist trail to Everest base camp (EBC).

The way up to EBC was marred by crowds of trekkers, and the view of Everest from base camp was mostly hidden behind other peaks. Renjo La was a highlight for us in the Everest area as this pass is less crowded and offers a grand panorama of the Everest range.

The other highlight was our lodge at Gokyo where we enjoyed a delicious chicken meal, fresh cake and coffee with the meat and cake flown in by helicopter.

We detoured around the Rolwaling Valley as no guides were available, and we followed the traditional trekking route past Namche Bazar and Lukla through the Himalayan foothills and the cheese factory to arrive at Jiri on day 62.

From Jiri we were getting close to our finishing point - we had four more days of trekking to go.

One memorable night in this section we stayed at a nunnery, where we were impressed with the cleanliness and the interesting meal the nuns prepared for us. On day 66 and having walked 950km we arrived in Bharabisie - the finishing point of our Great Himalaya Trail.

The realisation of having just achieved one of our biggest dreams was sinking in, and although our time in Nepal was over, we will have the memories forever.

Our time in Nepal gave us the chance to develop our appreciation of the Nepalese culture and the landscape, and how these two are intertwined.

The people may not be wealthy but they are far richer in other ways which we discovered during our trek.