The trek back to Askole follows (almost) the same trail --- there is no real alternative --- and with the same camps. Despite this similarity, it’s a quite different trek. It is now spring, and from the second day on, we see an increasing number of young plants growing even on the glacier. A few flowers a bit further down.

The map showing this trek is Here.

Day 17: 10km from end of snow to Khoburtse camp (3824m)
The morning is grey, even a bit of snow in the early morning, later it lightens up a bit, but not much. We never see the peaks above the glacier, only the granite walls up to some height, but we are rewarded with beautiful views on the glacier surrounding us which is now really free of snow and shows its colorful scree, marble, beautiful conglomerate, both breccia and puddingstone; later in the ground is mainly greyish, a mix of more or less disaggregated granite and schist (if I remember it well).
The only day on which take a different route than on the way up, it leads us through an interesting terrain consisting of more or less steep slopes made of ice and gravel above a series of glacier lakes.

Day 18: 12km from Khoburtse to Payu Camp – now green (3420m)
Since several days already we can guess the sound of the Himalayan tetra, this morning we hear them very clearly starting from four in the morning. I never see them, but I have taken plenty of pictures in Nepal where in the early morning they came for food right around the tents.
Today the weather is wonderful, and we continue with brownish terrain, partly on sand, especially around the lake below the camp --- which has filled up again and looks now very different. Sometimes we have to cross fields of white or white and black granite blocks, and when we cross the glacier towards its end, we get some of the colors of the previous days again.
The trees at Payu Camp are covered by catkins, the leaves are still rather burgeoning, but they look green, and it is spring. Also, there are now many more insects than on our way up.

Day 19: 20km from Payu to Jula Camp (3155m)
A long day, partly on painful terrain. Spring is more and more present, there are now plenty of flowers, not our typical early spring flowers for which it may be too dry, too sandy, but different kinds of flowers (photos to come later). We also see for the first time a local lizard, larger than the ones back home. The willows at Jula Camp are green.
Shortly after departure from Payu, we discover a spot from which one can see K2 (there is a long discussion, but it is K2, the photo combined with the maps show it clearly) so that we can say a last good-bye. An hour later, we spot a huge caravan of fully packed mules coming up the river … tourists now, at that season? No, it’s the supply for the military camps up there.

Day 20: 19km back to Askole (3055m)
Another long day but on easier going terrain. This time, we must cross the Dumordo River in the morning, and we pass on the bridge, a few hundred meters upstream. This gives us the opportunity to admire some magnificent polished rocks.
Korophon (at the foot of the Biafo Glacier) is now a green oasis, and the yaks already moved up here to their grazing grounds (for the time being, they have to content themselves with pretty little … as far as I can judge). In Askole, it’s the cherry and apricot trees that are blossoming, and the fields that have been plowed three weeks earlier are now light green.