Where to Today? (3/14)

When we got up it was still raining. We tried to get Seba to start before us, but he refused to leave without us. It seemed he didn’t trust us to follow him. He was clearly safer starting ahead and having us catch up to him than leaving him walking behind alone. His actions continually perplexed me.

So, we started out and Padam immediately fell way behind. Walking alone, I was not happy. My mood didn’t improve as it started to rain hard. A miserable cold, soaking rain that I thought couldn’t get worse. Oh, but I was wrong. Hail was then added to the equation. About this time I reached a fork in the path I remembered Padam stating to take the high road, so I did. Up, and up, and up I went until I noticed that way down below there was a bridge to cross the river. I was on the wrong trail. So I headed back down and found Padam running up to catch me. As we got on the right trail it rained even harder, so we stopped in a small village to grab some tea. After I agreed to head up to Bagarchhap and order lunch for us so we could save time and possibly still reach the village of Chame. One aspect of trekking in Nepal that I now fully appreciate is the ability to flex your schedule as the weather and your progress requires.

Padam neglected to tell me an important detail, most of Bagarchhap was washed away in a flood. I blew right past the remnants of the town, never even realizing I was passing through a town at all. I ended up in a lifeless village called Danaque before I was told I had passed what was left of Bagarchhap. I ran back to find my would-be lunch dates and happily found them coming up the road. Padam quickly realized that I missed the town and had continued up the path. After lunch we decided to stay put as the rain we were experiencing would be snow higher up the mountain.

The story continues...