Day 6 - Manaslu trek

Today the plan was to do a kind of V-shaped route, first heading to Pung Gyen Gompa monastery, sitting at 4,000m, and then heading down to Samagaon village, (where we'd spend the next two nights), sitting at 3,520m. This was to help us acclimatise to the altitude.

The hike up was only two hours up and two hours down, but both were VERY steep. Going up, the scenery changed from small pine woodland to open rocky tundra to vast open mountain plains. The view just kept getting better and better as we ascended until we just had no more words for how incredible it was. The air was definitely getting thinner too, as I was finding it very hard to move my muscles up the hill. We amazingly saw the most wildlife up here than we had the whole trek so far, including a tiny grey rabbit, marmots, mountain goats, and the National bird of Nepal, the Himalayan monal pheasant! (Which are super rare for this region, normally only found in Everest)

We finally arrived at the monastery and caught our breath and had some snacks and Tibetan bread. We explored the temple and took in the scenery before retracing half our steps down and then on to Samagaon. It started snowing lightly as we descended, so I think it made us keen to go down asap. Just outside the village is the local school which serves children in the whole region, and they had a stall outside selling fresh, proper, French-pressed coffee, to raise funds for the school. Cecelia couldn't help herself, and James decided to have a coffee too. After being exhausted, they both perked right up after only a few sips.

We checked into our lodgings, which were staying in for two nights. James and I plucked up the courage to ask for a room with a double bed, instead of the twins we'd been staying in every night, as we're missing sleeping next to each other and we'll probably need the warmth soon. They didn't end up having any free, but he said hopefully tomorrow when other people leave.

We all tucked into a late lunch of spring rolls, which are super thick and chunky here, not like those piddly ones we get in the west, and then headed to our rooms to warm up in our sleeping bags and rest before a late dinner tonight.Read more