Where to Today? (3/14)
 I slept great, nothing like a heated political debate to help you sleep. While waiting for breakfast the Swiss were ripping on me for being American and that I was the cause of the rain. So it seemed like the political banter was not yet over. They were laughing at how America was just beginning to be concerned about the environment. I tried to explain to them not all American’s had their head in the sand, just the current administration.

It was still raining when Sandra headed out. We tried to get Seba to start as well, but he wouldn’t start until we did. It seemed he didn’t trust us to follow him. He was clearly safer starting ahead and having us catch up to him then leaving him walking behind alone. I couldn’t figure him out.

So we started out and Padam immediately fell way behind. So as I walked alone, not too happy, things got worse as it started to rain and rain hard. A miserable cold soaking rain that I thought couldn’t get worse. Oh I was wrong. Hail was then added to the equation. About this time I reached a fork in the road I remembered Padam telling Sandra to take the high road, so I did. Up and up and up I went. Eventually I saw 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. As we got started walking again, we found Sandra in a tea house with the front courtyard completely underwater. We agreed to walk together, but after going up a bit I was starting to pull away. As I wanted to make good time, I told her and Padam I would head up to Bagarchhap and order lunch for us so we could make better time and possibly still reach the village of Chame.

Padam had neglected to tell me an important detail, most of Bagarchhap was washed away in a flood. I blew right past it, never seeing it. I ended up in a lifeless village called Danaque before I was told I had passed it. I ran back to find my would-be lunch dates and happily found them coming up the road. Padam had quickly realized that I missed the town.

So we ordered lunch in Danaque and watched not just the rain come down, but many downhearted trekkers. It seemed like many people were being held up at the top the trail just before the pass and had finally given up hope of getting through. By 1:30 PM we had finished lunch and decided to give going up the trail a whirl. Padam sent Seba first, and this time he actually listened. After a short bit we realized our folly as the rain was coming down in buckets and it would have clearly been snow up on the mountain.

There was no rush to get up, because we would just have to wait. So we decided to turn around. Unfortunately, Seba was up the trail from us, so I ran up after him. He was quite confused by my explanation, but was certainly happy to be turning around. We headed back to where we had lunch and regrouped.

We decide there was no harm in waiting a day. As we hung out, more and more people were coming down. People told us that some people were stuck in Manang and that they weren’t able to go up or down. So at least our temporary hold seemed like the right decision.

Later in the day the three Israeli girls showed up, they didn’t look happy, big surprise there. We had dinner and then Sandra and I headed to our room (to save some $) early to watch Wallace and Grommit. I passed out in under thirty minutes.

The story continues...