Day 8: From Samo Gau to Manaslu Basecamp! Sandip and I started our hike as early as 6.30am. In our winter clothes we got out into the freezing cold and the white peaks were covered in the golden light of the rising sun. We had our breakfast packed to go so we could get the first bit of the climb done before having a little picknick. Zam zam! Around 8.30am I felt really hungry and we picked a nice spot for our breakfast on the mountain with a beautiful view of the glacier. While enjoying my Tibetan bread and the sun, the nice French trail-runners-super-fast-trekkers caught up with us and passed us haha. Their guide was kinda struggling to keep up with them. When Sandip and I continued our hike we heard a sort of thunder and could see a big avalanche! COOL! While “singing nepali songs”, or rather rtrying to give recognisable sounds to my heavy breathing out, we slowly got higher and higher. I had a hard time, I was really struggling the higher we got. My body felt as if I got weights in my shoes that kept pulling me down. If we would stop for a second, I felt totally fine and energised but moving higher up was just really hard. We stopped to eat a snicker for extra power but I was tired. The way was the same and I wasn’t sure if basecamp was worth it since the views, that I could not see while walking since I focused on the path, were already stunning from this height. Sandip kept on giving me new goals “let’s go to that top and then you can decide if you want to continue or turn around” At one point I pushed myself by remembering a Hardstyle song in my head “COME ON YOU CAN DO THIS, ALL THIS ENERGY, THERE IS NO NEED TO WASTE IT, COME ON!” That got me to another point, and another and when I reached the 4400m I made a decision. I decided to stop and enjoy the view while Sandip went up to basecamp by himself (which in the end turned out to be another hour so yeahh good choice haha). The view was the most impressive view from the whole trek! I relaxed and enjoyed the sun and the aloneness on the mountain. Also, I ate another snickers which is like heaven for my taste haha. Melanie and Johan, the French, passed me on their way down and their guide said that Sandip asked him to also help me down, bestadi bestadi (slowly slowly). We climed that day 900m up and went the same way down. Half way down, Sandip joined me and we were back around 1.15pm; time for a big Dal bhat lunch. The next day we would go to Samdo 3850m and this would also be the day we would finally hear if the cold expensive Dharmasalla 4400m would be open or not. This would decide the next part of our itinerary; are we going to Dharmasalla? Are we crossing the pass from Samdo? Or do we turn around, go back the same way we came? It was a bit stressful not knowing and I completely trusted Sandip, we lived day by day so far, so we’ll see.