4.3pm Day 3 of the 14 day trek, about an hour ago we arrived at the guesthouse in Philim 1570m. We hiked another 20k today and my legs are feeling it, yet my spirit is bright haha. How I love hiking! Time flies by and going up and down is a matter of putting one foot in front of the other while enjoying the surroundings. The paths today changed into smaller, rock sliding, cliff side fun paths. I felt like the little Amy who’d jump up rocks looking for adventure together with my brother and sister.

The traffic here in the Manaslu area is alright. Apart from; the occasional stop to let a trail of mules pass, the road workers who drop some rocks down and the group of goats following the old lady shepherd, there is little going on on these busy roads. Following the river, we slowly climbed higher up. At one point the land seemed flat in between the mountains and the water calmly followed its way down stream. We had a break for lunch in Jagat where we enjoyed noodlesoup and the sun. After lunch we had about 3 more hours to go. The path was a bit more dangerous, but on the horizon the white peaks appeared again and from afar we could see our final destination on the hill across the river. The fresh air opened my nose a bit to enjoy the smell… of donky poop haha.

We arrived at the final hanging bridge of the day before going up the hill to the village. Philim is like the big village around here, providing a school and a bank. The other villages consist of maybe 200 people living in beautiful little stone houses surrounded by small gardens, stone paths, a few gumpas, ducks and chicks running around, a water point and some mules stalled for transport of goods. Surprisingly, this ‘big’ village had the crappiest bridge so far… The bridge wasn’t horizontal but it slopes from left to right, the wire mash fence on the side was broken or gone in several places and parts of the bridge were supported by wooden branches. We had to cross so off we go, no rush, one foot in front of the other so there wouldn’t have to be a dramatic film scene with the bridge coming down and me reaching for the other side… All was going relatively well until I saw what happened on the other side. I was about half way of the bridge, Sandip in front of me and Dain behind, when a mule/donkey was making its way towards the bridge… Sweat broke out, I started walking faster, Sandip started running. I was sure that the mule would push me off the bridge if it was going to cross… HELP. How relieved I was to see Sandip reach the mule just in time, literally when he put his paw on the bridge…., to stop it from coming onto the bridge!!! We reached the other side and started the last little climb up to the guesthouse. A very cute ‘hotel’ where, after a quick freshen up, I put my new Nepali sentences, learned from Sandip, into practice. I was sipping my ohduhwa tia/ginger tea, looking at the mountains, chatting with the French girl and the guides, not a bad life at all. Even better when the hostess surprised us with a local dish; a sort of grain/seeds with honey, it tasted a bit like popcorn. And here we are, we’ve ordered food and I wrote my blog. It’s time to relax and regain my energy for tomorrow. Namaste.