Day 12 - Back to "town"

Tilicho Lake to Manang

We take the lower trail back to Manang. It is shorter and doesn't have ups and downs. The sky is cloudy and so we don't miss any views by not taking the scenic route. Besides, I wouldn't like going up the scree slope.

After an intitial section wuth some vegetation the trail reaches the heavily eroded slope. Here it skirts along the long steep scree slopes affected by landslides. It takes about 1 hour to traverse the whole landslide area. Above us there are interesting pinnacles towering, beautiful results of the continuous erosion. But there are also rocks falling down from time to time so stopping is not indicated and you really want to leave this strecth behind you quickly. A small rock hits me, but it's negligible.
On some short sections the trail fades completely in the deep moving sand and scree mass. Freaking out is not an option since there are no other alternatives. I feel my hands are sweating unusually but I hold to my poles and keep going. Pipi offered to take my heavy pack but I refuse. I want to do it all by myself. I'm focused 200% - if that's possible :-)
Towards the end of the section we meet 2 guys going the other way and a cow. Pipi who is ahead now pushes the cow back all the way to the end of the landslide area. Free way!

After a short break we continue downhill along the alpine meadows where we encounter grazing cows from time to time.
When we reach thare Gompa I stop to see if there's anybody there and I can see the inside. Again, there's nobosy there but the candle is burning.
We reach Khangsar around 11:15 am. We are both hungry and want to push to Manang. Pipi did not drink in a while, he's out of water so I share - as usual - my water with him.
I'm having a hard and harder time walking because of the extreme heat, although there are dark grey clouds gathering and some raindrops make me think it's going to start raining. I stop therefore to put on my raincoat and pack the camera and notice 3 big vultures circling high above me. Wehn I put my pack back on and turn I notice one of the vultures landing on the trail notfar from me. Maybe some 50m away or so. It is huge! Should I take the pack down, take camera out, change lens and take a picture ? No. It will fly away for sure. As t happens a couple of trekkers get here and we engage in a conversation. 10 minutes later the vulture is still sitting there and the trekkers are going towards it. Damn! Missed.

The way from Khangsar to Manang seems endless to me. it's the heat and the many ups and downs. Funny, I don't remmber it being so long 2 days ago.
We reach Manang at 12:47pm. It took us 5 hours to get back on the shorter route.
First thing we stop and get some goodies from the bakery and drink a tea. Next I go for a shower and do some laundry and then write some postcards and go explore the village some more with the camera, of course.
After having dinner in the evening and writing in my diary for a while I have this brilliant idea. The day has ended with a beautiful sunset and the sky is again clear and full of bright stars. The lodge is full and Pipi told me he'd have to sleep in the same room with me. I don't know whether it's 100% true, but I'm in too good of a mood. The idea? I'm going to sleep under the starts, on the flat roof.
So I take all the necessary stuff and set up my "camp" for the night. I spend a long time gazing up at the starts and I'm lucky. A shooting star traverses the sky from left to right.
Then after I write for a while in my diary I finally fall asleep. The air is crisp but it is not cold. And there's a tiny breeze...