Annapurna Sanctuary Trek, Day Eight: Black Sheep Boy
Tuesday, May 29th, 2007Upon leaving the village of Sinuwa, the first half of the day was spent retracing our steps from a few days earlier back to Chomrong. This meant a forty minute descent down one side of the valley below Sinuwa, and a solid hour’s climb up the other side.
Herds of buffalo again blocked our path along the way. A gentle stream flowed beside us where there had been only dry rocks previously. Waterfalls jumped down the cliffs around us where before there had been only trees and hard rock. The monsoon wasn’t far away.
As I climbed up the stairs to Chomrong, straining to put each foot on the next stone step and lagging a little behind the others, I was overtaken by six or seven kids in their best school uniform bounding up the steps, as though each step was a mini trampoline. When they reached Salik, our nineteen-year-old porter, the two littlest kids, perhaps aged five or six, grabbed his hand and he helped them up the final few steps to their school.
As if he didn’t have enough to carry already!
Dave