Today, day 10, we begin with us emerging from our dust covered room (I say dust covered because everything in the town of Gyaru is covered in a think layer of fine dirt or dust, including the people!) and invigorated by the view in front of us. We quickly prepared ourselves for the day's trek and just in time because as we were preparing to leave a large number of Westerners had arrived and they too were following what is known as the High Route. It was also as we were leaving that an avalanche occurred on our majestic mountain. Fortunately, no villages are near or beneath it but it was still with marvel, respect, and an ounce of fear that we watched nature in motion.
Since today's trek was to be an easy one, our threesome decided to split with Mark doing his macho-man pace (he hates when Reb and I say that) and Rebels and I doing a leisurely stroll. It was at lunchtime that the two of us discovered Jurassic Park! We could hear the call of dinosaurs all around us and we were then on the hunt to find them. It turns out that our dinosaurs were actually the famous yaks of Nepal and our trail has taken us into the higher elevations which they live in. We also discovered that their cries don't normally sound like dinosaurs. We just happened to be surrounded by huge, bare rock walls and their calls reverberate off the mountain walls and echo in your ears. Of course, in typical Reb and Sharon fashion we began to entertain ourselves by doing our best dinosaur impressions: her's was more of a T-Rex while mine was a Pterodactyl...I wonder if any near-by Yeti's heard us?
Things were going very smoothly for us. In fact, it was so smooth we were almost smug but that was short lived. After a minor detour and confussion in the nearby village we came to a fork in the road and, of course, when you're debating which route to take there wouldn't be a single person about. Finally an executive decision was made and we decided on the route to the right. Our reasoning was that with the high road we might be able to spot Braga in the distance. Plus, in the off chance that we had had taken the wrong path it would be much more simple to descend to the lower road rather than have to hike back up to the higher one. As it turns out, it didn't matter because both roads came back together again and once in Braga we were reunited with Mark. Upon our arrival he'd asked if we'd had any complications and, fairly proud of our thought process and strategies, we'd told him of our fork-in-the-road and our plan. Little did we know that when Mark had approached the fork he knew we'd be confused (as he had the map) and so in the sign (which has been chipped away so that it's completely blank and completely useless) he had carved both Reb's initials along with an arrow pointing us in the proper direction. Oh well, we'd enjoyed a comfortable pace, didn't get lost, and had a perfect day with the dinosaurs. Plus, tomorrow's a rest day or so I'd thought!?!
