This was our first of two “rest” days which means a rapid climb a few thousand feet uphill and then relaxing on the ground for 30-60 minutes before returning. I rose early and made some early morning photos of Annapurna II from Chame.

Wandering around town before breakfast, I photographed the sites and people of the village. I watched a young boy in tattered clothes carry paper money to a small stall-store and buy a package of cigarettes, presumably for one or both of his parents. Nice way to start the day.

The children in windows, adults, animals, and mountains made good subjects, as did Chhongba and Pasang with coffee, and part of our group on the terrace of our cabins.

We hiked up a steep trail through a beautiful forest filled with backlit bamboo to a rest spot at 10,900 feet. Above 10,500 ft some snow was present. We made some group shots in very contrasty light and relaxed breathing the thinner air than down below in Chame and much thinner than Jarat 6,700 ft below here just two days ago.

I again got behind making photos and foolishly rushed the downhill and paid for it the next day — a very painful left calf again. This is about the time I realized that downhill was the real problem. I took it slowly and used my poles a lot going downhill the rest of the trip. That plus a tight wrap solved the calf problem — after one more painful day.

We were lucky to see Manaslu the day before because it was in clouds nearly all day today. I had another hot shower. On previous treks the hot showers were not much hotter than luke warm, so I really appreciated them this time. We relaxed on our patio away from “main street” before a late lunch. It was great seeing how well Stephen and Keg interacted. As Stephen once told me, “we grew up together”.

My calf hurt as I wandered the town in the afternoon. I photographed a basket weaver and a trekker wearing a very inappropriate costume. Porters, who were carrying eggs uphill, broke some. It was fun photographing and interacting with them.

I photographed women carrying large stones up from the river. It seems woman do a lot of the heavy lifting in Nepal.

Here is a photo of a Chame scene that I somewhat simplified to minimize detail. There were also several with similar treatment in the slide shows.

The weather was getting noticeably colder. One of our porters made a great banana pie for desert from the rest of our bananas. It has a very fancy curl on the edge of the crust. I hit the sack before 8 PM.