I couldn't get enough sleep because of the constantly barking dogs. According to my observations, dogs in Nepal bark exclusively at night. During the day, they seem to be gaining strength before the night watch. And they can bark for hours without any apparent reason.

 

Today is my day of rest, so we got up early and went to rest at the Manaslu base camp. From Samagaon to the base camp, you need to climb 1300 meters - this is a full day walk.

 

It wouldn’t have been possible to sleep anyway, since from 7:00 a helicopter began to cruise to the base camp and it became quite noisy. And the Nepalese woke up and got to work.

 

The trail to the base camp is simple, but in some places with a very strong incline. We got there by 12:00. And if suddenly you decide to walk around Manaslu, I highly recommend to look here. Not so much because of the base camp itself (it's just a bunch of tents in a limited area), but because of the stunning views of the Manaslu, Manaslu glaciers and the surrounding valleys.

 

There are many groups in the base camp, but there have not been ascents to the summit yet (except for the Sherpas, who yesterday completed work on strengthening the ropes on the route to the very summit). Everyone is waiting for the weather. We arrived just at the moment when the Russian group went out on the route with the words “Why wait? Normal weather. " And besides this Russian group, Russian guys were preparing for the ascent, among whom Rustem is a real hero. He does not have both legs, but he does not consider this an obstacle to climbing Manaslu.

 

Stayed at base camp for lunch. It turns out that there are also free lunches: when the guys from the Nepalese company "Seven summits" found out that I was walking along the Great Himalayan Trail, they themselves offered to dine with them in the headquarters tent. For lunch there were grilled sausages, pastries, rice with vegetables and watermelon. The service is really top notch: not only a warm dining tent, but also excellent cuisine and waiters serving climbers. And a powerful contrast to the lack of adequate food in the villages below. "Seven summits" were ready and sent us back to Samagaon by helicopter, but, unfortunately, the weather turned bad and we went back on foot.

 

On the way we met a group of Indian tourists, I thought. We overtook them on the way up about halfway to the base camp. And on the way back we stumbled upon them after twenty minutes of rapid descent. That is, we have already talked with the people, had lunch and went downstairs, but they have not yet reached the place. You should have seen the longing and anguish in their eyes when I said that they had another hour to crawl to the base camp. It turned out that this is a state inspection, heading to check if everything is in order at the base camp.

 

We returned to Samagaon at 16:00, had a bite to eat and went to inspect the ancient monastery. This time we enlisted the support of local residents and opened the monastery for us. I liked the monastery. Ancient paintings, tanks and statues were impressive.

 

Of the local attractions, we did not visit only Milarepa's cave. It takes about an hour and a half to go from Samagaon to it, and I suspect that we would not find anything new in it. I'm really wondering how many Milarepa caves are there in Nepal? It seems that every (even the smallest) tourist route has at least one.