Warning: Distuubing details about bodily functions divulged below.

Day 3: D-Day

Booty, booty.

Big Climbs.

Walking on crowded paths.

Too many people.

Stuck in big groups.

I pooped myself.

My overnight diharrea-fest left me feeling weak and dehydrated the morning of Day 3. Hiking when you feel at your best is oftentimes painful. Trying to hike when you are sick and feel so totally powerless is the worst. Every single step forward is excruciating. I was profusely sweating even walking on level ground. I was just completely on the struggle bus.

Attempting to regain some sort of energy, I had a simple piece of chipati, similar to pita bread, for lunch. It went through me like a glass of water. Just a few minutes later, I was on the side of the trail washing my underpants in the stream. Mortifying.

Day 3 was a serious exercise in character building. How can you exert yourself strongly while also trying to clench your bum?

On the upside, we did see our first glimpse of a magnificent white, Himalayan peak.

Upon arriving in Chame, our final destination of the god forsaken day, I bundled up in my sleeping bag and retired for the duration of the afternoon, trying to fight off whatever was happening in my body. It was pouring outside while I slept the afternoon away.

I woke up feeling much better and sauntered down to the small living room to find Trevor playing cards with two handsome English gentlemen, Philip and Richard. We would encounter these two characters regularly from this day forward. Philip and Richard were brothers and polar opposites. Philip lived in France and taught English. He had a Hungarian wife and a 17-year-old Hungarian daughter. Phillip appeared to be the eccentric black sheep of the family, constantly bullied by his older brother. Richard was in the military, owned horses and land in England and seemed to be confident and comfortable in all of his upper middle class banality. They were a quite entertaining pair, Philip and Richard, the brothers from England.

I was able to consume cheddar Pringles and sprite successfully that evening. I could only hope that I would be able to eat in the morning. I felt exceptionally weak and couldn’t stomach thinking that I would have to feel this way again tomorrow.

Guidebook Annotations:

I cannot even begin to assess the actual difficulty of the hiking offered up on this horrendous day. To me, it felt like the hardest day ever… but… who knows.