Chamje: My thighs are still aching and ah… it was one of the longest days. At the end of the day, I was certainly running and Wanda was closely following me. That happened especially after Tal because we wanted to make it to Chamje today so that it would be easier to walk Khudi tomorrow. I could sense some of the members are not very much happy with this decision. I was fine with anything. I wanted to stop walking probably because I was too tired of walking, may be because I wasn’t finding the Annapurna Trail as attractive as in Nar Phu circuit.
We arrived in Chamje only to face uncertainty about the camping spot. There were still grasses on the corn field where it was almost impossible to camp. Wanda and Gyanu had planned to camp in that field. Then there was a primary school with a small and dusty ground and donkey shits and urine on one side. It was out luck that we were able to secure that space. A group of trekkers who had arrived earlier couldn’t camp on the school ground because their tents didn’t arrive in time.
For the first time in the two week long trek, I was seriously involving myself in setting up tents. I always wanted to learn how to set up tents and today there was an opportunity for me as there were no tent boys in scene.
Kitchen staffs had pulled the benches together in a class room to set up dining table. As we were about to eat, someone noticed the blackboard in the room. Then I saw something written on the board: don’t eat grass! That was part of a sentence but previous words weren’t readable. As if the teacher wanted to warn us what not to eat.
Dinesh Wagle on Nepali Society 