They left the settlement of Lobuche shortly after 7:30 AM under another incredible blue sky. The terrain was now nothing but brown earth and tiny scrub ferns and grasses along with mosses and lichen clinging to the strewn boulders and rocks. The desolate landscape rolling up to the mountains was like walking on another planet as far as Sarah was concerned. Yet, it was beautiful in an alien way. She glanced from time to time at the frozen Dudh Kosi River they’d been following. The swath of ice was barely discernable under the thin blanket of grit that capped its undulating and fractured surface.
Then, Sangye, who was a few feet ahead, pointed upward at a V-shaped formation flying northward. “Asian geese,” he called back.
The team stopped and Sarah took out a small pair of binoculars. Thro
