Maximum Altitude: 3,519m
Early breakfast this morning at 6:30 with bags packed beforehand ready to go. Omelette and toast fitted the bill nicely. Porridge was also an option, but not for me!
Leaving the lodge, I was happy in a T-Shirt and Stellar Mid-layer but soon abandoned the top as it was already warm. It was to stay off for the rest of the day. Steady walking was the order of the mornings walk, mostly fairly flat but there were some uphills and also some pretty steep downhills, which was a shame - we have to come back this way in a couple of weeks time. There were some bridges (three to be precise) to cross. These are all wire bridges which begin to sway alarmingly as one crosses them. It is important to maintain balance, keeping as central as possible and relaxing the knees, looking straight ahead. One bridge in particularly was way up high and we stopped to photograph it, then the realisation dawned that we would have to walk up to it, cross it and continue up to the path we could just make out way above even that! It would be a tough hour or more getting there.
As we climbed, there were frequent forced halts for Yak trains in both directions, no one minded as it gave us breathers. About half way up, we came to the Mount Everest viewpoint but due to the cloud, it was not visible. We were around 3,100m. Along the trail here, there are tourist checkpoints which we left in the very capable hands of the Sherpas to sort out. The trail bought us to Monjo by about 10:15 where we stopped for an early lunch, sitting as we did in the glorious sunshine, overlooking the river below and the most recent bridge. lunch was rice and fried potato with some veg and there was plenty of it, so I stuffed myself, trying to compensate for the lack of goodie bars.
At one point we came to a row of Prayer Wheels which Ken turned the wrong way (anti-clockwise). We corrected him and jokingly said he would have bad luck. Later in the day his camera fell off its strap - coincidence?
After lunch it was onwards and steeply upwards and finally we could see our destination; Namche Bazaar, by far the largest settlement in the area. I hesitate to call it a 'town' but I guess that's what it is, certainly larger than a village, but not as big as a city. Namche Bazaar is built on a hillside and just because we had arrived didn't mean we had reached our Lodge - far from it. We had been told that there is a 200m height gain from the bottom to the top and of course, our Lodge was at the top!
Mixed blessing of course, it meant that the town was downhill and that when we come to leave we will already be at the top of the town, but it did mean another twenty minutes walk to actually get to the Lodge, but we had two nights here so plenty of time for recovery. Arriving at the Lodge, the mist swept in which chilled the air quite rapidly and we all found ourselves grabbing extra layers as soon as we stopped.
The Lodge is in the grounds of a museum - which seemed like something for a rest day. Once inside, there was some admin which we left to the Sherpas whilst we all enjoyed a cup of tea or two and some very welcome biscuits. The rooms were generally pretty cold and very basic, but featured an en-suite toilet (with a seat) and a sink, so could be (and will be) worse.
From Lukla to Namche the trail is rocky and dusty requiring some concentration to avoid tripping. On many of the steeper sections, especially into Namche, steps have been made which is a mixed blessing; good because it is less uneven but bad because the height is gained by stepping up which tests the legs - one good trick is to ensure that each leg does a few steps up then change to the other, balancing the effort
A quick tour of Namche revealed everything that I'd heard about it; there are no pavements, there is water running down the streets, there are endless shops selling all manner of souvenirs, clothing, books, maps, boots and just about everything you might need for a stay in the Himalaya. There are also plenty of coffee shops serving proper coffee and in many cases, awesome cakes.
Back at the Lodge, the Sherpas were busy filling water bottles with boiled water which then made excellent body warmers, or even hot water bottles for the sleeping bags.
Personal hygiene is obviously important on trips like this, but it takes courage and determination to wash in the freezing water. Wet wipes are a God send!
Dinner consisted of vegetable soup followed by a buffet style dinner of some kind of meat, chips, vegetables, pasta and sauce. In addition to all of that, we were even served banana for dessert. There's not much to do after dinner, so relaxing, chatting and diary writing were the order of the evening.
