We left Khumjung at 9:00am in miserable and cloudy weather for an hour walk to Namche Bazzar. A short walk but still plenty to see in the poor weather. As we dropped over Namche hill we could here the drums from local school doing there morning aerobics, they where all lined up in their play ground. We watched a couple of helicopters land around Namche, which seemed crazy given the poor visibility. After just an hour and ten minutes we arrived in the lodge that we had stayed in on the walk up. We immediately noticed it was more busy in the town, more shops were open and more people about. The rest of the day was spent playing cards and chess, or just relaxing for the next day.
The next morning we had breakfast at 7:00am, filled our water bottles and set out for a long day back to Lukla. The walk back was the first and only day on our trek that it rained. Dressed from head to toe in water proofs we were in good spirits for a damp and slippery walk.
On our walk home we saw an awful lot more tourists heading up the track, who were quite excited to see a group of scouts. It stopped raining after the first hour and we all began to over heat. We stripped down and plodded on till lunch which seemed to take forever. We stopped for lunch Phakding which was pasta in red sauce as usual, then we carried on to Lukla which was another 3 hours walk. Passing loads of donkey and yak trains on the way.
We arrived at Lukla at about 4:00pm very tired and worn out. We drank tea and relaxed till dinner, which was chicken and rice. We also got chatting with other tourists, finding out what was bringing them to the Kumbu. Shortly after dinner we left to our rooms to pack for an early flight the next day.
We all got up at 6:15 and were ready for breakfast at 6:45 it was jam and toast, for once the toast was warm (we knew it was going to be a good day) we then walked the 2 minutes to the airport and checked in our bags. After saying an emotional farewell to our Sherpas, Kasang and Lakpa who had been exceptional and a really good laugh throughout the trek. We watched a few planes arrive and leave and then got on ours back to Kathmandu.
When we arrived in Kathmandu we immediately noticed the heat and humidity, and the city’s certain aroma (mainly poo). We where met by our guide from ‘Asian Trekking’ who greeted us ‘welcomingly’ (yes we know this isn’t a real word). We then got on to our minibus on the manic streets of Kathmandu, back to Thamel hotel for a long awaited hot shower!
By Nuptse Patrol.