Phakding to Namche Bazaar

The lodge at Phakding was very pleasant.  After an early start, 6.30 'knock, knock' and 'bed tea' (that means wake up call and tea in bed!), we headed downhill to the river.  Crossing the river entailed walking across a metal bridge which sways backwards and forwards and side to side. 

As always, masses of downhill is followed by a huge climb.  Unfortunately, poor weather prevented us from seeing our first view of Everest, but we did see our first snowy peaks.

Namche Bazaar is a pretty Sherpa village perched on the sides of the mountains.  It is full of shops selling climbing gear and just about anything else that you might want to buy.

Namche Bazaar is the Headquarters of Sagarmatha National Park.  Sagarmatha is the Nepalese name for Mount Everest.  Everest is the name of the British surveyor who discovered it was the highest mountain in the world.  The Tibetan name for Sagarmatha is Chomolungma.

Namche is at 3440 metres and usually, an extra day is spent here to acclimatise to the altitude.  We were not able to do this as we were one day behind schedule. 

So far, so good.  No symptoms of altitude sickness and am managing to keep up with the younger people in the group.