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.

The trek to Phakding

We landed at Lukla and could immediately feel the effects of the altitude.  Any physical effort resulted in breathlessness.  Fortunately,  we do not have to carry our own luggage.  We have four dzhos (animals that are a cross between a yak and a cow), to do the heavy work.

Lukla is our first experience of Sherpa country.  It is a scruffy town.  Chickens and cockerels wander freely  in and out of the shops.  Horses and dzhos meander along the street leaving their 'calling cards' at regular intervals.  Prayer flags are hung between the houses and shops and the sound of yak bells warn of the approach of animals with long curling horns.

We walk towards Phakding in the dark, passing prayer walls which have to be circled in an anti-clockwise direction.

A member of our group, manages to walk off the path down the side of the mountain.  Fortnately, his fall is broken by trees and shrubs and he escapes with cuts and scratches.

The flight to Lukla

Hurrah!  The weather is good and we can fly out of Kathmandu.  After what seemed like an endless wait, we boarded the tiny 20 seater aeroplane.  I was lucky enough to sit right behind the pilots. 

The plane flies right between the mountains.  Barnaby and several of the passengers were too scared to look even though the cloudy weather made the mountains seem less threatening.

The runway at Lukla is the size of a football pitch so the pilots have to get the landing just right or the plane hits the wall at the far side of the runway.  One plane was involved in just such an 'incident'  a few days ago and we saw it with a bandaged 'nose' being repaired on the runway.

Kathmandu Again!

Due to poor weather in Lukla over the last three days, a large backlog of passengers meant we were unable to fly out of Kathmandu. 

Having wasted most of the day waiting to see if we would be able to fly, we made made the most of what was left of the day by visiting another Durbar Square in a different part of the city called Patan.

As it is a Hindu holiday, the children are not at school.  They are spending their free time flying small paper kites.  The sky is filled with brightly coloured, fluttering kites and the children are trying to 'win' kites by making their friends' kites hit the ground.

Kathmandu

We're here!  Great flight to Delhi followed by two hour delay on flight to Kathmandu.  On arrival, CHAOS!  Eventually retrieved the bags after about an hour and a half.  A special Nepalese holiday meant many people were arriving from the middle east with massive parcels including huge bags covered in quilts and brocade curtains.

Next day was spent visiting Durbar Square.  The Hindu temples are made from intricately carved wood.

Barnaby was particularly impressed by the Monkey Temple which we visited in the evening. This is a Buddhist temple. The prayer flags are strung from tree to tree and the monkeys scamper up and down the steps with their babies on their backs.  The prayer wheels contain the Buddhist prayer Ohm mani padmi ohm.  The wheels have to be turned clockwise to send the prayer to heaven.

We're even more excited!

One day to go!  All packed and ready.  Had to turf out some of the energy bars to cut the trek bag weight down to 10kg.  Barnaby is NOT happy.

We're very excited!

Four days to go!  Nothing else to buy, transport to airport is arranged, last vaccination on Friday.  As we can only take a maximum of 10kg on trek, everything has to be pared down.  Barnaby Bear hopes there's enough room for the energy bars. Packing will be interesting as it's 28 degrees C in Kathmandu and 10 degrees C in Lukla!