Our Trek Days 11,12,13

April 16, 2008 - Six hours of trekking today dodging Yak poo and crowds of people going up. It was hard work but feeling heaps better helped I can tell you. It was so nice to be back in Namche. This place is a little oasis nestled in a valley surrounded by mountain ranges capped with snow. We shared lunch with a couple of oxen who were just hanging about our tables - it really is a funny, but normal sight to be seen along the trail. Retired early to bed hoping for a good sleep and the sound of barking dogs kept us awake for most of the night grrrrrr.

April 17, 2008 - Dog Hunting!!!!!!!!! When we finally got over our lack of sleep we took in every bit of Namche whilst sipping on coffee, chatting and eating the best pastries. We were watching the Prayer Flags blowing in the breeze, the smell of incense burning, the frequent stream of hikers trekking through the streets of Namche, the enchanting sounds of Tibetan music playing in the background, the Nepalise people doing their washing in the streams and hanging clothes over rocks to dry, the children playing simple games in the streets and finding so much pleasure from those games. In the evening as we sat in the warm tea house talking about our journey we met a guy who was trekking with his neice 18 and nephew 15. My thoughts immediately diverted to thinking about bringing my boys trekking. What a culture shock it was for this 15 year old.....but he was enjoying every minute of it and it certainly was getting him away from the "computer".

April 18, 2008 - We awoke to the Nepalise stone masons chipping away at rocks to help form part of a new building. This was a daily occurrence in Namche. The chipping started at about 6.00am and continued on through the day until night fall. The other sound which had become very common was the sound of rescue choppers. I would say that we would hear this sound at least 4 times a day. People just push so hard to get up those mountains and get so sick they can't get down without the aid of a helicopter. Just imagine the costs involved in evacuation - It doesn't bear thinking about............We worked hard to get to Phakding with plenty of time to spare, so we decided to push on to Lukla which was another 2 hours down the track. Did I say down????? I certainly didn't mean down. We had so many steep hills to climb before finally getting into Lukla it wasn't funny. I think I had lulled myself into a false sense of security thinking that it was Down. We stopped at a stream on the way to refill our water bottles as there was a sign attached to the pipe coming out of the wall written by the Monks that said "safe holy water for drinking". No way was that holy water - it had so many floaties in it, even our guides wouldn't touch it. Anyway we made it to Lukla eventually, but were pretty tired, so we didn't do much that night....just practically had dinner and were in bed by 7pm.