Author Topic: Everest Base Camp trek - Nepal TR (Read 79376 times)

Day 13 – Monday
Deboche (3,770m) –Namche (3,440m)

Woke up all refreshed and started our trek on an uphill to Tengboche then a steep downhill followed by an uphill to the ridge that would take us to Namche (see day 5 and beginning of 6 for the views). Hiking along the ridge was pleasant; we passed a few towns and had lunch at one of them. Getting closer to Namche while we were stopped for a bathroom break (well minus the bathroom…), our guide got a call on his satellite phone. Turns out the campground we were planning on staying at in Namche was being taken by another group, so would we mind sleeping in the guesthouse instead?

We arrived at the guesthouse (the same one with the 300Rs shower), and I had some pressing business to take care of (aside for updating my facebook for the first time in over a week, at a cost of 150Rs). Sometime during the walk I started feeling this pain in the side of my heel, I braved it out for the walk and on arrival and after peeling off my hiking boots and socks saw I had a blister. The guide took care of it in an interesting way (I actually saw it in an army survival manual but never saw it done in real life). Disclaimer: not for the faint of heart. He sterilized a needle and thread and threaded it through the blister leaving the 2 ends of the string hanging out of the 2 sides of the blister. This way the liquid would drain out through the thread but germs wouldn’t be able to get in and cause infection. For more info see the pictures below.

That night we had an appreciation event for the porters and other staff where we gave out tips and thanked them. Then went to rest, tomorrow would be our longest walking day yet.

Achas Veachas · « **Reply #128 on:** October 23, 2012, 01:58:19 PM »

108. A sign asking people to take part of a study. look at the compensation offered

109. Just a nice pic I took and posted just because

Achas Veachas · « **Reply #129 on:** October 23, 2012, 01:59:08 PM »

110 Bathroom break...
111. Sharing the road

Achas Veachas · « **Reply #130 on:** October 23, 2012, 02:00:03 PM »

112-113. Taking care of a blister Everest style

Achas Veachas · « **Reply #131 on:** October 23, 2012, 02:01:15 PM »

114. Hakaras Hatov
115. The Israelis at the Beit Chabad went crazy when they saw how many staff we had with us...

Achas Veachas · « **Reply #132 on:** October 23, 2012, 09:48:17 PM »

Day 14 – Tuesday
Namche (3,440m) - Lukla (2,860 m)

Today was our last –and longest- day; over 12 hours of walking! For comparison it’s what we walked on days 1-3 on the way up.

We started out from Namche by a long steep downhill (by the way, I found out on the trek that going downhill for a long time is harder on you then going uphill in the long run; when you go uphill you use the same muscles as you do for general walking, you just work them harder, but walking downhill uses a whole different set of muscles (which you don’t use as often) and is therefore harder on your legs and calves). On the way we saw a whole lot of kids going up on their way to school, many of them nearing the end of a 3-4 hour walk which they do every day (we didn’t see them on the way up because then it was in the afternoon, now we were doing this stretch in the morning).

We made it to the bottom; from there it was mostly level with an overall downhill grade, walking for hours through various towns and hamlets in the valley. For lunch we stopped in a village called Phakding (pronounced… well never mind

).

Some of you might remember that the first day of the trek we walked mainly downhill; which made for a pleasant first day of the hike. What it meant now was that after walking for 10 hours we now had a 2 hour climb to get us to Lukla.

When we finally made it to the village, as luck would have it, it started raining (truth be told we were lucky it never rained in the last 13 days of trekking). We had to shlep through the entire length of the town to our hotel which was situated on the edge of the runway so we got an interesting view of the planes making their way up and down the hill (runway).

This hotel for once was truly “luxurious”, obviously not on par with an SPG level 6 resort, but deffinitly more like any motel you can find in the west, featuring bathrooms in every room, hot showers, and a bar offering high end drinks. We had a celebratory supper; our guide suggested we check out the nightlife in Lukla but the rain (and Frumkeit, and tiredness) won over and went to sleep.

Day 15 – Wednesday
Lukla (2,860 m) – Kathmandu (1,400m)

The next morning we woke up before dawn; flights to/from KTM start as soon as it’s light enough to fly in order to maximize the amount of flights, and we were on the first flight out. We had breakfast and headed to the airport.

If we thought KTM was chaotic Lukla was disastrous, people jammed everywhere, no wonder we heard people sometimes have to wait for a week or more for a flight. Fortunately our company took care of everything (knowing Nepali culture; probably by greasing a few pockets) and before long we had boarding passes for the first flight out. We headed towards security, here there was no reason to worry about ancient metal detectors the Lukla TSA solved that by just giving everyone patdowns.

Before long we were in the waiting area; really just a big room without benches or anywhere to sit. Looking out the window we finally saw the first plane chugging its way to the top of the runway. As soon as its passengers disembarked we boarded, said Teffilas Haderech, closed our eyes as the plane plunged off the cliff and we were airborne.

After 45 minutes we finally touched solid ground in Kathemandu. I took a taxi to Beit Chabad hoping to get my first real meal in 2 weeks only to get a rude welcome to reality; like hello this is the real world, who do you think is up at 8am?

Oh well!

Achas Veachas · « **Reply #133 on:** October 23, 2012, 09:49:02 PM »

116. The view from Namche
117. Namche

Achas Veachas · « **Reply #134 on:** October 23, 2012, 09:49:40 PM »

118-9. Kids on the way to school

Achas Veachas · « **Reply #135 on:** October 23, 2012, 09:50:43 PM »

120. View from the hike
121. Getting closer to civilization

Achas Veachas · « **Reply #136 on:** October 23, 2012, 09:51:59 PM »

122. Our plane arriving at Lukla Airport

Achas Veachas · « **Reply #137 on:** October 23, 2012, 09:59:28 PM »

The End!

Yaalili · « **Reply #138 on:** October 23, 2012, 10:09:10 PM »

Quote from: achasveachas on October 23, 2012, 09:59:28 PM

The End!

Wow, thanks alot! You kept me through it all the way.

smurf · « **Reply #139 on:** October 24, 2012, 12:01:55 AM »

Quote from: achasveachas on October 23, 2012, 09:59:28 PM

The End!

thanks.
Epic trip report.

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Author Topic: Everest Base Camp trek - Nepal TR (Read 79376 times)