Day 8 - Junbesi to Nunthala

We were packed up and down stairs waiting for our porter at 6am. He came running up soon after and following a quick rundown of the situation by the guesthouse owner we were on our way. The first half of the days trek was very uneventful where we would walk along at a steady pace stopping when needed. We stopped about halfway for a quick lunch (well as quick a lunch as once can have in Nepal). While figuring out what to have we were joined by an English trekker named Tim who had been struck down with the same knee injury as me. Unfortunately he was on a much tighter time frame than we were so he was forced to push on. 

We had a fantastic chat over lunch and shared stories of our experience. We then settled the bill and left our porter to finish his lunch knowing he would easily catch up with us further down the track. We had heard that porters are capable of making it from Lukla to Junbesi in one day, a trek that would take us 2 days, so him catching up would be easy. The first hour was uphill followed by 2 hours down to Nunthala, which would be our home for the night.  We were fascinated along the way by the beautiful views and amazing temples stuck on top of mountains. Our porter caught up to us soon after we started heading down and after crossing two suspension bridges, Nunthala was in our sights.  We quickly chose a guesthouse, ordered some lunch and put in our order for dinner.  We organised a hot shower and then retired to our room for some relaxation and reading before dinner, cards and bed.

We were lucky once again that the guesthouse staff spoke English and they were able to translate with our porter our intentions for the following morning.

Day 9 - Nunthala to Bupsa

Once again we are up, packed and on the road by 6am. We transferred a little of the weight back into Glenn’s pack to even the load a little. We had a few things to “look forward” to which started with what the map called a steep descent. We hadn’t made it far out of town when we had to take a detour due to a landslide that had blocked the track. Once back on the path we started heading down which was a nice change but seemed to never really hit what we would call a steep descent. So we trudged on heading for the next highlight, which was a 109-metre long suspension bridge. This didn't disappoint and neither did the raging river that we were crossing. On the other side of the bridge three children heading for school, who ended up following us for the next few hours, joined us. Our intention was to stop in Jebing for lunch, halfway up a massive hill. The hill seemed to be never ending but with reassurance from Glenn that lunch would be soon, we trudged up, more and more. We were soon up amongst the clouds, orchards and a string of Guest Houses. The porter and I were getting our hopes up that a stop would be soon upon us but unfortunately there seemed to be some miscommunication about whether this was Jebing. Before we knew it we were heading out of town and continuing up the hill. At this point we were informed by the children that we were actually now on our way to Kharikhola, the town over the top of the hill. So up a few more ups, around a few more ridges, before we came across a temple, the Nepalese indicator that you had reached the top. Once at the top we walked the short distance down to a guesthouse in Kharikola where we ducked inside for some lunch just as it started to rain.

After a quick refuel and a chat with a French trekker we were back on the road for what we thought would be a quick downhill trek to our next destination and home for the night in Bupsa.  But as per usual nothing is as we expected (although the quoted 1½-hour trip only took us 1-hour) the trip was very much uphill.  I quickly learnt it is hard to complain about this when you are joined by porters carrying 50kg on their backs and have to do this every day as a job. At the point when my knee felt like it would fall off and my heart was beating out of my chest we made it to Bupsa. We got a room, paid and said goodbye to our porter friend, and headed into the dining room for a late lunch.  We were lucky to be joined by the owner for a chat, this was made extra special as he has actually been to Everest base camp 4 times and to its summit 3 times.  We spent some time asking him questions while enjoying our lunch and dinner before retiring to bed for an early night fresh with a new game plan for the following day.

Day 10 - Bupsa to Lukla

We had a bit of a later start today as our host set 7am as the breakfast time. We woke at the normal 5am and read our books until it was time to head down to eat. We set a plan to walk 3 hours to a town called Paiya for lunch and see how my knee was feeling before deciding whether or not to push on to Surkey, a further 3-hours from Paiya. Heading off at 8am with a new spring in my step, and Glenn carrying most of the weight, the hike to Paiya proved to be uneventful and my knee performed very well. We were met close to our lunch destination by one of the French trekkers that we had been running into since Nunthala. So we stopped together for lunch and after a bit of a discussion we got the idea of maybe trying to make it all the way to Lukla but would see how we felt at Surkey. This would add another 2 hours uphill to our day. By the time we got to Surkey we felt we could push on, not realising how tired we were and how far we had to walk up a quite steep ascent. However, once we topped the hill and could finally see Lukla it made it all worthwhile. First stop was to find a guesthouse near the infamous Starbucks we had been told was in town. After a quick shower followed by ordering dinner, we headed over to Starbucks for a hot chocolate and to try to communicate with home. Unfortunately we discovered we could not receive any email and were only able to contact one family member. Before we could fix the email problems we were having it was time to head back for dinner.  After a delicious dinner we headed to back to our room to read and an early night.

Day 11 - Lukla to Jorsale

When we woke this morning we were both very sore from our arduous 8-hour trek the day before but feeling good that we were finally starting the trek north to base camp. We ate breakfast quickly before bolting over to Starbucks just as it opened for our first reasonable coffee in awhile and to get our email issue sorted. Unfortunately getting coffee and in contact with home proved to be harder than expected. After waiting over an hour for the coffee machine to warm up and sending an email to Cameron with instructions on resetting the server we gave up, heading back to the guesthouse to finish packing up. Our plan for the day was to make it to Phakding for lunch and Monjo for dinner and the night before heading up to Namche the following day. We were very blessed by some great weather, having finally seemed to clear up.  The weather had been so bad over the last 5 days that no flights had come or gone from Lukla in that time (a regular occurrence and one of the other reasons we had chosen to walk in), forcing some trekkers to pay substantially more for a helicopter ride to Surkey and then having to walk the 2-hours up to Lukla.

We made good time getting to Phakding for lunch where met a couple of returning trekkers and started asking questions about the trek ahead of us. Everyone seemed to say the same thing “make it to Monjo today and Namche the following day”, as the 4-hours uphill is very tough. However, we had our doubts, considering the most trekkers only go from Lukla whereas the hike from Jiri to Lukla is reportedly much harder. We continued on to Monjo and after a quick black tea decided to push on to Namche, hoping to get back onto schedule as we were 2 days behind. Unfortunately due to sharp pains in my knee we were forced to stop at Jorsale about 30 minutes passed Monjo. Initially we were both disappointed with the setback but soon realised it was for the best. Settling down in the guesthouse, we got to bed early ready for the “hard” trek up to Namche.

Day 12 - Jorsale to Namche

Breakfast at 6am and on the road by 7am. Our preferred routine when the guesthouse would accommodate us that early. We began our trek with the expectation of a lot of uphill climbing. Before we knew it we were at the Namche checkpoint, 2-hours ahead of schedule, where we were told that Namche was only 10-minutes away. Our past experience dictated that this would be a steep 10-minute climb but being able to see the town at the top of the stairs made it all that much more worthwhile. Making it to a lodge, we dropped our bags and headed out to explore the town a little as it was only 9:30 in the morning. Being only the start of the season (October would see the season peak) most places where either shut or under construction. The main aim of the exploration was to find a few much needed supplies as well as an Internet connection.  The later proved to be harder than we thought due to the entire town having been without electricity for 16 days and reportedly wouldn’t have it for another couple of weeks. We headed back to the hotel for a quick cheap lunch (well as cheap as we could get) and enquired about Internet there (running off their generator), only to be told that the phone line was down.

After lunch we went for a nice 3-hour walk (made nicer without the need for backpacks), to determine if we would need to stop in Namche for another day for acclimitisation, or would instead be able to head onto Tengboche tomorrow. The walk took us up took us up to 3870 meters and through the quiet towns of Khumjung and Khunde, before starting back down to Namche. The trek from Jiri seemed to have helped along our acclimitisation quite well and we both had no problems on this short trek, so we would be heading on to Tengboche the next day.

Along the way down we ran into a group of New Zealanders and shared stories about our experiences. Just before getting back into town we ran into a Scottish guy that we had been crossing paths with since Lukla. Following a quick stop and chat with him we headed on to the local Internet cafe to see if they had managed to get connected. Thankfully they had. 

Rushing back to the hotel to get what we needed, we discovered a massive tour group had arrived at our hotel. Back at the Internet cafe we were able to contact Mum and also finally managed to fix our email problems, resulting in a 10-day flood of email. While talking to Mum, we were updated on the federal election that was happening in the background, only to be disappointed that Tony Abbott looked set to be the next Prime Minister. The other customer in the Internet café, turned out to be an Aussie also, giving out a cry of horror after over hearing the same news. After a chat with our new friend, we headed back to the hotel for showers and to put in our dinner/breakfast orders.

We headed down for dinner and had a nice time listening to the other trekkers recount their days. We settled in for our usual early night but the tour groups decided that no one on our floor was getting any sleep before 10:30pm with enthusiastic but loud talking through the paper-thin walls. Most had only been trekking a couple of days, since Lukla and still getting into the routine. This didn’t make it any easier on us, knowing we would probably be leaving Namche long before they rolled out of bed for a late breakfast followed by someone else taking their gear on to the next stop.

Day 13 - Namche to Tengboche

Today started like every other, alarm went off at 5am; we packed a little and headed down for breakfast at 6am. Back up to the room to finish packing, brush our teeth and out the door by 7 am. The walk today was to Tengboche and would take about 5 to 6 hours. We intend on taking the walk very slowly to ensure we had no problems with acclimatisation due to us skipping the acclimitisation day in Namche. Slowly, slowly, we walked the easiest trek we had yet come across, the hardest part throughout the hike being to stop from walking to fast. We were blessed again by a nice sunny day, all we could've asked for was a little less mist, but as long as we get sunny skies at the top we will be happy trekkers.

We stopped in a small village for a cup of black tea and watched women grate big bags of tiny potatoes. It is very fascinating watching how hard they work. Just after leaving the village we heard a helicopter take off nearby and hoped that it meant our destination was close.  Much to my dismay this was not the case. We passed through a checkpoint and started heading up. It wasn’t as steep as Sete but it was a slow climb. About 5 minutes from the top a monk being taken up to the Tengboche monastery by donkey passed us. It did cross my mind a few times why I hadn’t thought of that before. Once we reached the top we were rewarded with the view of an amazing Monastery and big open meadows. Unfortunately due to it not being peak season everything in Tengboche was closed apart from a hotel that was under construction and looked expensive. We trotted down the hill, 15-minutes to the next village of Debouche, to find accommodation and here were rewarded with our first views of Everest.  We dropped our bags and headed up to the dining room for some lunch where we were joined by a couple from the US who had just arrived themselves.

After lunch we went for a small walk back up the hill to the Monastery and found the monks in the meadow playing volleyball. We took a nice climb up the hill to see if we could get ourselves used to a little more height before coming down and running into the New Zealanders from the day before. The walk in from Jiri to Lukla was mostly devoid of tourists but from Lukla, onwards, it seemed we would be part of a community of fellow trekkers. We had a nice chat with them and then headed back to the hotel to get warm, the temperature becoming more of an issue now that we were higher up. We had a nice dinner and a good chat to our new American friends who seemed to be doing the same sort of Gap Year that we were close to finishing. We headed to bed, early as usual and had a very restful, quiet night sleep.