Day 16 – 6 walking to the End

Our group of 8 became 6 for the last leg of the journey to Lukla; at least this time It wasn’t due to a medical issue. Two of our teammates opted for a helicopter ride back to Lukla so they could see some of the valley from the air. It was a flat fee for the helo, so they offered for a few of us to tag along. I was greatly tempted, as I would love to see things from the air; my knees and blistered toes wouldn’t have minded, either. However, I walked myself in, and I felt it only right to walk myself out.

We met for breakfast at 6:30 AM and hit the trail by 7:30 AM. Not very far out of Namche, we ran into a huge donkey train just getting on the trail. That slowed us down, but I was glad for the slowdown as it let me take it easier on my right knee (it was being the trouble child) as we progressed the 1500+ feet down in a short distance. You did have to watch out for all the donkey droppings 😉

OI001580-768x1024 — Giving the donkey train some space

Our group did do a fairly good job of keeping together today. It was nice not being too spread out. Near the bottom of the hill we hit my favorite (and highest) cable bridge. I know there are some people that would feel uneasy or a little scared on it in the wind or with it slightly bouncing from the walkers, but I really enjoyed it. If it wasn’t such a busy bridge, I’d love to be able to stand out on the middle and soak everything in for a good long while.

OI001590-768x1024 — We crossed the top bridge

Once we hit the river at the bottom of Namche hill, we followed it for the most of the way out. There were some ups and downs, but it was fairly manageable. I hadn’t forgot the hill up into Lukla that we had as our final obstacle. We stopped to check-out of the park before lunch. Resting them a bit, there, I made friends with a beautiful black puppy with one blue and one brown eye. After helping get a good picture of it for someone with the help of a tiny piece of Snickers bar (I had to pay the puppy for its picture) it knew I was a mark and it started barking at me and its sibling showed up as well. I petted them a bit, but didn’t feed them anymore even though I was tempted.

OI001594-1024x768 — Religious stone markings near exit of national park. You always pass them on the left; you can see some don’t know or don’t care

OI001606-768x1024 — Hospital under construction near Phakding; a joint project between Nepal and Germany

A little bit further, we hit Phakding for lunch. This was the same lodge where we spent our first night in the valley. We had a nice lunch, and then set out for the last leg of our journey. Our guide had mentioned that it might be a bit of rain, and she was dead on. It was only slightly sprinkling, but it showed some of what what we had learned on the trip. The first day in the valley, it had started lightly raining after a tea stop; we all donned our rain tops and bottoms, as well as putting our rain covers on our backpacks (at least most of us). It wasn’t 10 minutes later that the light rain had stopped, we were sweating in all our gear, and had to stop to take it off. This time, we just pushed on without adding the rain gear.

One of the last cable bridges, we had to stop to let a group of 3 porters cross. One was so loaded down with Pringles boxes that he couldn’t walk straight on the bridge. Another example of our tourist impact on the region; all the porter’s I’ve seen hauling junk food, soda, and beer (a lot of beer) deep into the valley. It is a double edged sword; it’s creating jobs and commerce, but it would be nice to see a little less beer and a little more medical/education supplies being hauled in.

OI001616-768x1024 — Pringles porter, both original and sour cream & onions

We finally started the final push up the hill to Lukla. While the air was a lot thicker, the climb was still strenuous. For most of the day, anytime we stopped it was hard to get the legs going again. At last, we topped the hill and found ourselves in Lukla. The “by foot” portion was over. We were greeted by rain, and everyone made a b-line for our lodge. Along the final trek down the main street of Lukla, another trekker and myself stopped to take a picture (with permission) of a few local kids. After the picture, we exchanged hive-fives.

Nearing the top of our final hill into Lukla

We got to the lodge and assembled shortly and had a round of beers (I drank a Coke – off the soda wagon for the end of the trip), and we then retreated to our rooms for another free hot shower and recoup before supper. I celebrated the end of the walk with a Yak steak and fries. I just now had to hope it didn’t give me “Delhi – belly”. Yak tastes like VERY lean beef, BTW. We also all had a piece of cake, one of the lodge owners had been suprised by her daughter with a mother’s day (Mata Tirtha Aunshi) cake, and she shared the celebration with all in the dining room; third cake celebration of the trip. Dinner ran longer than usual. Normally, we were hitting the rack by 8 PM or so on the trip. We sat around the tables and talked to well after 9. I think we all realized that leaving the table signified the end of the largest part of our journey, and didn’t want it to end. But we finally parted ways for the evening and had no trouble falling asleep after 27+ miles in hard terrain in two days.