Nepal - Day 51 - Trekking Day 8 - Phakding to Namche Bazaar

Phakding to Namche Bazaar

Mix of sun & clouds

This was to be the shortest day's walk so far as we headed to the "town" of Namche Bazaar and a somewhat higher sleeping altitude of almost 3,500m.

The day started quite easily with porridge and omelettes for breakfast before setting off again to follow the Dudh Kosi Valley north.  We soon crossed over to the west bank on a good suspension bridge and half an hour later back again on a very rickety one.  At Mogo we entered the Sagarmatha* National Park.

Sherpa porters often carrying up to 85kgs - incredible!

We followed close to the river for a while and then had to make a steep but short climb up to a frighteningly high suspension bridge to cross the river again.  I was wary of yaks coming the other way and pushing me off.

Scary suspension bridges 

Damien halfway across....

Yaks safely across without knocking anyone off

We realised that we had barely climbed in altitude at all so far that day, but we had some 700m to go vertically from the lowest point, so it was a long, long slog up the hill and we all got spread out as we kept to our own pace.  It was hot and seemed a long time before Namche came into sight, but it was a beautiful town set on a steep hillside and it was weird to be in semi-civilisation again.

We went to a restaurant called Thawa for lunch and ordered some food which took ages and ages to come and wasn't actually that good to eat.  On the next table were a group of Americans who had been climbing Pumo Ri (7,145m).  They had failed miserably in their quest as the weather that had brought us clouds lower down had brought snow here higher up and further north.

They were an obnoxious and loud bunch and we prayed for the food to be served quickly.

We found a cony little hotel called Sun Sites with a good view and vegged there for the afternoon enjoying the start of our altitude acclimatisation period.

I phoned home to wish Helen, my sister, good luck on her impending move to the USA, thinking after the group we had met at lunch that she would need it :), however, she wasn't in and I spoke only to mum.  It was a bit of a complicated process to make the call, but the line was surprisingly good.

Robin & I tried yak steak for our evening meal, which was a bit tough, but the accompanying roast potatoes were excellent.

*Sagarmatha ( सगरमाथा ) is Nepalese for Mount Everest