Saturday 3rd April 2010 - Namche Bazaar to Lukla, the last push

Saturday 3rd April 2010 - Namche Bazaar to Lukla, the last push

It is time for our last day of trekking. The time really has flown since we actually landed in Lukla, sure there has been lots of downtime but it never seemed hard to pass the hours. Everyone is buoyed by the fact we are going home in a couple of days. Six hour walk downhill to Lukla, piece of cake right? Wrong. We set off at our usual time of 08.00am after my tried and tested porridge breakfast. We start off by going back down the steep Namche hill, this was so difficult on the way up and now we are flying down it. Whoever said going downhill is easy needs to come here and try this hill. It places a lot of pressure on the knees and by the time I get to the bottom of this particular one my right knee is shaking from the punishment. It is at this stage I wished I bought that trekking pole for 1300 rupees in Namche, I saw it on the way up and thought no way, that's too expensive. Most of the ground to Phakding was either flat or uphill, how come I do not recall going over this. We plod along now at a good pace, something my body later does not thank me for. After three hours we arrive back at where we stayed on our first night in Phakding. Normally we would have stayed here but due to losing our day its just a lunch stop now. I go all out and have a mushroom and cheese pizza, it was actually delicious.

The guys who really have to be flying out of Nepal on the 4th are visibly worried now and I am one of them. I dont have the luxury of going home a day or two later. I have connecting flights and a hotel in London already booked and will not get money back for either if the plane does not fly out of Lukla tomorrow morning. I have a more pressing concern for now however, the last two hours of this trek to Lukla. Bogged down by pizza I struggle to keep up with the guys. I think my body knows I am nearly there and has gone into hibernation a few hours earlier than it should have. It is a real slog, the uphill sections just seem to keep coming no matter how many of them we get to the top of. Finally, mercifully the final fifty steps appear. I had dropped behind the guys a little, only by a couple of minutes but they waited for me at the top of the steps, I then, using the last drops of energy took off running until I got to the top. Yes, we had made it back to Lukla. The round trip and walking element of this trek is over and we had all (Group 1 at least) walked into Lukla together. I was so happy at this stage, we were there back at Lukla. The highlight being en suite toilets and showers, what luxury. We sit and enjoy the heat from the sun for a while, just relaxing, after all we deserved it.

After taking a long hot shower and getting the last of the dust off my body some of us walked up to Starbucks, I don't know how I feel about there being a Starbucks here but for now I love it. Now do not be fooled into thinking it is like the Starbucks from home, it is nothing like it but the seats are comfortable, the coffee was excellent so it was a pleasant treat. That night we all contributed 3000 rupees to cover dinner for that night for ourselves and also to cover dinner for the porters who carried our rucksacks everyday up the mountains. It also covered tips for each of the porters and guides who had done such a great job. Dinner was to be shared between us all that night, one group of trekkers, guides and porters. I finally felt it would be OK to order some local meat. Yak steak was on the menu for me for later, I was looking forward to it. Dinner was planned for 7.30pm that evening so I went back to Starbucks, ordered a hot chocolate and went onto the net to home for a while. I put a comment on my Facebook page updating the world of where I was currently enjoying hot chocolate. I hope some people were jealous.

We were watching the Man United and Chelsea game in the league at the time in the Irish pub (there is always an Irish pub no matter where you go) for the afternoon and shooting some pool before we had to get back to the hotel for dinner. The drinks were going down very well and we managed to negotiate a group discount on the drinks considering there were so many of us. The steak that night was fantastic and some of the nicest food I have had. I could not leave without sampling the Yak meat and thankfully it did not disappoint. It was like a thin fillet steak from home and was delicious. Back to the pub we went after dinner, we moved between two pubs for the night, the one just below our hotel and the Irish pub. It was a very enjoyable night with all the guys, just out have some drinks and chatting, having so

me fun. Naturally as the drink started to flow we got hungry, we had joked with Chewang that we would love to get some pizza, he disappeared and before you knew it was back with five pizzas for us all. I think it cost us only 400 rupees each. Prackash had to shout us a round at one stage as we all ran out

of cash.

We just spent the last of it on drink. I think it was midnight before I got back to the hotel, a very respectable time to be fair but for here it felt very late. It had been a great night out with the guys, we just revelled in our successes of the last few days, the relief that we had made it there and all made it back in one piece. It was a fantastic night.