Thursday 25th March 2010 - Phakding to Namche Bazaar

Thursday 25th March 2010 - Phakding to Namche Bazaar

We are to get a wake up call at 07.00am today, but I am awake from 06.00am so I take the opportunity to rest ahead of what will be a long day. The wake up call comes at 07.00am so I get up, no shower today as I will wait until we get to Namche, pack the bag yet again only this time for trekking as opposed to waiting around in a hotel / airport. Dry toast is on the breakfast menu for me today as I still want to be careful with my stomach, not ideal before a days trekking but needs must.

We set off at 08.45am for Namche Bazaar, we know this will be a long hard slog and have been preparing mentally for it. No preparation however could prepare me for just how hard it would be. The morning trek of two and a half to three hours was OK, the ground was relatively flat, some up and down sections but generally easy trekking. We cross the river I think five different times via long dipping metal suspension bridges high above the river bed before we get to the Namche Hill as I now call it, not for the faint hearted. I have never been comfortable at heights, I do not fear them but I am never totally at ease either so I try to focus on the task at hand to get me across.

We stopped for Lunch at a place called the I-Max Restaurant, I think I had some garlic soup, garlic is meant to help with the effects of altitude sickness. It is here we meet a group of trekkers from the UK who are on their way to Lukla. They look completely shattered, sun burned, weak, tired and well plain dirty. A sign of things to come perhaps? Luckily one of the girls in the group had some miracle tablets for treating upset stomachs, I do not know the name of the tablets nor did the girl who passed them onto Vanessa but they certainly seemed to do the trick by the following morning.

The walk to Namche from here took two and a half hours and is some of the hardest trekking I have ever experienced. Along the way we pass a porter carrying what looks like a door from a distance. As we get closer however we are told by Prackash that it is actually a piece of marble, being used for a pool table and he is carrying it to Namche. I was about mid way back in the group all day long, looking ahead at the other guys wondering how they were going so fast. It is common for me to be at or near the front of a group so it knocked my confidence a bit today, I kept asking myself did I prepare as well as I could have, am I fit enough? all these questions were going through my mind. The altitude was not the problem for me today, it was the constant uphill climb, the gaining of 600m or so in a short time. At home this would not be a problem, you could do 600m easy in an hour but here its different. My legs feel strong so I know I am just low on energy, perhaps a bigger lunch would have helped. Not long before we reach Namche we take our last rest stop, here we meet a man called Kazi Sherpa. He is on his way to Base Camp to set up for an expedition who will be following on. He has been to the summit of Everest three times and is currently going for his fourth attempt. I am in awe of people like this and it is a great honour to meet a real climbing Sherpa.

Never before was someone so happy to arrive at their destination than me today. From looking at some of the others I think they are struggling also, some people are complaining of headaches but all in all we made it here and are in good shape. Dinner must be ordered earlier in the day so that the cooks can have it all ready for 7.00pm that night. I order plain rice and some onion rings before joining the queue for a hot shower. After a hot shower I feel human again, its amazing what being clean does for your mental state. I take a walk around Namche and quickly find an internet café offering internet at 250 rupees for thirty minutes. I find it useful to think of everything in UK Currency. 100 rupees is 1 pound approximately so it helps to give me an appreciation of value. I get to send a long email home to Laura explaining how I am feeling, missing home and in need of some encouragement. The way I felt today I doubted I would make it to Base Camp and Kala Patthar.

Exploring Namche Bazaar we discover it is a bustling town - The Sherpa capital. The streets are rammed with stores selling imitation and sometimes genuine trekking / climbing equipment. I love it here. Compared to Phakding it is a world apart. There are bars, café's, bakeries, shops, even pizzerias. Scott, Yas and myself head just up the street from our lodge to go for a game of pool before dinner. I hang about after dinner for a while in the restaurant room, I just want to relax for a while before bed, write in my journal and listen to the others chatting. Tomorrow is an acclimatisation day so it should be OK.