An Army marches on it’s stomach right? Well the carrot on the stick today was the Namche Bakery, with the promise of proper coffee and as much cake as you can possibly want!
We had a pretty chilled afternoon yesterday walking downhill from Lukla to Phakding after our lunchtime flight from Kathmandu.
Today’s walk up to the fantastic Kumbu settlement of Namche Bazar is the first major climb of the trip and is a busy trail with lots of trekkers, porters and Yaks heading up and down the dusty track.
It took around five hours of walking, plus a brew (and pancake) stop to get us into the village and up to our well appointed “tea house” lodge, where we have a very up market couple of rooms with not only a panoramic view but an en-suite bathroom and electric charging facilities. I can report from first hand experience that the solar shower was red hot and washed away all the grime from the last couple of days!
I think it’s really important to arrive at Basecamp for an expedition fresh and mentally ready for the upcoming physically challenging climbing. We (Vertical Frontiers) spend more money on our tea house’s and basecamp facilities than many other groups but it’s well worth it. Just ask the guys here when they get back.
Ok, enough of the trumpet blowing. Just to say finally that everyone is on good form, and looking forward to their dinner.
ps. – Will blog again tomorrow as we’re back here in Namche (3440m) on an acclimatization day up to Khumjung (3780m) and back.
pps – Hope you like the photos below 🙂
