September 14th- Everest Base Camp Trek: Day 12

Homeward Bound

Waking up this morning, Holly felt right as rain. A good couple nights sleep and she was right back in the saddle. A sure sign that she was better, she decided to take her camera out on the trek for the first time since she had felt unwell!

That being said, there wasn't much to photograph today. The gloomy and cloudy weather that had been following us for the past couple of days persisted. The weather has been so overcast that flights to and from Lukla have been cancelled for the passed 6 days! That's a problem for future Matt and Holly though.... right?

Our "view" for most of the day. Our good luck was spent on the ascent.

Our walk from Mongla to Namche was an easy and familiar one. It took 3 hours and was downhill or flat the whole way. With the view obstructed by clouds and the path easy, it's hard to mention anything notable.

We considered asking for a lift down, but we didn't know how to ask
in Nepali.

Finally, a couple of affectionate asses who weren't us!

We have noticed a change in scenery as we descend in altitude. As we get lower, there are more trees around and there are more waterfalls, the earth smells more fresh and the forests are humming with insects and wildlife. Further up in altitude, there is barely any shrubbery, no waterfalls and a lack of sound from wildlife. The change going up was subtle and we didn't appreciate the change in environment until we descended.

We arrived in Namche Bazaar at 11am and found ourselves in the unusual situation of having a free day. We weren't sure what to do with ourselves, usually we are so exhausted by the trek we are happy to rest until dinner. The weather was still miserable, foggy and cloudy so exploring Namche didn't sound appealing. We were the only ones in the guesthouse so making friends wasn't an option. We decided to purchase some WiFi and use this day to get in touch and look up a couple things for the next leg of our journey. It was a lazy day but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless.

We went down for dinner and Matt was told, to his delight, that he was able to have Yak for dinner. He ordered the "Yak Sizzler", and true to its name, it came out the kitchen on a hot stone plate sizzling away. According to him, it "tastes similar to beef though not quite the same". According to Holly "eh, meat is meat". 

Yak Sizzler! Excuse the lighting, we had to eat with flashlights after
the power went out.

Happy with our days rest and nervously watching the weather, we headed off to bed, hoping tomorrow to catch one last glimpse of Mt. Everest.

Altitude: 3440m
Altitude lost: 517m
Hours trekked: 3

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