September 16th- Everest Base Camp Trek: Day 14
The Last Trek!
With anxious and excited footsteps, we left Phakding and headed off on the last leg of our trek. Raju had said it would take 3 hours, mostly uphill. The day was hot and humid, not particularly enjoyable weather for our last day.
We walked on, our feet leading the way and our minds wandering their way to thoughts like "hot showers" and "clean clothes" and "rooms where everything isn't slightly damp to the touch". Don't get us wrong, we loved every second of our trip but after 2 weeks, we were ready for some homely comforts!
On our way down we were passed by many large groups coming up from Lukla. We were pleased, as this meant there had at long last been flights. As more and more large groups (10-15 people in each) walked by us, the more we realised how perfectly we had timed our trip. Mid to late September is the beginning of peak season, as this is when the monsoon season ends and the views become spectacular. We worried that we had peaked too soon (punny!) but our weather was perfect on the way up. People had told us that in peak season, the trails and tea houses are so packed that people sleep on the floors and there are hour waits to cross narrow bridges. We were happy with our weather and company and glad we avoided the crowds.
After a quick 3 hour trek, we made it to Lukla. We were surprisingly tired after our trek, granted it was uphill, but it was nothing compared to the Cho La Pass... we must have gotten too comfortable in Namche! We got to our tea house and had the day free again. We weren't sure what to do with ourselves again. Lukla didn't have much to do besides shop and we were trying to avoid that as much as possible. After watching prices increase as we climbed (800 ruppees for a Dhal Bhat?!) we suddenly found everything to be really reasonably priced and were so tempted to buy ourselves treats.
We curbed the temptation and spent our afternoon reading, Matt had sweet-talked his way into free WiFi so caught up with a couple friends. We had dinner, partially in the dark again from the power-outage, before heading to bed, fingers, toes and everything else all crossed, hoping that the weather would be clear tomorrow and we could fly!
Altitude: 2860m
Altitude gained: 250m
Hours trekked: 3
We walked on, our feet leading the way and our minds wandering their way to thoughts like "hot showers" and "clean clothes" and "rooms where everything isn't slightly damp to the touch". Don't get us wrong, we loved every second of our trip but after 2 weeks, we were ready for some homely comforts!
On our way down we were passed by many large groups coming up from Lukla. We were pleased, as this meant there had at long last been flights. As more and more large groups (10-15 people in each) walked by us, the more we realised how perfectly we had timed our trip. Mid to late September is the beginning of peak season, as this is when the monsoon season ends and the views become spectacular. We worried that we had peaked too soon (punny!) but our weather was perfect on the way up. People had told us that in peak season, the trails and tea houses are so packed that people sleep on the floors and there are hour waits to cross narrow bridges. We were happy with our weather and company and glad we avoided the crowds.
 |
| Into the clouds. |
 |
| Down a mountain. |
 |
| Finally in Lukla. |
We curbed the temptation and spent our afternoon reading, Matt had sweet-talked his way into free WiFi so caught up with a couple friends. We had dinner, partially in the dark again from the power-outage, before heading to bed, fingers, toes and everything else all crossed, hoping that the weather would be clear tomorrow and we could fly!
Altitude: 2860m
Altitude gained: 250m
Hours trekked: 3
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