Day 5 - the first proper trek

We were all pretty shattered last night so it was an early night all round with everyone in bed before 9pm.  Today started with a reasonably early start at 7am for breakfast.  The accommodation was pretty good given where we are and the food not bad.  Most of us have decided to go vegetarian for the next 8 days. 

The full team - sherpas included

A couple of our sherpas:

We were off at 8 with the day broken into two parts;  the morning was up and down tracking the river Dudh Koshi with the afternoon climbing a pretty steep path for 3 hours to Namche.  In the morning it was still pretty overcast but the sun tried to break through just enough for some of us  to apply some suncream.  

Just before lunchtime we arrived at the entrance to Sagarmatha (Nepal name for Everest) National Park where we had to get permits for each of us.  Sadly this had up until last year been a pretty straightforward exercise but now it involves queuing at a booth to have a digital picture taken.  This took us the best part of an hour and half.  Interestingly the army were in presence checking everyone’s rucksacks to see if anyone had brought in a drone (which are illegal).

Army checking rucksacks for drones:

Waiting for permits:

Entrance to the National Park:

Eventually we marched through the arch to the national park and stopped for lunch.  Most of us had noodles or rice with the now all too popular drink of lemon, ginger and honey tea:

We have been lucky with the numbers of people given the weather over the past 3/4 days. Our guide has said that it is pretty quiet and that only we are only 30% of the normal traffic.  At times it seems busy - I don't think it would be much fun at peak capacity. 

Pinch point on the trail:

One of the narrower sections:

Post lunch we set off for the arduous climb up to Namche.  Fortunately our guide (who is permanently with us – Akash) has managed expectations pretty well.  A few more suspension bridges and prayer wheels (we have to turn them as we go past (clockwise)) later and we arrived at Namche at about 5pm.  

One of the suspension bridges:

Namche Basar:

One of the larger prayer wheels in Namche:



After being serenaded on the guitar by our hotel manager we then went downstairs for supper.  More good food.



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