Day 9 – a supposed rest day!

 

The accommodation has certainly dropped a notch and some of the gang didn’t have the best of nights.  That said we had a reasonably early night yesterday and then everyone departed for their rather bare and very cold room with loos that don’t flush and no sink (to speak of)!  It was really cold as well and we were sent to bed with hot water bottles (!).  Most of us are now in our sleeping bags and some were even wearing clothes.  The heat and accommodation didn’t dampen spirits however and we were all up well before breakfast which was at 7am.  Breakfast, unfortunately, had also taken something of a dive and I think some of us may be sticking to toast and coffee in future.

The plan for the day was to hike (almost vertically) up behind the lodge to a level of c.5,000m to get acclimatised.  It was a busy trek with various altitudes achieved before descending back to the lodge for lunch.  It was undoubtedly busier than we had experienced hitherto with several groups all doing the same thing and a narrow path didn’t help; fortunately, there were no yaks to avoid coming the other way.

 Lots of pics:

We were all down by 1:30pm and some had lunch whilst others saved themselves for the highest bakery in the world.  We set off down the ‘main street’ (it’s about 5 ft wide) to café 4410 – it was full of brits and Americans but we had a delicious coffee and various cakes.  Who would have thought that you could get apple pie and custard in such a remote location, not to mention flat white ! We could have all fallen asleep at that point but we headed back to the Tea House via some last minute stock ups of Snickers, water, disinfectant and hot chocolate powder(!). 

 

We are all now relaxing in the Tea House as some are having showers (likely to be our last until Kathmandu) and kip before tomorrow. 

 





































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