100 Countries Together

Well, another day surrounded by spectacular scenery.

Much, much easier trek today, although the weather is getting decidedly colder.

This is Ana Dablam, the sacred mountain of Nepal. Basically translated, that means “Our Mother.” You are looking at what the locals say looks like her out spread arms.

Oh, and we saw yaks!

And even more mountains. We are constantly surrounded by them.  They dip in and out of the rolling clouds.  It is so beautiful!

We are in Dingboche for two nights to acclimate- then off again to higher vistas.

Wow! We remember this part of the trek as being a long day (8.1 miles), but we definitely forgot the 1700 feet we gained was made up of 4600 feet up and 2900 down!

This was our wake up view this morning in Namche.

Just out of town, we were greeted with this view. That’s Everest on the far left, and the Nepalese sacred mountain, Ama Dablam on the right.

More Everest views for you. Along the way today we saw condors, mountain goats, plenty of yaks (one leapt off a ledge and almost landed on Eric), a lovely monastery, beautiful forests and rivers. Wish we could post more!

This was our welcoming committee to Namche Bazar.

Namche will be the largest town we will see for the next week. It has bars, trekker shops, and even a faux Walmart and 7-Eleven. We will head into town tomorrow after resting up from today’s hike. I should have counted the number of steps we climbed. It was a lot! I am thankful that Eric had stairs as a part of our prep plan.

We made it across the Hillary Bridge (Eric was even smiling as he crossed it, probably because there were no yaks or mules on it when we crossed).

We had a spectacular view of Thamserku (6618m) and Tangse (6770m) once we got across.

This was the view out our window this morning. Very happy it’s not raining.

After breakfast, our trek started with this spectacular view.

Seems I can only post two photos at a time. I’ll try for more after we get to Namche.

Today started out a little rough, with Eric not at 100% and rain threatening, but the rain held off and Eric felt better as the day wore on.

A beautiful river has followed us most of the way so far, I think we will part ways tomorrow on our way to Namche Bazar. The 600’ of elevation we gained today will seem like a cake walk compared to tomorrow’s 2000’.

What was supposed to have been a rainy morning hike turned out to be anything but that.

Still no view of Everest yet ( in two days, I think), but plenty of snow on the surrounding “hills” and mountains.

We had an uneventful trip into the world’s most unsafe airport, Tsenzig Hillary Airport in Lukla. We haven’t met our porters yet, but considering the size of our packs, a yak might be a better alternative.

This stupa is on the grounds of our lodge.

Taking off seems scarier than landing, glad we are taking a helicopter back to Kathmandu.

Shall we get a vote?

Eric thinks this would be better than a sleeping bag. Thoughts?

You can find everything trekking and climbing related in the Thamel section of Kathmandu. Ultimately, he decided against it, as we couldn’t find a matching in my size.

We have returned to Kathmandu, staying at the lovely Dwarika’s Hotel. It surely is an oasis in the noisy city.

We met up with our hiking friends last evening and had a quick nosh of momos at the bar. Some of the staff from the last time we were here remembered us (well, Eric really).

Otherwise, our short stay here has been largely uneventful. We did apply for a visa allowing us too short a stay, so had to make our way to the Immigration Office this morning to get it extended. I must say, I don’t believe I will ever complain about DMV again!