Day #6 - Sunrise Lodge (Phakding) morning walk Pt 1

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The bedroom door opened with a loud creak, which despite my best efforts to be as quiet as I could, I expect I woke my fellow trekkers in the rooms next door with the paper thin walls.

It was just before 6am, and stepping outside the lodge the morning air was cold, dry and crisp, and in the valley of the mountains there was a blanket of greyness covering the lodge and surrounding farms and buildings.

One of the ladies who worked in the lodge was outside washing her long black hair. I greeted her “Namestay” and she smiled but did not respond.

The low roar of the Dudh Kosi river which we have follwed from Lukla caught my attention, and I headed in its direction and towards the steel suspension bridge we had crossed the day before.

Wisps of smoke emanated from a few of the lodges, no doubt preparing the days breakfasts for the hungry trekkers within still cocooned in there sleeping bags.

Crossing the steel suspension bridge as the sole occupant proved easier than the day before when it bounced and swayed with the movement of many people traversing it. I walked easily two thirds along the bridge until I was directly over the raging river below.

Looking up the valley in the direction of the river flow my thoughts turned to the days ahead as we would be getting closer to the source of the river.

Over the roar of the river I could make out another distance noise, and one that sounded man made. After a few moments I recognised the noise as that of the whir of rotor blades from a helicopter. I scanned the horizon downstream of the river, and after a few moments located the source of the noise. Moving purposefully up the river valley was a Red Helicpoter of the type we had seen recently in Lukla, providing sightseeing tours of Everest. The helicopter slowly made its way up the valley over where I was standing and disappeared into the distance heading I presumed for Everest.

As the helicopter passed, it crossed my mind that it was probably the easier and cheaper way to get a good view of Everest – and in some comfort I mused.

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