Namche to Tengboche - the Himalayan M25

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Another beautiful sunny day with clear skies today.
We liked the lodge we stayed in last night - it was friendly and cosy with good food at reasonable prices. It’s main disadvantage was the fact there only seemed to be one toilet for everybody in the lodge which did lead to rather a lot of queuing for the toilet.

The day started in a traffic jam. We left our lodge and had to work our way through multiple yak packs being loaded for the day. We went through Namche and up the stairs behind the village towards Chhakung. At this point we met all the other trekkers leaving Namche and there was rather a long queue. With yaks and trekkers coming the other way you could only join the queue and progress was very slow.
Once through Chhakung we followed the ridge around on a large, well maintained path. At this point it was possible to overtake with ease and we could walk at our own pace.
It wasn’t long before we went round the corner of the ridge and could see stunning views of Thamserku, Ama Dablem, Lhotse and Everest. These views were present for most of the rest of the morning.

We stopped for lemon tea and some raisin bread we had bought in Namche at a lodge in Kyanjuma. We sat in glorious sun with stunning views of the mountain and got chatting to a lovely Scottish lady who had been up to see the Gompas in nearby villages.

From here we got the pleasure of going downhill. A long way downhill to cross the river. In one of the villages on the way down we saw a determined yak ramming a metal gate to get into a field. Trying to force its way through a small gap at the side of the gate it managed to push the gate down and proceeded to walk in over it. Walking past we realised why it had been so determined - it was merrily munching away on carrots in somebodies garden. Naughty yak.
After descending to 3200m we then had to walk back up to 3860m on another long, hard, uphill on dusty paths through pine and rhododendron.
Prior to ascending we were stopped by some checkpost where we had to pay 500 rupees for accommodation in Tengboche. We also had to pay if we wanted to stay at Deboche or Pangboche. This hasn’t been mentioned in any of the guide books or forums we’ve seen. Everyone seemed confused. They claimed it was he only way of getting a room. Quite frankly we didn’t believe them. Despite this with a 600m ascent between us and a room if we were wrong we paid the money and went on our way. After another few hundred yards we had to stop again at a checkpoint.

After reaching Tengboche we were surprised to find only 5 lodges, a bakery and a monastery. There’s no village per se and very little accommodation. The first 3 lodges we tried were full. The 4th had a room but was a depressingly small, dark and cold little place. Fortunately we found the 5th lodge behind the monastery and they had a room. It was light and the fire was already lit. We decided to stay there.
The rooms here are much smaller than we have been used to on the Annapurna circuit though. The tiny beds touch the wall on 3 sides and there’s just enough room to open the door between them.
It made us even crosser having to pre pay - there is no way the room here should cost the same as in the 2 nice lodges we first tried.

Relieved to have found a room to sleep in we went and sat in the sun by the bakery for lunch. We had a yummy lunch of roast potatoes and fried egg. Whilst waiting for our lunch a pony decided to join us in the courtyard and started to eat the leftovers on other people’s plates. Trying to remove him he just threatened to kick me. Fortunately he got bored and left before our food arrived.
On arriving back at our lodge we were shocked to discover someone else’s bags in our room - despite the fact we had the main key for it! After some arguing the bags were removed and we have our room back.
The room opens up onto the dining room so should be quite warm. We are now sitting in the dining room and Stephen doesn’t dare leave to get something from the bakery in case we loose our room! It’s now being well guarded.

So far this walk is much, much busier than Annapurna and you get the feeling that they just want to get as much money as possible out of you. The officials seem cross that you don’t have a guide or a porter. I’m glad we didn’t do this walk first as I don’t think we would have done the circuit afterwards otherwise. I just hope we don’t have any issues that slow us down - otherwise we will probably run out of money before we get back to Kathmandu....

NB - you would usually have a rest day to acclimatise in Namche before carrying on to Tengboche. Having already walked to over 5000m on this trip during the Annapurna circuit trek we felt well enough acclimatised to skip this.

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