From Thame to Dingboche

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It's been a few days since my last update but I've been pretty tired at the end of the day and gone straight to bed after the evening meal on two occasions and hard to find internet cafes on the others! However we are now in the village of Dingboche for the second of our acclimatisation days so we have an afternoon free and the village has 3 internet cafes. Unfortunately most don't seem to have working USB ports so I am unable to upload any photographs as yet.

As we now have something like a daily routine for the walking days, it might be worthwhile describing the daily routine. We are woken (if we are not already awake!) at 06:30 with a cup of black tea. We then have 30 minutes to pack the bags that the porters will carry as they leave a bit before us at 7am. Then at 07:00 we go into the lodge dining room for breakfast. We order what we want the evening before so that they can prepare it and have it ready for 7. After eating, we get ready to set off walking which is usually about 07:40. Depending on the availability of lodges/tea houses, we will stop after a couple of hours for a half hour break where we will have a cup of lemon tea. Another hour or two's walking and then there will be a lunch stop for about an hour. If our Nepalese guides have been able to contact the lunch place in advance (most have mobile phone connections now) they will have ordered lunch for use so that we don't have to wait too long for it to be prepared. After lunch we will walk again and usually arrive at our destination for the day between 2 and 4pm.

After leaving Thame we walked for 2 and a half hours to Phortse for our lemon tea mid-morning stop. After half an hour we set off again arriving at the village of Khunde at 12:35 for lunch. I found this last section of the walk very hard and was feeling really tired and quite sleepy. Lunch took ages to prepare and I was struggling to stay awake until it arrived. Our final destination that day (4th April) was to be the next village, Khumjung. However first we intended to visit the hospital in Khunde which was founded by Edmund Hilary and serves something like 50,000 Sherpa people from many miles around. Remember that there is no motorised transport of any kind up here. After leaving the hospital, it was then only a short walk to Khumjung and the lodge where we were to stay that evening.

Most lodges we have stayed at so far have been pretty comfortable. We have twin rooms, usually each room has an en-suite bathroom with a toilet and shower. There is no heating in the bedrooms which get very cold at night but the sleeping bag I bought in Kathmandu is excellent and I am certainly warm enough when in it. The lodge then has a communal dining room so we usually head there after unpacking and getting our bed ready. If there is hot water available we will have a shower. If not, our porters will bring us a bowl of warm water to have a perfunctory wash.

5th April - Khumjung to Phortse.

It was the usual walking day routine, leaving the Khumjung lodge at 07:40. Before leaving the village however, we called in at Khumjung monastery where they have a very rare Yeti skull which we were able to view (after making a donation!). I hope to be able to add the photo soon!

We then walked steadily uphill until 10:15 when we arrived at the village of Mong. It's full name is Mong-la, 'la' being the Sherpa word for 'pass'. Because there were very few villages on today's route we had an early lunch on Mong-la. There then followed a very steep descent to the river crossing at Phortse Tanga, before another steep uphill section to Phortse which we reached just after 2pm. The lodge at Phortse was quite basic compared with the others we have stopped at so far. There we no ensuite facilities, just a common shared toilet. That was bad news for me as today was my turn for diarrhoea! There are 13 of us in the party and 4 others had already suffered. Needles to say I had a bad night.



6th April - Phortse to Dingboche.

We left Phortse at 07:45 and had a steady up and down walk to the morning lemon tea stop at Pangboche. After 40 minutes here, another hour's steady walking brought us to the village of Shomare for our lunch break. Despite my digestive problems, today's walk was good. We had some excellent views. Almost everytime we turn a corner there is a new view and we are constantly surrounded by very high snow and ice-covered peaks. For most of today the peak of Ama Dablam has been the most prominent but our view of it constantly changes as we progress. We finally arrived at our destination of Dingboche at 15:50 so today's has been one of our longest walking days so far. The Mountain Paradise lodge at Dingboche is a lot better than the previous one at Phortse. We now have an en-suite toilet (but no shower!). I am also feeling quite a bit better, managing to stay awake after dinner which I hadn't been able to for the previous two evenings.

7th April - Acclimatisation day at Dingboche

We are staying in Dingboche for another night so this morning we had a short walk (2 hours) and left quite a bit later (08:45). This walk took us up to 4600 metres, out highest point so far. Back to the lodge for lunch and we now have an afternoon free so I am making the most of what might be the last chance to update this blog for a few more days.

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Photos

A Yak
we see lots of these from now on

Khunde
approaching the village

Khunde
Stupa and mani stones

Khumjung
the famous yeti skull

Shomare
lunch stop

Looking back to Dingboche ...
... with Everest above my head

Sherpa porter
this guy is carrying at least 60 1 litre bottles of water

Phortse
looking back to Phortse from Thukla

The Khumbu Valley
the Khumbu glacier is behind the morraine to the right

Comments

[Dorothy]

Yeti
Amazing photos dad. The Sherpas seem to be very doting. I thought yetis were a myth?! Could you see the eyes and mouth on the yeti skull or just the scalp area? Doz