Day #9 - Namche to Tengboche Pt 6

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After a few hours of trekking downhill we reach Phungi Thanga, a small village at the foot of the valley and our crossing point for the Dudh Kosi River for last time on the journey to EBC. It was a good point to stop for lunch, albeit a little earlier than usual, as it gave us time to prepare ourselves for the 2-3 hours of solid uphill climb ahead of us to reach Tengboche.

Lunch was fairly uninspiring, as was the teahouse it was served from, and was particularly cold. I think we all were glad to get our rucksacks on and start walking again after lunch to warm - something which 20 mins later we probably disagreed with given the arduous nature of the climb we were already on.

Given how warm Namche was, the cold on the climb up to Tengboche was felt by all - probably as a result of a large part of it being in the shade and in the increasingly greater cloud cover out of it. I was wearing 2 base layers of clothing, plus a mid-layer, a hat and a neckerchief and that kept me just about warm enough, but when you stopped for a breather you could quickly feel the cold start to seep in. It wasn't quite cold or windy enough to break out the windbreaker jacket - but only just. Another noticeable difference between this part of the trek and the days below Namche, is that due to the altitude and reduced oxygen you have to go slower and therefore don't sweat as much as you would if you were exercising normally - despite being out of breath the same.

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