My climb has reached the altitude of Namche Bazaar, the last town of any size before Everest Base Camp.
I guess one could hike from Lukla to Namche in a day, but it would be hard work. We took a day and a half to do it. Much of the way winds along the Dhudh Kosi river valley. The name of the river roughly translates as "river of milk" and I guess it's so named because the water foaming over the whitish granite rocks does have a milky look to it. It's very beautiful anyway.
As well as the human porters, we encounter lots of pack-animals, some are donkeys and others are hybrid of yaks and cows, which of course we assume are yaks at first. We thought the guides referred to these as "jobos" but I may have herd that wrong... anyway we learned that yaks don't really thrive below about 3000m because it is too hot for them. A question from one of our number regarding yak milk produces much polite mirth from the guides which we discover is because "yak" refers to a male (a female is a nak).
Even though the path remains wide and well-benched, we are warned not to pass the animal trains on the cliff-ward side, as it is easy to get nudged over the edge by the animals or their loads as they pass. The animals carry everything too heavy for human porters, including massive gas cylinders which are used for cooking and heating water.
After entering the Sagarmatha National Park at Monjo, we continue up the river valley. Soon we climb steeply up the side of the valley and cross a frighteningly high swing bridge (named the Hillary Bridge) which takes us across the river valley at 125m above the foaming water. If you've seen the movie Everest, there is a great clip of the ill-fated Rob Hall expedition crossing this bridge.
After the bridge the trail heads and up a very steep incline through pine forest, which is brutally hard work. Half way up is the first Everest viewpoint but the cloud is low so we don't see it, and so we plod onwards.
Namche officially sits at around 3400m (I have climbed 3346m as of today) but because the town is located in a steep valley, there is a climb of a couple of hundred metres from the one end of the town to the other. The town is cradled in sheltered valley, and we don't fully appreciate the beauty of the place until the morning when the peaks are free of cloud.
Some say that Namche is the source of the legends of Shangi-La. It certainly has that look about it when you get there.
Halfway up the steep streets we encounter our first yaks, and we learn these are a very different animal from the docile hybrids. They are quite aggressive in appearance and behaviour, and the alacrity with which our guide leaps out of their way reinforces our natural inclination to give them a wide berth.
At above 3000m the air is thinning and we are starting to feel the lack of oxygen. This slows the pace. Of course I'm still close to sea level in my challenge so at least I don't have that problem.
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