DAY 11- All good things must come to an end

Date: Thursday 21st April, 2011
Where to today: Namche (3,440m) --> Lukla (2,820m)
Where are we sleeping: Lukla (2,820m)
How do we get there: By foot

Today was officially our last day of trekking.

It was a tiring day, walking for 7-8 hours. The paths were rocky, steep and dusty (as per usual), and I rolled my right ankle several times. I don't think my ankle is every going to heal properly now. It's been nearly 3 months since I first sprained it during netball and I haven't given it the proper time to rest.

We started off the day walking down the steep path out of Namche. We were all in good spirits and were singing songs such as 'Waltzing Matilda', and 'I still call Australia home'. We were all so relieved that we were finally heading "home". To be completely honest however I was still quite worried about our plane flight out of Lukla, to Kathmandu. I've heard many horror stories of travellers having to wait more than 1 week for a flight, due to bad weather. Please God- let there be no more issues and delays with our trip. I'm tired of Nepal and the way it "operates".

After hiking for about 3-4 hours we stopped at Phakding for lunch. This was where Ben and I spent our first night in the mountains. It was a good feeling knowing that we were now so close to Lukla. We all had chicken curry rice for lunch (my awesome choice), which was one of the best meals I think I've had on the mountain. Not only did it look good, it also tasted good.


Chicken curry rice

The boys (minus Ben) then played cards for a while before we all headed off again, for a 3-4 walk to Lukla, our finishing point.

Also- I forgot to mention that the whole way down from Namche, Bobby was river dancing down the steps. We all couldn't stop laughing... I asked why Bobby was riverdancing (lifting his knees abnormally high, whilst maintaining a rigid, straight back), and he replied "Man I feel like I can run down the mountain!" As he continued to riverdance down the mountain, I made up a tune to accompany his dance moves. We had many laughs for many hours...

Apart from the walk up to Mt Nagazumi (where I was tired and dehydrated from altitude sickness), today was the first day I actually felt tired while walking. I think my body knew that it was the last day of walking and decided to take an early mark.

We finally arrived at the steps leading up to the "city gates" of Lukla. At this point Josh made his move to the front of the group where I was, and I knew that a race was on. I knew I wouldn't win anyway, but thought it would be fun to end the trip with a dash to the finish line. About 15 metres before we reached the gates, I made a sprint and Josh quickly followed. Of course he beat me to the gates but I didn't care. I was just overjoyed and relieved to have finished "the race" or should I say journey.

We took several snap shots of us in front of the gates, and surprisingly in some of the photos it felt as though I was the only one smiling and happy! I thought everyone would have been ecstatic. Maybe they were just all tired too. In one of the photos Ben and Josh picked up Dorchi and put him on their shoulders. Ouch!


Celebrating our arrival at Lukla


Everyone (minus Matt) impersonating Matt's trademark resting pose


Celebrating with Dorchi

After dumping our day packs in our hotel rooms, we made our way to Starbucks. We couldn't believe there was a Starbucks on the mountain. Ben and I had hot chocolate, which was absolutely amazingly good. Very surprised!


Starbucks hot chocolate

At 6pm we then had dinner. It was a very interesting meal. Fried chicken on a hot plate, with chips, gravy, vegetables and white noodles underneath. We then each gave our 3 porters some of our clothing, food and drink bottles that we no longer needed. We also tipped them 2000 rupees (approx $25 AUD) each as a small token of our appreciation and respect. Although 2000 rupees was not much to us, Dorchi advised us that it would be considered a generous amount to give. I'm so thankful for our porters. They never complain or ask for anything and are so humble. We all admire them so much. Apparently the porters roughly earn around 1000 rupees per day. They seemed so appreciative of our tips. Punari especially- it looked as though he was about to cry- even though he was the toughest of all the porters.

The boys, as well as Punari then played cards and drank rum before heading to bed.


The porters (Punari, Junis, Guna) and Dorchi