Day 17

“Day 14 saw us wake to beautiful weather and after a bit of a lie in and a real coffee in Namchee under the sun we were off on our merry way to Phakding.

 

Today was an interesting one in that we had travelled this part of the route before only in reverse which gave us yet another perspective on scenery and environment which was really nice.

Along with the never ending wonderful views, two thing seemed to provide today’s constants, the first was suspension bridges, we traversed at least 5 of them through the journey. These bridges really are wonderous pieces of engineering in that they span huge expanses and carry immense weights. At one stage we witnessed 20 loaded mules on one of the bridges.

You right remember from a previous pet that I mentioned the magnificent environmental work being done by Sagarmartha Next to reduce the amount of man made waste impacting the Sagarmartha National Park in which Mt Everest resides. Just outside of Namchee we dropped into the recycling centre and picked up 1kg bags of plastic and aluminium waste.

 

I am so proud to say that we picked up an amazing 75kg of waste between us which we will carry today and tomorrow until we get back to Lucla where we will hand it over and it will be transported by air to Kathmandu for recycling into useable products with the profits going back to Sagarmartha National Park (well done team).

 

A lunch break at a beautiful little village preceded the afternoon session of the day which saw another 3 or so hours of trekking in cloud and drizzle before we arrived late afternoon at our destination Phakding.

 

Today was also a special day in that Ian Hunt, one of the co founders of Side by Side Trek was celebrating his birthday so the decision was taken to hit the Irish Pub.

 

The Irish (Nepali ) owner thought that all of his Christmases had come at once seeing as it is shoulder season so we had the place to ourselves. This was something that the team really needed as it was like releasing a pressure valve. Singing, dancing, drinking, birthday cake, rinse and repeat, and everyone 100% got into the spirit of the evening. Everyone had a fantastic time, and Ian was somewhat overcome with it all.

 

Happy birthday Hunty.”