Namche to Lungde – Trekking Hurts

Breakfast was early, chapati and fried eggs, and a milk tea. This was the first day that I was not familiar with the surroundings we were about to ……. be surrounded by? We were turning left. Not a usual experience on scheduled airlines nowadays either. Upriver we were aiming for Thame and we set off at 7.30. The path took us high along the valley side, roller-coasting again, which adds substantially to the feet you have to climb. One day we climbed double the altitude we gained. Downhill is good, level is fine but in thin air trekking upwards trekking hurts.

Looking back across Namche the clouds were rolling in, but we escaped the rain.

There was a small quarry around the valley side, not visible from Namche, and young men, some of whom were barely out of school, were carrying huge chunks of rock on their backs down to a few construction projects in the village.

This is a Buddhist region in a Hindu country. A land of monasteries, Stupas with flags, gateway buildings with prayer wheels and be-robed Monks going shopping in town.

The valley opened out as we approached Thamo.

With a viewpoint presenting the gang an opportunity to grab a passing stranger and get a group photo.

The enterprising Sherpas inhabiting this valley have built terraces and dry stone walled sections for grazing and growing. In the photo below a woman is turning over grass to plant potatoes, bottom right. Two others, middle left, are cutting hay for silage.

Looking upstream the devastating effect of the lake bursting its banks was clear.

Fortunately the bridge built a year ago was unaffected. The old bridge looked a bit rickety, and was probably only used by the wild goats in the bottom right.

It was a difficult climb up to Thame and as we came into what was left of town the devastation was apparent. There were quite a few buildings left but some were under boulders and others had been partially washed away by the torrent.

Reconstruction work was underway on some buildings, but 50% of the village was washed away and many of the remaining buildings are uninhabitable.

Nir found a guest house which was still standing and which offered to cook us lunch. It was being repaired and the wonderful people said they were unprepared for trekkers but could cook us rice and vegetables as long as we were ok eating in the kitchen. They were almost apologetic. They shall inherit the earth.

If you find yourself in this region please stay and eat at the Belle Vue Guest House. When it’s repaired.

We couldn’t stay here so we set off upstream again to find a place to stay. This turned into the longest and highest climb so far. And the countryside was becoming more barren as we went higher.

As the sky was darkening, rain started to fall and we finally made it to Lungde, where there were guest houses open. Two days ahead of schedule and 3,200 feet higher than we were this morning. I fell asleep in my clothes, hat and boots on my bed as soon as we arrived and Nir pulled the blanket over me. He brought me a cup of tea later. I made it down for dinner. We said we would meet over breakfast and decide what we were going to do.

Night night.