Nepal: The Revolt!

For April 14

Our second to last day on the trail would have us returning to Namche Bazaar.  We started our day at 12,800 ft before going down to 10,800 ft, and then going back up to 11,900 ft before finishing our day at 11,350 ft.  So needless to say, this was not an easy day.  We did a total of 8.3 miles today bringing us up to just short of 20 miles over two days.  And this is also the point where my memories get a little foggy because I’m writing this 2 ½ month after it happened, and I didn’t write anything in my journal the last 2 days of the trek down.

After leaving Pangboche we headed down before we got to climb back up to Tengboche, where we stayed on our way up.  The down part to start was pretty easy…this is where I’m pretty sure we passed Nims Purja’s expedition team on their way up, after comparing where we were on that day to pictures they posted on Instagram on that same day.  Anyways, we had a group go past us with a boombox playing that had waaaaaaay more energy than I had.  After crossing over a suspension bridge and a short flat area, we started that uphill section to Tengboche.  It was just as bad as I imagined it would be when we were going down it a week or so earlier.  We made it up to the monastery at Tengoboche and took a short break.  Then it was back down and down and more down.  

Over the next hour and 15 mins we descended about 1800 feet.  We were getting hungrier and Anil said we’d get lunch a bit later.  When we got down to our low point, where we crossed a major river and there were a few places to get food we asked again where we were getting food.  Anil said he wanted us to go further.  We said no.  Absolutely not.  We needed food, now.  We had been hiking for 3 ½ hours through tough terrain.  What we could remember of what came after Namche, was a lot of ups and downs.  We needed food.  And we won out in the end.  Thank goodness too, because there is no way I would have had the energy to continue through for the next few hours to Namche otherwise.

A porter taking a small refrigerator to a village.

After lunch for the next 1 ½ hours, we continued up before a series of shorter ups and downs for the last hour.  We were not the most happy of people by the time we reached Namche Bazaar.  Amy was a bit cranky because she wasn’t feeling well.  I was exhausted because it had been a long, rough day, and I was still having some issues eating as much as I needed, though I was eating a bit more now.  Renee seemed to be holding her own, though she was definitely all in for the lunchtime revolt.  I really don’t remember much about how Louie was, other than his plans were to hit the Irish bar in Namche in the evening, so he was probably fine.  We all took showers when we got to Namche in the evening and it felt so good.  We also picked up some clothes we had left behind to get laundered while we were hiking so we had clean clothes to put on, which felt nice!

We spent a while that evening eating and talking with others who were on the trail.  The group in our corner, I believe, covered like 4 or 5 different countries.  Eventually I headed off to bed.  The nice thing was our room was on the same floor as the common space so I didn’t even have to climb stairs or anything.  Another good thing was the diarrhea that had been plaguing me since our last night in Namche was starting to get better.  So after a week or so of diarrhea and having not a ton of food, both things were starting to improve.  I was eating a bit more and I wasn’t having so many bathroom troubles. Yay!