06/14 -- Day 4-- Namche Bazar to Debuche--24/9/2022

We woke up to lovely views of snow-capped mountains on a clear day at Namche. At our usual departure time of 7 am, post breakfast, we left Kamal Guest House, Namche Bazar for our next destination, Debuche. The tea house had been a bustling place, and we saw a group of Westerners, returning back to Lukla, being felicitated with shawls for having completed the trek. Among them was a kid of around 7-8 years!

                                                                        

We set off again, up hills and down valleys, with the scenery around us gradually changing. The coniferous trees, the pines were becoming fewer, as indeed were any shrubs of reasonable height, and the land around was gradually showing glimpses of meadows and rock. As we trekked, we found extemely picturesque settlements perched on ledges in the mountains.Picturesque to us visitors, but undoubtedly hard for the inhabitants who had to eke out a living in these parts.

One of the highlights of this morning was meeting up with Maria. Maria was a girl who was on our flight from Kathmandu to Lukla. She was an experienced climber of the 14000-ers in Colorado and had quit her job in the US to accomplish her life goal of doing the EBC. She was doing this solo-- carrying all her stuff on her back, with no porter or guide to accompany her. On the flight, she had given us a lot of tips, advising us to drink at least 2 liters of water before bedtime, resting well and listening to our bodies.

We were surprised to come across her this day, and she said that she felt the effect of altitude (some headache) and so decided to rest up at Namche for an extra day, drink a lot of water, and get going once she felt better. Now that she was fine, she was proceeding on her trek. She said she had reduced the weight of her backpack from 17 kgs to 12. I hid myself and my 5 kg backpack under a rock. She was there at the same place where we stopped for lunch and then went on her way, and we did not see her again. Tough girl.

We followed the Dudhkosi river all through and just as it was getting monotonous and tiring traversing the rocky terrain, we came upon Phungithanga-- the place where we would stop for lunch. Outside the ramshackle shed that served as a cookhouse, sitting on plastic chairs at a metal table, on a narrow ledge, the sun pleasantly beating down on us, the Dudhkosi roaring ahead close by, we enjoyed our hot omlette, yak cheese soup, french fries and boiled potatoes.

We, unfortunately, did not include all of us. One or two members of the group had been experiencing difficulties as the trek progressed, and one of them found at this stage that they could no longer continue. After some discussions, and medical assessment of the member by Captain, it was decided that evacuation was the best option for them. A sad decision to make, but the only one that can and should be made when a person is so affected with AMS that they are unable to proceed further. The guides quickly retrieved the duffle bag of the member from the porters, Tenzing got on a call with the helicopter company, we connected with the Insurance team, as well as the member's family, and then asked the others to proceed, while Raj, Captain and I along with Santosh waited for the heli. All this took us about an hour, and in another hour's time the rescue helicopter landed on a tiny ledge on the verge of a steep precipice. The member was helped up to the front seat and the heli took off immediately. We were lucky (a) that  the member had taken insurance precisely for such an eventuality and (b) The helicopter could land safely as the weather was holding despite clouds building up. The three of us resumed our trek once we saw off the helicopter.

It was at this stage that I suddenly found the going very dificult. I huffed and puffed and no matter how I tried to pace myself, I just did not seem to be able to put one foot in front of the other. All that kept running through my mind was the name of the insurer and the thought that I too should have boarded that helicopter. I kept stopping every few yards to catch my breath, and Captain and Raj had to wait numerous times  for me to catch up. After about an hour or so however, the situation resolved itself and I was able to continue the rest of the day's trek without too much difficulty. Lesson learnt-- Shortness of breath and leaden feet can hit anyone anytime during a trek such as this and it matters a great deal who is around you when this happens.

A couple of hours after we resumed, we caught up with the rest of the group, After another steep climb, we reached Tengboche, home to the biggest monastery in these parts. It had by now become very misty and dark, even though it was just 4 pm, and the chill was getting to us despite all the layers we wore. I spent some time inside the beautiful monastery, admiring the paintings, thangkas and religious icons and artifacts. No pictures are allowed inside Tengboche Monastery, and so there are no views of the interior to show.

Trekking downwards from Tengboche, we eventually came to relatively flat areas. These areas are described as "Nepali Flat" which means that the Nepali walks on them as easy as walking on plains, but the rest of us would definitely find even these challenging. A long walk on  a path through the mist on this flatland and we eventually found ourselves at the gate of the charmingly named Rivendell, our Tea House for the night. There was fresh-baked apple pie just being got out of the oven in the kitchen and we promptly ordered a slice for each of us. 

Tired out physically and emotionally from the events of the day, some of the team  decided to go straight to their rooms, and a few of us (Vidya, Jeeva, Rathika, Jayashree, Babu and myself) decided to play an impromptu antakshari while waiting for our dinner. Soon Santosh, Tenzing and Nabin joined us at the table and thereafter lilting Nepali songs also got added to the Tamil and Hindi songs that were being...sung....but I use this word loosely 😉

Rivendell had nice, spacious rooms and Rathika and I appreciated the welcome change from the claustrophobically small rooms at the earlier locations. Thus ended Day 4.