Day 4 Highlights
- So called rest / acclimatization day
- But have to hike to gain altitude rapidly and then come back down for the night
- Scenery is stunning
- Spotted Nepal's National bird and had a run after in quit a bit to get a few shots.
- First very cold day
Day 4 Travelogue
Hardly an hour’s sleep in the whole night and a lot of moving around and roaming about, in the room and outside. No choice but to continue the program to meet our schedule. Breakfast is ok but not tasty so just a couple of bites are ok. We are crossing Namche to go to a view point next to Everest view hotel some 200-400 meters above Namche. As we stayed in the beginning of Namche, it is taking forever to go through the steep streets of Namche Bazar. It seems that we’ll get tired only in Namche itself. The climb continued and the trek will only go up rather than up and down today so we will ascent the required height in shorter distance. We just crossed the last few shops of Namche and now we are above Namche and can have an aerial view of the small town. It is in a U shaped valley with some tall mountains in front of that U. We are continuing towards the sky as that’s where the trek seems to be going, slowly.
Today was suppose to be a rest day but at dinner time yesterday our guide told us that we’ll leave by 7am to have a good acclimatization day. We are going to climb 200-400 meters and will come back to Namche. This way the bodies are adjusted for high altitude. The trek is going through some lush greenery and a beautiful landscape though there are not much trees at the place. We just crossed a dirt path what is an airport strip for small twin otter planes. They bring in the elite climbers or the luggage to this small one room airport. When we crossed the small airport, right after a few minutes a small plane landed there and took off after unloading some people. We were able to capture it in cameras. It was a pleasant sight though very noisy for such a place. Now we are very close to the top but clouds have increased and our chances of seeing Everest have decreased. We reached on top of one cliff and stayed there for some time in very cold weather and winds before continuing further.
There are numerous types of weeds and flowers spread all over the land, the colors are so beautiful. As there is no pollution up here and the colors are as natural as these could be. We are crossing another hotel on the way that is secluded and is just a one stand alone hotel. The trek is going along the mountain on the left side now and we have open view of deep gorge and mountains in the back drop. Some of the peaks are above 7000 ft right in front. These ones are all snow covered. There is a river flowing very deep in the gorge and we could hardly see it, there is a thin white line as we see in the pictures. We don’t feel tired today as the morning is very fresh and dazzling. We feel very fresh with the pollution free environment. Most of the mountains are cloud covered now and there is a very little chance for us to see the Mount Everest today. But we still want to reach the top and take a chance. As the clouds cover the mountains we are trekking on, it suddenly became very chilly. So now our jackets are on and we are slowly marching on a thin trek. Although the views have subsided but the clouds around us are creating a magical touch. Breathing is heavy as we are quite tired but the air is extremely fresh though it is getting colder as we make progress.
We are at the very top that was today's destination but its all cloudy and chilly and rainy. Meaning no chances of seeing the beauty. This is the second viewpoint to see the Everest in the last two day but for us both the times it was cloud covered. Therefore we need to put in even more effort to see it for the first time with our own eyes. Fingers crossed!!
We are disappointed not to see the Beauty but we know that there will be many more chances coming in the next few days to see it. It’s time to go down; the cameras are packed back into the bags as it has started to drizzle a bit. Going down is much faster than coming up, although it takes more toll on the knees and the toes.
On the way down we saw beautiful green slopes those were cloud covered on the way up. We were extremely lucky to spot two Pheasants on the slopes, Pheasant is the National bird of Nepal. We had to run quite a bit to get closer look and some shots of these amazing birds.
We progressed fast and by 1pm we are already in Namche and have half a day at our disposal. A well deserved lunch is in front of us and our guide is quite pleased with our today’s performance. He must’ve had doubts about our abilities from yesterdays tiresome hike to Namche and the amount of time we took to make it. Today we feel more confident of going all the way and are keeping our hopes very high.
We are out in Namche Bazar to buy some stuff including some extra Diamox (medicine for High Altitude Sickness), extra liner cap for my friend etc. There are a number of shops selling replicas of branded outdoor and hiking equipments. Majority are knock offs but there are some items which are original. The prices seem to be high as it’s hard to bring products up here and plus it is a tourist town and rip offs is the name of the game. There are Sherpa and couple of other branded outlets selling some really nice but very very expensive stuff. There hiking shirts are about 3-4 thousand rupees minimum, headlamps start at 2000 rupees. We don’t find anything interesting enough and priced right to pick up. Apart from the necessary things we required, we are just doing window shopping. Bargaining seems to be the only way to shop here or else there are pretty good chances that one would be ripped off. Most of the people visiting these areas are from the West hence they pay extra to buy stuff anyhow because they compare the prices with Euro or Dollars etc., however I see there are so many varieties in even the knock offs. Therefore you can find the replicas of various types and brands and qualities of number one, two, three and onwards.
We are back in the hotel and just chilling out, taking some photos and enjoying the amazing views around here. Diner has been ordered as they take orders around 5-6pm and then last dinner is served around 7:30pm because most of the people go to their rooms afterwards for rest and preparations for the next day. We are having difficulty in eating and have been trying to stuff ourselves to keep going, though there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with the food but our appetite is as such. Or maybe the oil these kitchens are using is causing us some sort of acidity. Anyhow we just had few bites and are in our room packing for tomorrow. It is pretty chilly outside. Here, for going to the washroom at night is quite a challenge as we need to cover ourselves before going otherwise we can catch cold or get sick. All precautions are taken as we don’t want to get sick and would like to continue and reach our destination. It’s time to tell each other stories that might help getting some sleep. Night is passing with open eyes sometimes and with closed at another time. Another night without sleep and I’m having severe headache.
