Saturday, October 12, 2024 –
Another big day… done! This one was hanging over our heads for a while, since we were familiar with the terrain on our way in. We knew we had to cover a full twelve miles with an uphill finish. The team was certainly happy to start down from Namche on another fine-weather morning. We had the trail pretty much to ourselves for going down the big hill. We took a moment at the bottom to watch a bungy jumper bounce way down under an extremely high cable bridge. Once we were working along the river, traffic on the trail picked up. We stood fully ten minutes at one point to let about a hundred loaded mules go by. But we also had plenty of stretches where it was just us, cruising along. We had lunch while sitting outside in Phakding and then pressed on. At 5:30 PM we rounded a last corner and found ourselves walking down Lukla’s main “street” There were fist bumps all around. Dinner was a bit of an event as our entire staff of Porters and Guides joined us for a celebration. They presented a surprise cake and we made sure that they each received a generous gratuity from the team. We were all genuinely impressed with the flawless “mechanics” of the trip, to say nothing of the kindness extended when we were cold, tired and hungry. Our staff made the trip for us and tonight we tried to express our gratitude because tomorrow morning may be goodby time. We hope to fly to Kathmandu.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
PC: Dave Hahn