Day 7: Junbesi to Nuntale

Up early with a beautiful view from our bedroom window of the mountains taking in the morning sun. What a way to start the day!

The trail today started up steeply from Junbesi, after we passed by the hydro electric plant and over the bridge, then leveled out into a more or less slow steady rise, until 2 hours later we got a quick view of what we had come to see. At the Everest View lodge (Phurteng at 3,040m) we saw Everest for the first time for about 2 minutes before the clouds rolled over it. Still it was enough to energise Sara for the whole day (although once you get past this point Everest disappears as the angle is no longer right). From then on Sara took the lead on the trail, often getting far ahead of our porter/guide and me. She was so charged up, it was a treat to see. She even took my pack for a while and managed to get through the last of our Thodung chese for some extra energy.
Watching Sara today had me thinking about my reaction to the trek so far and I guess it could be summed up as "this time, less excitement, but much more appreciation". I really am enjoying the trek, but I know a good part of the enjoyment is coming from watching Sara.

From Everest View it was a pretty level trail until we dropped down to cross the river, which of course meant that we had to go back up the other side to get to Ringmu (2,720), where we stopped for a lunch - of apple pie, what else? This apple pie was more like a pasty, but was still quite good. And of course, to wash down the apple pie, I had to sample a glass of apple cider as well.

The last time I had been in Ringmu, it had been more of an "event". In my diary I wrote that I had somehow gone through 7 pieces of apple pie in the time that we spent there, along with numerous glasses of apple cider and apple wine. We had almost been unable to tear ourselves away from the place. The lodge had also been so crowded that we had had to sleep on the floor. There is no such problem these days as there are many more lodges, and likely fewer trekkers.

This is also an area where we saw some "low tech" ways of reducing wood for fire use. The idea is to use solar energy to heat water. (see pic). There were quite a few of these devices being used, though I have no idea how effective they are.

After lunch it was a climb up to the Takshindu pass (at 3,070m), and then down to the village of Nuntale (2,330m). As I am getting into better shape I am finding that the "ups" are fine and I am feeling quite strong. But the "downs" are killing me, or more specifically killing my knees. Although I am taking the downs slowly (and not trying to keep up with Sara), they still hurt. They were hurting by the time we got to Nuntale, and after we had sat down for a while they hurt even more.

In Nuntale, like in Junbesi there seems to be a common menu and pricing amonst the guest houses. However, unlike in Junbesi where the prices were different (stickers) between the guest houses, in Nuntale the pricing seemed to be consistent. A room here was 100Rs, Dahl Bhat was 130Rs, fried noodles were 95Rs, a shower was 100Rs, and an apple pancake was 95Rs.