Day 25: Namche to Surke

After a great breakfast it was time to bid a final farewell to Namche Bazaar, after buying a yak bell of course, and start to head down. We were taking it easy with the blisters and Sara had decided to wear her running shoes instead of her hiking boots. That did not last too long. On the climb down from Namche she wiped out three times (the rocks with dirt on them can be slippery), before deciding that maybe the hiking boots were the better choice for footwear today. Even so it was slow going going down. I think we prefer the ups these days.

We had our hearts set on making Cheplung (and our favourite guest house there) for lunch, but it was a long slog. For some reason it took us almost as long to get there from Namche as it did to get from Cheplung to Namche going up (a bit over 5 hours coming down). On the way out of the park though we did stop to take a picture of the tourist numbers ... and they are up over last year, well up. You could see it in the hordes on the trail as well as the plane loads in Lukla disgorged their occupants. It was now back to crowded trails and traffic jams!!! .. at least until after Cheplung when we would have peace and quiet again.

We eventually made it for lunch at the Khumbila guesthouse in Cheplung (right at the Luklas turnoff) where I had a delicious and very full plate of fried noodles with a twist. Once I had stuffed myself, our porter/guide came out to say that there was more if I wanted some...and so I had another half a plate full. Ah to have fresh peas in the noodles as well as other vegetables instead of just a few specks of green as you get higher up. Somehow we managed to break away form the idyllic setting (and it really is quite idyllic - as you can see from the photo) and head another 1.5 hours down the trail to Surke (2,290m).

At Surke we stayed at the Everest Guest House - Yak and Yeti. The owners had two children who came in to do their homework in the dining area on the other side of the room from us. As we had come in first we had sat in the area with the light (limited lighting and electricity here). The kids on the other hand sat in the darker area and started using pen flashlights to write their homework by. We eventually talked them into switching places.