Day 8: Nuntale to Bupsa

Bit of a slow start today as we forgot to order breakfast last night (Tip: order breakfast the night before, and give the time you want to eat, to reduce the time you spend waiting in the morning) . Even though we ordered breakfast at 6:30, the people who had ordered the night before for 7 am got served first, and we did not eat until 7:15. Oh well...time is not really an issue.

The day began with a steady march downward to the river, where we crossed at about 1600m, possibly the lowest point of the trek, and that's after walking up and down for 7 days. Over the bridge and then we were in Jubing (1,680m) which has a totally different feel than other villages we have been in so far. Probably due to the lower elevation there are lots more flowers and other vegetation. It just had an overall very relaxed, almost tropical feel.

Of course from the low elevation the next stage was "up" again, this time to Khari-Khola (2,040m) where we stopped for lunch. The lunch was good, but the water exhibited a problem that we saw throughout the trek. Many villages have central water spouts that all the lodges get their water from. That's fine, except the lodges tend to use old kerosene containers to transport the water from the tap to the lodge. Well.....guess what...sometimes you can taste the kerosene, or at least smell it, or see the film on the water. I can not believe that this is healthy.

Our solution to the water issue was to get our water from the tap itself if possible and then use our Steri-pen to make it drinkable. (We had good luck with the Steri-pen, which uses UV, but would recommend bringing some kind of pre filter as the water in the mountains does tend to have a lot of "crap" in it. All in all it saved us a lot of money on buying boiled water or bottled water - a very good investment - just make sure you bring some extra batteries.)

From Khari-Khola we once again went down to cross the river then had a steep 1.5 hour climb up to Bupsa (2,400m). At Bupsa we stayed at the Everest Guest House which had a patio outside at the edge of the hill. This gave lovely views over the surrounding hills, as you are almost sitting on the edge of a cliff. We both had nice hot showers (100Rs) , did a little laundry, and had lots to eat, with Sara having her first pizza of the trek (basically made with a chapati for the crust). It was really nice to sit on the patio, soak in the views and just chill out. This is definitely more relaxing than last time. More like a vacation than an adventure ... though of course the actual trekking still makes you work.