Namche

I love trekking. No cars. Only the clickclack of walking poles and
the occasional dull ring of zupjock bells, or the bright jangle of
horse bells.

It is day 4 of our trek and we've made to Namche which is about 11000
ft above sea level. To get here we followed the Dud Khosi river,
traversing ridges and crossing it several times. Apart from the bridge
in Hine's post, they are all new and made of metal which as very
reassuring.

On the first day I decided to get some rope to make a harness for Tama.
He's fearless, which is not a great thing when one encounters cliffs.
So I told him it was a mountaineering rope and got him into wearing it.
The problem is, when he're wearing it, he's even MORE fearless. Doh !
Yesterday's trek was pretty hard going. After about 4 hours of some
reasonably hard up/down walking we got to the bottom of the hill to
Namche. It's a 480m vertical slog, and took almost 2 hours up
grinding, uphill effort. A couple of our crew hired horses to get up.
I found it hard, but if I was 80 or laid low by a serious flu, I'd pony
up for a horse too. Turns out the horse guide is deaf, and he really
enjoyed having a conversation we Beccah in sign.

On our way up the river, we had excellent views of Trem Serku, a
forboding peak that has only been climbed once, but the expedition that
Beccah's father, John and his good friend Fu Dorje were on. They made
the first ascent in 1963 (I think) and no other expedition has every
made it to the top.

Anyway, we were all so tired that we decided to stop at Namche. Just
as well. Namche is set in a natural ampitheatre so all of the
buildings have million dollar views across the river valley to a range
of towering, snowclad mountains. The buidings are made of stone and
there are drystone walls and terraced fields everywhere. Awesome.
While I was out shopping and meeting people, my snow sense told me snow
was on the way. So I asked Fu Dorje, who lives up the hill at Kundee.
He is a veteran trekking guide and mountaineer, and said, nope, no
snow.

Sure enough, this morning we got about 20cms of powder. I love snow,
it makes everything magical. But it's wet snow, like you get at
National Park. I'm so glad we're in a lodge because camping on damp
ground is simply awful.

John spoke with some Sherpas who have lived in Namche all their lives.
There has never been snow this late in the season in living memory.
After breakfast in a 300 year old Sherpa house/lodge up the hill a bit,
I took Hine and Tama for a snow fight. It was very cool, and we made a
snowman too.

We're off to Kundee tommorrow so attend the celebrations of the 40th
anniversary of the opening of the Hospital. Beccah's parents, John and
Di were the first Doctor and Teacher team. Many other doctors have
come from NZ and Canada (mainly) to attend. It's going to be cool.
So, we have a 3 hour slogg up the hill in the morning through slush
(initially) and powder once we gain altitude. It's a 2000 foot vertical
climb which will be challenging. We've got some Sherpas on standy to
carry Hine and Tama if they get too tired.

Internet here is murderously expensive (10 rupees PER MINUTE vs 20/hour
in Kathmandu). Also, won't be posting until we get to an internet
connection again (subject to curfews etc). Might be a couple of weeks.
Ka kite.