29 May- 2018: Trek to Namche
Everyone was on time for the breakfast and we started our ascent at 07:00 hrs. It was a gradual incline from Phakding and we crossed a couple of suspension Bridges on the way – the lifeline of Nepal in the mighty Himalayas. We stopped at Benkara for tea – generally everyone had lemon ginger tea to acclimatize better. From Benkara, we crossed Chumao on our way to Manjo where we got the permit to enter into Sagarmatha sanctuary. The lunch at Jorsalle was awesome as we got Alu paranthas for the first time, and Nepali Thali is so good comprising of Dal, rice, leafy vegetable and another one. we got filled so much not knowing that the terrain ahead was a steep ascent of 600 meters in comparison to 200 meters before lunch.
Lunch at Jorsalle
From Jorsalle, everybody was huffing and puffing and all of our training was put to test. The terrain was extremely rocky with rain gods putting us to test and keeping us going else we were supposed to worry about our rain gears, ponchos. At the sight of the suspension bridge, we were ecstatic to cross a bridge at a height of 150 meters with a length of 113 meters.
Lunch Time
our excitement did not last long and pretty soon rocky terrain with stones stepped at 12-18 inches. our hamstrings and calf muscles were giving up; nevertheless we kept going with gang of 5 reaching first followed by Shekhar, Shobha, Malaji and Mandeep. worth a mention, Mandeep stayed behind to help a foreigner with blue lips and deep pain and price of our group. Raghu kept the front runners excited doing a photo shoot at all exciting locales. it was a good practice for all of us for whatever else in store.
Mala Ramarao & Shekar Chidugula
