24 May 2024
The night was quite eventful. Although we had slept in time, we woke up some 3 times. At 4 AM I took my thyroid medicine and slept off again for good 2 hours. And 6 AM I was ready to get out of the bed.
When we packed duffel bags, I realised that the stuff had increased. This was surprising as we had consumed most of the foods like dry fruits, electrol sachets etc. The stuff was much more than what those two bags had when we started. Amruta and I were amused. We spoke about it but couldn’t figure out. Anyway, we handed over the bags to Surendra and we headed for breakfast.
The people everywhere on this trail are extremely kind and friendly. So was the lady at The Buddha Lodge in Lower Pangboche. She and I had nice chat before leaving. We started our trek at about 730 AM.
Some 45 minutes later we were near the first suspension bridge on our way back. This bridge had given me spooky feeling on my way up. Amruta and I had discussed this again previous night. And voila, here we were again. And I had similar spooky feeling again!! Somehow, we crossed the bridge and started walking towards Deboche which was much of plain walk. After Deboche, the climb was really demanding one. Here we met the Filipinos again. They were all walking with good pace. In about a kilo meter this climb was over.
We took a small break at Tengboche and started off immediately.
Now the descend to Phungi Thenga which got over in no time. We reached Phungi Thenga at about 11 AM. We decided to take a small break for tea and coffee here. The Filipinos arrived sometime later. They were some three brothers and their sister and probably her husband. All were senior citizens and had decided to trek here before getting knees of two of the seniors most members operated. Kudos to them. They kept teasing us that we were fast.
The ascent towards Kyangjuma was another painful one. And this was the last difficult climb on our way back. Ngima kept company for a while, until told him to go ahead and tend the girls. He agreed and went ahead. Surendra was way too fast. When I reached Kyangjuma, he said he had already rested for an hour.
We requested for plain omelette and toasted bread with butter. When the lady served the plates, we were pleasantly surprised to see small chips of Amul Butter.
After lunch, we started our trek towards Namche Bazar. The route was mostly plain with just some small inclines. At a point, we were discussing something and a familiar face passed by us. It took me a while to recognise her. Then, sometime later a man walked past us. I suddenly asked him if he was from Pune, our home town. When He turned, I realised that was commander S Kartikeyan and the young woman who had walked ahead of us was Kaamya Karthikeyan. I had met them both at Ladakh last year (June 2023) when they had returned from Kangyatse Expedition. Also, there is a mutual friend through whom I knew them both.
Just couple of days earlier, Kaamya had summitted Mount Everest so I obviously congratulated him. And she was the youngest Indian girl to have ascended from Nepal side. Then during the chat, I came to know that he too had summitted. It was a wonderful moment. He was walking really fast like Kaamya, so I bid him adieu as I didn’t want to slow him down.
We then continued our hike till Namche Bazar. We had trekked slightly over my calculation at 13.63 kilo meters. Once at Namche Bazar, girls wanted to do some shopping but somehow the deals did not go through. I am content as usual and I had specifics of things I wanted to get so I didn’t even step out of hotel. It was dinner time by then.
When we retired to the bed, it rained nicely almost until midnight.
I hadn’t booked my return tickets to Pune. I had plans of crossing the border via road. However, after first few days of the trek, I had had realised it was going to be a hectic journey. Hence, I was looking at options of flights. Then I realised immigration had forgotten to stamp my passport and they had stamped on the boarding pass towards Colombo. I kept thinking what to do. Then I checked External Affairs Ministry’s website and sent an email to them. Then I realised that it was Friday night, so it was obvious that I may not receive any reply until I reach Kathmandu on Monday. That also meant I might have to take road to enter Bharat. All of this confusion kept me up until late.
Stats for the day: 24 May 2024
End Time: 02:15 PM
Highest Altitude: 3956 meters ASL
Distance: 13.63 kilo meters
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