Tuesday was a very tiring day, the previous day we saw what we thought was the path gently contouring round the valley and slowly gaining hight. What we did not spot is that there was a huge valley in the middle so we climbed about 200m, walked along a lovely path with stunning views, had a very good lunch and then dropped down losing all the height we had gained, crossed another spectacular bridge and then climbed 400m straight up. We were all completely knackered by the time we reached Tengbuche. The village has a large monastery, two small shops and the Himalayan hotel, which at first seemed the worst place so far however it had two wood burners going in the living room and they have a big vat of water in the toilets. This meant that in the morning when the cistern wouldn't flush because it was frozen we could drop a bucket full of water to flush the loo - luxury.
One snag was they rely on scratch cards for WiFi and they have run out so no one can use the service. A bit frustrating, if you know that connection will never be available then you accept you are isolated, I did not expect to be able to communicate much on this trip but all round the room are signs advertising WiFi, the signal is there and yet we can't use it. By 7.30 we were all falling asleep so went to bed.
Today (Wednesday) we had a more gentle walk, mostly up but not too nasty. Again the views are stunning but we have started to worry about electricity. The lodge we are in now has wi fi but very limited electricity so charging up phones, iPads or more importantly cameras could become an issue. We have also noticed that the batteries we have drop a great deal of charge overnight even when the devices are off because of the cold. From now on I am going to keep my camera in my sleeping bag!
Ian and Graham M have fancy but heavy solar chargers which they hang on their backpacks to charge up a battery pack. We joked about these lower down but they may have the last laugh.
Pictures now added, no idea if the blog will be updated after that, it all depends on electricity!
The start of what we thought would be a gentle walk.
You might think our guides would have ropes or first aid equipment, in the plasitic bag is one of two coffee caffeteers (can't spell) which are produced at each stop
The last section was very tough, Cleggie was not the only one resting at every opportunity.
This stupa is in the middle of namche Bazar