2. Phakding to Namche Bazzarr

We woke up early 5.45am to get an early start as the best weather is in morning and early afternoon. It was going to be a long day upto Namche Bazzarr, neither me or Grace slept very well as we were both excited to start the trek. We befriended a lovely dog called (Garfield) who followed us for a few KM, sorry Maggie😂. It was a beautiful day and the further along the trail we went the more scenic it got. We crossed many suspension bridges but the highlight was the Tenzing Hillary suspension bridge, which is the world's highest suspension bridge, 250mtrs above the rushing river below, this was a real highlight. The trail was very steep upto Namche, but neither me or Grace were struggling which shows all those tedious gym sessions have really paid off.
We bumped into the American couple and the French couple from the previous couple of days which was nice. The trail was riddled with Donkeys, yaks and yak hybrids (half cow, half Yak). The further along the trail the mountains started to make an appearance and they were breathtaking, we can't put into worlds how amazing they were. This included a glimpse of Mt Everest itself, it was incredible and completely surreal. Half way up the steep climb (1000mtrs today) we heard this huge rumble, sounded like thunder and big crash noises. Our guide told us that it's an avalanche happening rather close. This was really cool and the noise was unreal.
We carried on trekking up the steep hill and suddenly Namche made an appearance, it is a huge town carved into a mountain, with schools, shops & hospitals and home with a population of around 2000. We walked up and everything felt electric, we had such a sense of achievement as apparently this was a hard day within the trek, due to the climb and jump in altitude.
Once settled into our hotel (with an amazing view)we had a much needed sugar kick and headed down into town to have a mooch about, the shops were cool with artists and the most amazing mountain paintings (as they are rather poor they cannot photograph) so paintings were done on mountain tops and took days if not weeks to complete due to trekking high and dodging the ever changing weather in the Himalayas so they could paint from sight.
Some local children took a huge interest in Grace and her Coca cola and ended up following us around in hand, which was adorable. They were 4 & 6 and spoke English fluently! We are both happy that we aren't experiencing any altitude sickness symptoms yet, drinking 4 litres of water is certainly helping.
We are about to have some dinner and head back to town for a walk around at night and then an early night to catch up on some much needed sleep. Was a truly incredible day!! Big shouts to our Ngwang Gombu Sherpa he is making this trip really special!Read more