Managed to post an entry to my blog last night before the clouds rolled in disrupting the WiFi. Still no service this morning.
Last night after dinner Ramesh gave us some options for the rest of our trip. Because of some lost days we can't stick to the original schedule so we needed to decide which way to jump.
After discussion, we decided to take option 2, which is to skip the high passes and make our way more directly to Lukla via a different route than on the way up.
We are booked out of Lukla on 6/7 for our return flight to Kathmandu. If we make that flight we have a cushion of seven days to get cleaned up, packed and ready to fly back to Seattle. If Lukla is weathered in and we miss our flight we go on the standby list to get out when the weather permits. Our flight out of Kathmandu is on 6/14 so we have a little cushion but if the weather is bad it gets nervous out.
Departed Loubouche at 0830. More beautiful scenery. Going the other way on the same trail looks completely different than on the way up.
We branched off into new territory not far below Lobuche and worked our way down into the "Windy Valley" and it was windy. I asked Mike, being a sailor, what he thought the wind speed to be. He gauged the wind for a few moments and said, "thirty knots. " even though we were walking slightly downhill, that wind blowing in our faces made it feel like walking uphill.
Stopped for lunch in Periche at 13,776 feet. I had Sherpa stew. I've eaten Sherpa stew in many of the guesthouses. It has some basics but is always different, and invariably good. There is always some kind of pasta and lots of fresh vegetables in a thickened soup. Today's veggies were carrots, mustard greens, onions, potatoes and cauliflower. The other day I had green bell pepper, in addition to the others.
After lunch we walked another two hours following a trail above the river. Sometimes the trail was quite narrow with a long drop to the river on one side and mountain on the other. Beautiful views when I could take my eyes off the trail to look around.
We arrived in Pangboche at 1545. We checked in and found we were the only occupants of a pretty nice place. We found out later that the owners are going to lock the doors tomorrow and take a break until next trekking season starts in September. During the off season there is always one teahouse open in each village but the others close.
Our hosts were accommodating and cooked dinner to our order. Easy in this case since Mike and I had dal baht, as did Ramesh and the porters.
I watched as the owner started the yak dung fire in the community room stove.
Ramesh says Pangboche is the highest village in Nepal inhabited year round.
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