Khumjung to Thamo – 2.5 hours 3790m down to 3440m
Thamo to Thame return – 3.5 hours up to 3800m and back to 3440m
The rain clouds were gone and it was a beautiful morning. We had a delicious Swiss Roasti (mashed potatoes, onions, garlic and who knows what else friend up to look like a pancake) that Bikesh made for us. He first claimed that this was a meal for dinner but caved into our pleading. It was even better than the one we had yesterday at lunch.
We took our time and left Khumjung at 8:30am up towards Syangboche and then took a trail to the right. Enroute poor Tshiri was accosted by anther porter carrying a load of plywood. For some reason he wasn’t happy with Tshiri sharing the trail with him and he almost knocked him over with the plywood. He then started swinging his stick that was like a club it was so thick. Tshiri scraped by and the rest of us gave this fellow a wide berth. Not sure what his issue was but we were happy to be past him!
Other than this little incident it was a lovely hike and much warmer than other days. Spring flowers were out everywhere and with the recent rain the trail reminded us of our north shore trails.
We arrived in Thamo which is halfway to Thame and where one of the Austrian funded hydro electric plants is located. We stopped for tea/lunch so that we would have energy today to reach Thame. During lunch Tshiri had the brilliant idea that we stay here tonight and just trek up to Thame and back. This would mean him and Ishower would be done for the day – pretty clever! Charles teased him mercilessly but we did think it was a good idea.
So after lunch, Charles, Spencer Bikesh and I set off for Thame. It was warm and a good hike although a fair bit of climbing. We took a route that went down closer to the river, which was a pretty route, however this meant a long arduous climb back up to Thame.
We stopped in at the Everest Summiter’s Lodge as this is owned by Appa Sherpa who has summited Everest 21 times. His last summit was in May 2011. There were pictures of him throughout the Lodge as well as certificates for all of his summits. Now Appa lives in Seattle as does Lapka Rita Sherpa who is also from Thame.
It was time to return to Thamo and we took a different route back which was very pleasant, less up and down! The guys made it back in 1 hour and Bikesh and I rolled in 15 minutes later.
I had a tea and then Bikesh “allowed” us and hour to rest before ordering dinner. He is too funny and the guys love giving him a hard time.
We had dinner while fixated to India’s MTV which was continuous Bollywood videos. By 8PM we went to our rooms and the teahouse was dead quiet by 9PM.
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