Namche Bazaar walking to
Khunde 12,602ft and Khumjung 12,402ft
Namche Bazaar is known as the ‘Sherpa capital’. If you are walking in the Khumbu or doing the Everest Base Camp trek you are almost certain to be passing through this town and spending some time here. At 11,300ft it is the perfect place to spend a rest day or two to give your body some time to adjust to the rarified air. At this height, there is about a third less oxygen in the air than at sea level.
The town itself is very pleasant, with streets to explore and a variety of lodges, hotels, shops and places to eat and it makes sense to stay a day or so if you don’t want to suffer from the altitude and risk suffering from AMS higher up the trail. Namche sits in a natural bowl on the hillside with terraced buildings curved around a central flat area at the bottom where a market is held and there is a large Chorten in the middle.
After a lazy morning at the Hotel Tibet we set off to walk to the Sherpa villages of Khunde and Khumjung for acclimatisation. Not long after setting off the trail heads steeply uphill and you realise why you are having a rest day as your breathing starts to increase like you had just finished a marathon. Cresting the bowl that houses Namche there is short downhill, through some gates, past another Chorten and then down into the village of Khunde.
In the village I am struck by a couple of women digging in a stone infested field and reflect on how hard life can be here. With no free Health Service or benefits system your finances and life depends so much on remaining physically well and not becoming ill or infirm. Khunde is 300ft higher than Namche and so is valuable in encouraging our red blood cells to increase.
Breathing the air and spinning the prayer wheels we walk on to Khumjung and stop for a coffee and cake at the famous German bakers, although it didn’t say German on the sign that I could see. From Khumjung the trail takes you past another notable landmark, the Everest view hotel.
It’s from this area that I get my first view of the Mountain that I had come to see. Mount Everest, teasingly peeking out from behind the Lhotse/Nuptse wall and looking quite magnificent, revealed itself. The sky was bright blue and cloud free, the sun was shining and it was just great to see it with my own eyes for the first time. Filled with a great sense of satisfaction we made our way back down into Namche. Dinner in the Hotel Tibet consisted of Yak Steak, although it was very unlikely to be Yak as they are far too valuable to be made into meals for hungry trekkers.
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