Nepal – Phakding to Namche Bazaar

Phakding 8,701ft to Namche Bazaar 11,306ft

Up at 7.10am. A breakfast of porridge with honey, toast and jam does the trick and we leave Phakding at about 9.20am. The trail is very enjoyable. Pleasant walking on a good path through the forest all the way to Benkhar (or Benkar) a very attractive looking village nestled snugly amongst the trees with the sun casting shadows on the path and the smell of blossom rich in the air. We then cross over a couple of suspension bridges. These structures, depending on how you are with height are either exciting and exhilarating to cross or scary and nerve wracking.

Whatever your thoughts on them, they are a necessary part of trekking in the Khumbu. We arrive at Monzo (or Monjo) about 12.10pm and I have lunch of Coke and a Snicker bar. Shortly after this we arrive at the Sagarmatha National Park Office, the entrance to the National Park and a Unesco World Heritage site as it says on the sign.

After producing our Timms cards and paying the required entry fee we enter the park. Good walking follows, crossing over a couple of suspension bridges we generally follow the course of the milky white Dudh Khosi river, which is always in a hurry, rushing past us. The path criss crosses the river for a while until we arrive at the Hillary suspension bridge. The bridge, named after Sir Edmund Hillary is the final suspension bridge before the 2,500ft climb up to Namche Bazaar.

The Hillary suspension bridge, Yaks always have right of way!

After crossing the bridge, making sure to avoid the Yaks a corner is turned and the ascent to Namche Bazaar starts in earnest. I put my head down, maintain a steady pace to conserve energy and start uphill. As we head up through the forest, we leave behind, for a short while at least the roaring sound of the Dudh Khosi river and enter the silence of the forest.

Mark catching his breath on the steep ascent to Namche Bazaar

Halfway to Namche there is a gap in the trees where a first site of Everest can be had, unfortunately for us cloud gets in the way today. The walk up to Namche takes about two hours of steady, paced walking. As the town is approached the path levels off and there is a police post where our permits are checked. On arrival in the town I can certainly feel in my body the lack of oxygen and am pretty tired after the ascent up from the river. We check ourselves into the Hotel Tibet for a couple of nights and I have dinner of mushroom soup, chicken, chips and veg. Tomorrow we will have a rest day of sorts but walk up to Khunde and Khumjung to help us acclimatise.