As per our original schedule, we were to stay over night at Periche on our descent from Lobuche. But, because we had lost a day, we decided to go all the way to Thengbouche on day 11 of our trek. All of us loved Rivendall and a stay there meant clean rooms, individual bathrooms and acess to hot shower, which was a luxury for us.
We left Lobuche around 8 am after the usual breakfast. Our friend with the upset stomach had not recovered completed and skipped breakfast. I wondered how he was going to make it to Thengbouche.
It was a beautiful morning with bright sunshine and clear blue skies; the skyline was dotted not by skyscrapers but majestic mountains with snow. We were walking along a river with crystal clear waters. It was very beautiful; I almost did not want to go back and wondered what it be like to live here for ever.
In about an hour, we reached the plateau with the memorials to climbers and sherpas who had died attempting to summit Mt. Everest. We spent some time here and read the writings on the plaques. It is a salute to all those brave souls who dared to climb the world’s highest mountain. It was interesting to note that the memorials were erected at a place that had one of the most beautiful views on the entire trek.
We then chanced upon the memorial of Scott Fisher from the 1996 tragedy on Mt. Everest, its well documented in the book ‘Into Thin Air’ by Jon Krakauer.
After an hour of walking, we reached Thukla, which was our first break of the day for some hot tea and snacks. It was a refreshing break. We started on our journey in about 20 minutes; this was a beautiful walk in the valley with mountains on all sides. We saw herds of yaks and their calves, we also saw some wild horses grazing. Most enclosures for animals were built out of stone fences.
By noon, we reached Periche, a small village in the Khumbu region, above the Tsola river. Its largely dependent on farming and rearing yaks, though in the climbing season, it is busy supporting tourists and climbers. The Himalayan lodge in Periche, our lunch destination, seemed like a nice place. We were all very hungry. After the memorials, it seemed like there was a competition of sorts between two of our group members on who would reach Himalayan lodge first! When I entered the dining area, it seemed like the issue of who reached first was still being sorted, not that it mattered much to anyone! For once, the menu in the restaurant had items other than Dal Bhat and we opted for fried rice. This was the first meal our group member with the upset stomach managed to eat; it was huge relief for all of us. Being able to eat a meal was the first indication, he was well on his road to recovery.
After a delicious meal, we started back on our journey to Thengbouche. We walked along a river for what seemed like a long time and then reached Pangboche. I was walking along with the group member who was just recovering from a stomach bug, he was too tired to go further and we decided to rest for a while. There was no sight of the rest of our group. Nima was with us and he suggested we take a short cut that was meant for animals; it was a narrow route and one or two places were treacherous to cross but we could save about 30 minutes in the process. We decided to go with Nima’s suggestion and took the short cut. For the first time, we sighted a large herd of Himalayan Tahrs, which belongs to the goat family and is considered threatened due to hunting and habitat loss.
We now reached a point which was a rocky cliff and we had to hold onto rocks and place our foot carefully on crevasses to cross over to the other side, a small mistake meant a drop of several hundred feet. We took a deep breath and crossed over! Phew!
By 5 pm we were in our beloved Rivendall and it was such a relief. We were tired and it was a long day to push all the way from Lobuche to Thengbouche but we were in Rivendall and hoped for some great food, a relaxing shower and a good nights’ sleep. It was an hour since we had arrived and our group member with the ankle injury was still on her way; we were worried and were trying to make frantic phone calls but to no avail. Finally, she arrived at 645 pm and it was a relief. Dinner was yak cheese pizza for a change. All of us retired to bed early.
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