• Day 11 – Sunday 8th October 2017
• Namche Bazaar to Lukla
• Altitude Start : 3,440m/11,286ft
• Altitude Finish : 2,853m/9,360ft

Up early today 6.30 am start as it’s a long day ahead…today we are walking all the way back down to Lukla where we will catch our flight back to Kathmandu.

On the way up this part of the trek took us two days to reach as we needed to acclimatise.

I feel pretty sad that this is going to be our last trekking day…missing the family of course every single day but the days just spent walking are priceless…I could actually live out of a rucksack if I had views like this everyday.

Room with a view

So reluctantly I say a final farewell to Namche Bazaar and start to climb downwards.

Once again you can begin to see the scenery changing…the amount of green trees become more abundant, flowers appear, farmlands are apparent, the air gets lighter.

Soon we hit the suspension bridges which appear much quieter today.

We stop for lunch at Phakding to break up the journey, then we’re off again, we should be in Lukla in the next 3 hours.

I continue to study the mountains and keep looking back to make sure I can get every last minute with them.

We hit a steep climb before coming into Lukla which I definately cannot remember being this steep for so long when we first started of on our trek downwards, but we fully commit to it and then we reach the top, we walk under the archway, we were in Lukla…our trekking was over.

There was such relief that we had actually achieved what we set out to do, but sadness that it had come to an end.

This trip has certainly been an eye opener, a journey of a lifetime enveloped in nature’s beauty, learning about different cultures and ways of living.

It has certainly made me modest, made me realise what a tiny place I occupy in the world.

We were the first to arrive in Lukla so we stayed at the spot until our whole group came through…we waited for just over one whole hour for the last lot to come in so we could greet them with cheers and whistles…we started as a group, we would finish as a group, the locals even came out to witness the mayhem and loved every minute of our sillyness.

We then went to our ‘hotel’ (the tea houses were actually of better standard) where we would be staying for the night, left our bags, baby wipe showered (I apologise now for my lack of hygiene but there is honestly no other way), changed clothing and then headed out to explore Lukla, a rapidly changing portion of the Himalayas.

There was a power cut in the whole village, this has happened on numerous occasions with us throughout our trek, and things were pretty dark, but you learn to accept the situation and just get on with things…it’s amazing how much you just let things go!

Later that evening we had our dinner in the ‘hotel’, paid our ‘tip money’ to our guides and porters who I must say were the most lovely, amazing, special, thoughtful, hardworking bunch of people I have ever met – their daily work is tough but they will never admit it…they are worth their weight in gold!

Then the evening turns surreal! Music is played, the male guides and porters get merry and lots and lots of singing and dancing takes place…it is not how I expected my last night in the Himalayas to be!

We go to bed, and ours is the room right under the party which continues most of the night, knowing we have to rise at 5am…why should things be any different now though!

Breakfast is at 5.40am so we can form some kind of que in the airport in Lukla, (I’m being serious here) to hopefully catch a flight back to Kathmandu…but that’s only if the clouds move! You can’t write the stuff honestly!!!