Final pack and half an hour to spare for a coffee from my now favourite coffee house using Himalayan Arabica Beans. Sorry Coffee Mio..!

Saying goodbye to Prakash and Nabin is always hard. They are now family. Saying goodbye to Team 2018 will be hard as they have become family. Today we say goodbye to Evan and Elaine who fly to India half an hour before we depart for home.

Prakash has a beautiful saying......
NEPAL = Never Ending Peace and Love.
INDIA = I Never Do India Again
Time will tell their thoughts, and looking forward to hearing about their adventures on our next run up Mt Taylor.

Until then, stay safe and thanks you all who have followed us. Namaste.

​Sue

Last day in Kathmandu. Massages, last minute Shopping, but the most special part of today was we were all invited back to Nabin’s house for lunch. His wife, Angana cooked us the best Dahl Baht we have had all trip. Beautiful. Dahl with rice, curried vegetables, steamed spinach, vegetable pickles and chicken. Nabin is a very lucky man.

​We got to meet Nabin’s children who have the day off school due to Shiva Ratri celebrations. His daughter loves to sing and belted out John Mayer’s “all of me” without too much persuasion. We also go to meet Nabin’s dog Ricky a much loved and spoilt Spaniel that has the privilege of 6 monthly home vet visits. So good to see them being looked after.

Fire and ice pizzeria might be on the menu tonight for our last meal together in Kathmandu. I’m going to miss this group.

So what have we been up to. Well life back in Kathmandu takes some getting used to. For one, we now have cars, horns, rickshaws, tiger balm sellers, flute sellers, Hashish sellers. Oh give me the mountains and village life any day.

Yesterday we wandered down to Durbar Square. Durbar Square is where a lot of the television footage of the earthquake was broadcast. Temples over 700 years old reduced to rubble. It is a World Heritage Site so over three quarters of it is under construction trying to restore some of the lost temples and palaces that received major damage.

We then visited the palace where the Kumari (living goddess) lives. Now John Gerring, if you happen to be keeping up to date with the blog, please take a seat and take some deep breaths. They have a new Kumari. She is only three years old. Pretty impressive that she managed to stand in her window aided by her carer for 10 seconds without a tantrum taking place that Pepper Pig or Postman Pat was on and “why do I have to stand in front of a window at 4pm every day for 10 seconds for tourists to stare at me.......I might stick my tongue out at them tomorrow”. What if she did that??? I can see myself doing that at 3yo if I had to stand before a crowd when I didn’t want to. Being a goddess, can she say “no” and throw a tantrum???

This morning we went to a place called Chandragiri Hills. A cable car was built 2 years ago up the side of a mountain which would normally offer impressive views of the mountain range. Pollution and cloud stopped this view but still it was worthwhile and I think will end up being an excellent tourist attraction during peak times.

Unbeknown to Dale and Stacey, we had organized a celebration cake with the guest house for them and a bottle of Champagne. Seemed more appropriate than at 5545 metres. Nabin, one of the managers joined us in helping celebrate the occasion and said the cake was “on the House”. It’s the association you build over the years with this establishment and kind gestures like this that keeps us coming back to this oasis amongst the chaos. Again Dale and Stacey, congratulations and I think I can speak for the rest of Team EBC 2018 for allowing us to be part of this special time in your life.

Tonight we are heading to a steak house that has imported steak from Australia. Not Yak, Not Buffalo, Not goat. COW OMG. Trip advisor has it rated the 4th best restaurant in Kathmandu.......do I sound excited?

An early start today with Breakfast at 6.30am and on the home stretch by 7.15. Rather cold leaving this early as I’ve mentioned before the sun might rise early but these mountains don’t let it shine through until mid morning. I’ve told you before Matt likes to eat. By 9.30 he had consumed his 3rd snickers bar.

The trails are busy now with over 100 donkeys fully loaded coming towards us. The rule is you give way to them so it’s off to the side waiting for the last one to pass before continuing on. There seemed to be a lot more people on the trails heading up too. Maybe trekking season is starting earlier than normal. I hope not as the reason I love going at this time is to have most of the lodges to ourselves. When you're sharing the lodges with others you don’t get much sleep with creaking doors opening and closing all night and creaking floor boards.

Lunch was at Ghat in a dining room all glass. Two puppies one month old sat playfully wanting to be picked up. I broke the golden rule and had to pat them. They were very well looked after and only being one month old I couldn’t resist.

We arrived into Lukla after a massive 28klm walk at around 3.30pm. We all walked under the arch together. Started this journey as family and ended as family.

Recently a good friend and previous guide David has used on many trips and myself on some earlier trips passed away. A few previous treknepalwithme clients who had the pleasure of having Mingma as their guide wanted to offer some kind of financial assistance to his family. I met his wife today and through hugs and tears handed over a partial payment with the more being handed over via an international transfer in a few months time. It was a very emotional moment for both of us and Lakpa her daughter. Such a beautiful family and hopefully our donation will help with food and clothing and other necessities.

So our trek side of things is over, but we still have Lukla to get out of. Now if you don’t have grey hair, you will have by 9am tomorrow morning when it’s beautiful blue sky here but why aren’t the planes flying?? Oh of course, Kathmandu is fogged in.

Firstly a big thank you to Team EBC 2018. Where friendships are made. Congratulations to you all. Great work guys. Thanks to my guide Prakash. Another successful trip with 100% success. You contribute to this success rate. Also to his head porter Shishir. One of the best that will go a long way. And not to forget the other 3 porters who carry our bags with smiles on their faces.

Thanks to Brother David for filling in the gaps on the blog when WiFi was not possible. Thanks to the blog followers. Each night we would look forward to the comments posted.

​And a big thanks to James, Brad and Liam for allowing me to do these trips and come home to a spotless home with all washing, ironing and housework up to date and a freezer full of pre-cooked meals that I can pull out and heat up on my busy nights......what am I saying, all this oxygen must be affecting me and making me think crazy things.

We have not long arrived in Namche. Periche last night tested us all. Most of us walked in 4 - 5 layers and we were chilled to the bone arriving into Periche. Periche sits in a valley surrounded by giant peaks. So sunrise may happen at around 6am but the sun doesn’t hit the village until around 11am. By around 2.30pm the peaks on the other side of the valley have blocked the sun and the village is in shade again. We were colder at Periche than the previous night at Gorak Shep. Frozen toilets, frozen water bottles, ice crystals on the bedroom window and frozen toothpaste. Thank goodness they lit the heater for us in the morning before our departure to Namche.
So we woke to beautiful blue sky this morning, however we all had a kind of smug look on our face when we turned around and saw Everest with this beautiful black cloud blocking its summit. Is it wrong to feel this way....no way.
We arrived into Namche at around 4.30. Dale's Garmin was telling us we had done 27.5 Klms.
Dorrie has claimed Shishir as her own and at one point in time I put my hand on Shishirs shoulder saying “well done” only to hear Dorrie say “hey, hands off, he’s mine. Drew and Dair, don’t be surprised if Aunty Dorrie brings Uncle Shishir home to meet you soon.
​Tomorrow is another big day and the last day of our trek. Everyone is looking forward to a hot shower in Lukla and the waiting game of whether the planes are flying or not. Lukla isn’t Lukla without flight delays

Just got WiFi for first time in a while. We all went to Base Camp this morning. Matt feeling rather ordinary last night but ok this morning. Have just come back down to Lobuche for lunch in bitterly cold head wind. Periche tonight for an update (unless no WiFi).

So last night Elaine makes the discovery that Evan had a wet ones wash down and used Elaine's brand new microfibre towel to dry his “bits” off. Ok, he’s used it after the wash down, but given there’s 6 days of stench that a tiny little absorbent towelette had to deal with.......Elaine asks the question “is this grounds for divorce”. I say YES. I also say we burn the towel on top of KP like some kind of ritual. Elaine, I think is happy to put it in a big zip lock bag and confident her trusty washing machine set at 90 degrees will have it back to new in no time.
We set off in blue sky again today we just need one more day of this. A steep climb out of Dingboche then a gradual incline in full sunshine but the wind was rather chilly. A huge landslide had washed the bridge away taking us to the small village of Thukla. They have put in a temporarily bridge but the twisted mangled remnants of the old bridge amongst boulders still remain.
A big climb up the moraine after a hot drink and snickers bars saw us at the top where a memorial sits in honour of people who have lost their lives climbing Everest. We are now sitting in our lodge.
A helicopter has just landed 100 meters away from us picking up a trekker who has succumb to altitude sickness. He was very wobbly and aided on either side. A reminder of the dangers of being in altitude and thank goodness our team is going strong with no symptoms whatsoever.
We are having a late lunch and will do a small acclimatization walk just up from our hotel to view the Khumbu glacier.
​Matt has brought a few packets of Beef Jerky with him and I gotta say it tastes pretty good at this altitude. Well done Matt.