A relaxed day after a good night’s sleep, no aches and pains and no sign of any altitude effects, in fact we will now take daily oxygen level readings as an indicator of how well we are acclimatising.
After a casual breakfast we set off on a short steep up hill walk out of the town to Sagarmatha National Park Museum where there is a viewing point for the Everest massif which is still some 18 miles in the distance. Despite the distance and clouds around, the high peaks were clearly visible for periods and even more impressive when viewed through my binoculars. Spectacular and we expect the views to keep improving as we progress.
We made a short visit to the museum which has some very fascinating insights into the region, Sherpa culture and the history of the mountains along with some very rare pictures and old photos.
We then descended back into the town, which is shaped like an enormous amphitheatre and stopped for coffee and cake at a German Bakery before returning to the lodge for lunch. The tea-houses or lodges are very much like basic youth hostels at one end of the scale or simple B&Bs at the other. Food is generally good and staff are friendly. Everybody seems to know Santos, our guide, very well so we need to make sure that works for us. We then had the afternoon free, I handed in some laundry, went out for a walk, bought some socks and gaiters on advice and got a book to read – it’s called Into Thin Air, I’ll let you google it if you haven’t heard of it.
We finally sorted out WiFi passes for the EverestLink network and are told that speeds should improve after we are out of Namche. Keeping fingers crossed for that.
We went out for dinner and had Pizza which was OK. Bedtime now and early start for tomorrow when we have a steep climb to start the day and overall height gain of about 550m and going over 4000m for the first time before getting our destination called Mong La.