It’s a little sad to leave Khumjung behind today, but we all feel thrilled to hike down the steep hill and know that we don’t have to go back up. We received ‘katas’ (golden silk scarf) from Mingma to show our friendship, and interestingly, Pema suggested that we should tie them end to end when we get to a large bridge. When the wind catches that long string it will fly gracefully, and it will bring good luck back to the bestower. We do wish him good luck, but we don’t want to just leave our katas along the trail. They are meaningful to us and we’ll probably keep ours and take them back home. Pema must think we’re lousy friends then. The Khumjung valley was covered in fog again, so we didn’t get much of a view and we climbed the path out and away. We found an alternate trail down to Namche, and it made a tremendous difference on our knees. This path went across the Shyangboche airfield and then down more of a gradual descent with broad switchbacks. Further east we could see the usual trail we took and we could see it was a merciless climb. Now I wish we had taken this trail before because it wasn’t so bad. Another thing that helped is that I decided to try my hiking pole for the first time. It seems like such a flimsy pole that wouldn’t help much, but I found that it gave me just enough extra stability and took some of the impact off of my knees that I was able to get down a lot quicker and more comfortably. We were soon back down in Namche and I wanted to make one last entry to the weblog before we moved on. I realized I had spent a lot of time in Namche, specifically between the Everest Bakery and the Namche Cyber Cafe, so it was like having another farewell. Some of us took a few final cracks at haggling down some items we wanted from the merchants, then we were ready for the hill that was so tiring about 17 days ago on the way up.

After all the steep, high altitude hiking we have done in the past couple of weeks I thought for sure the Namche hill wouldn’t seem so bad. Even on the way down though it does seem like a neverending trail. It is nice to have such thick, humid air again, and to enjoy all of the trees and green plants, but it’s a very long way down that hill. We lost about 3,000 feet of elevation coming down from Khumjung to the river, and now we’re spending the night in tents in Toctoc. We see this place a bit differently now. This is the place where we spent our first night out in tents, and back then most of us didn’t really know what to expect. It’s quiet and secluded here, so it gives us a chance to sit back and think back on all that we’ve been through. The fog and the drizzle have kind of forced us to focus more on our memories. Since we left Khumjung this morning we have not been able to catch any final glimpses of all the magnificent peaks around us. Saying farewell to the Khumbu we didn’t even get a last glimpse of Kongde or Thamserku that we can imprint in our memories. They’re already in the past and we are left with our photos and mental images. The truth is that the photos and the memories can’t even come close to how amazing it all looked.

This evening we sat together in a dining room next to where we are camping. Apparently there is a regulation at this lower elevation that does not permit the use of wood stoves in the dining rooms, and no one uses yak dung for the fires. It is a little warmer down here, but we sure miss having the hot stove. Pema was fidgeting around because he kept forgetting that there is no stove here, he keeps wanting to throw some more yak dung in the fire since it’s cold. With the cloud cover we’re starting to get a little worried whether we will be able to fly out of Lukla on Friday morning. We do have an extra day in Kathmandu in case we get stuck here, but Pema is pretty sure we won’t need worry, but then he just doesn’t want bad luck. He explained that through the Lukla airport, the rule is that if we were to be delayed due to the weather, the people with reservations for the next day would still get first priority, the those who were delayed would get their chance, just like standby. We don’t want to get stuck up here, especially if we’re going to be on standby, so we’ll knock on wood or something. Pema also says that we need to start being mindful of our belongings as we get down here to the lower lands. He said we needed to get all of our boots and things and make sure we zip them inside the tents with us. Things do get stolen here, so we need to watch out. In Western Nepal it is a much bigger problem, and Pema even needs to post guards during the night to watch out for unwelcome guests.

One thing I noticed on the way down (of course there was a lot of up and down) was that my body was well acclamated to the higher elevation and I feel super human going up the inclines. At least for the day I could not get winded because the air seemed so thick with oxygen. Higher where I’d normally have to set myself into a good stepping and breathing pattern I was able to cruise through down below. Down by the river the foliage is just about tropical and there is great moss and slime everywhere on the rocks. Of course with the fog you don’t get a sense of the great mountains above, but it’s wonderful in other ways. We had a half-baked plan before to hike all the way from Khumjung down to Lukla in one day, but we’re discovering (remembering) that it’s really a long way to Toctoc. It would be at least another 3 hours to Lukla, and it would have gotten dark and we would be exhausted beyond exhausted. A practical logistical matter is that Lukla is a busy place, so it would be difficult to reserve camping space if we got in so late. We’re very happy to rest our feet and settle our nerves for one last night before we get back into the hectic world.

We felt at home up in the hills above, but there is a lot about that lifestyle that would wear us out. We were spared all of the unpleasantries of the lifestyle and all we had to do was eat and hike. Pema gave us some examples, such as gathering yak dung from the trails in a basket and carrying it back home, or digging the potatoes. We certainly got worn out from hiking back and forth to Namche, but that’s a fact of life living up there. Still we enjoyed our simple life and we are a little hesitant to step back into the pressures and tediums back in the outside world. We may have comforts and entertaining diversions but we also have our own kinds of Khumjung hills to toil against when we get back. We have enjoyed the conditions of having no television, nothing else to do, and finding the common comfort of coming in from the dark to the warm dining room and just talking and being together. Normally it’s next to impossible to arrange the perfect set of conditions to bring everyone together like that. It’s hard to break away from emails, television, computer games, outside friends, etc. It has also been wonderful to get so much time to rest. It gets dark fairly early (by 5 or 6 p.m.) and so after dinner and a little time to warm up next to the stove we zip tight into our tents and sleeping bags. Then we don’t have to get up until 6 or 7 a.m., which gives us well over 10 hours of Zzzz. I know I’d normally feel lucky to get half the sleep I get out here.