The Trekking Spine Doc Blog

Day 14 – Return to Lukla June 1, 2009

Monjo River Waterfall

Day 14 (May 19) began with some excitement on my part.  Just outside of Monjo, on the Monjo river, was a waterfall that I had wanted to do a time exposure with my tripod.  It meant carrying my tripod that day (ultimately uphill to Lukla), but I did not care.  I started early but because of the time setting up and getting my shots, I fell behind.  As it turns out, my “test shot” was my best shot of the waterfall!

As this was the last day, I did not initially care about how fast I was going or how soon we would arrive.  We took a long lunch in the same small town that we had our first lunch on our first day of the trek, now a full two weeks ago.  After lunch, a group of us were determined to get to Lukla as soon as possible.  We had been informed that we would not be staying in tents, but rather in a hotel with hot showers!  This was strong motivation to keep moving.   While resting briefly, our kitchen crew caught up with us with their loads of cooking and dining gear!  It was quite impressive.  Most of the time the Sherpa’s would blow right by us and beat us to each destination even after leaving hours after we had left.  This time, our determination to finally get a chance to clean up allowed us to keep up with them and even pass them as we proceeded on to Lukla.

We also learned that one of our Sherpas (Canchha – the same fellow that accompanied me on my “Sherpa Shortcut” to Kala Patar) had one of this teeth pulled in Namche Bazar.  This dude was tough!  He did not miss a beat escorting us along the trail! 

After arriving in Lukla, we all showered , had dinner and slept in a real bed!  Ironically, I was unable to sleep well perhaps excited about our return to Kathmandu the next day. 

Rooster Along the Trail