lukla2

As we had breakfast Lakpa told us that he had been talking to porters on the trail who reported that no-one had been able to fly out of Lukla because of low cloud for the last four days and there was quite a backlog of trekkers in the village desperate to leave. We didn’t like the sound of this very much. As much as we had enjoyed our trek it was now coming to an end and we were dreaming of hot showers and the fleshpots of Kathmandu.

As we walked down the trail from Monzo we had a reminder of how fortunate our group had been. As well as the inevitable helicopters trundling off towards Gokyo and Everest Base Camp we saw a couple of trekkers being led down on horses, obviously very ill. We stopped for tea and as we sat playing with the lodge dog the first rider was led past supported by sherpas walking on either side of the horse. He had a scarf wrapped round his face and appeared to have been tied on to the saddle. His arms hung limply by his side and he bounced about on the saddle as the horse negotiated the rough stone path. Everyone stared but with genuine sympathy.

After tea we walked along behind a second rider who was equally sick until we stopped for lunch again at the nice little lodge with the two naughty children. As we ate we watched porters and trekkers passing the other way. They were walking from Lukla which meant there must have been flights today. Fingers were mentally crossed. It was warm in the sun, the children were as naughty as ever but as they weren’t ours we found them entertaining and sat watching the trail. I felt sad that the trek was coming to an end.

As we crossed a bridge I looked back and saw that Sue had dropped to the rear and was being followed by Ngima. She was obviously deep in thought and not looking ahead which was unfortunate as a yak train had entered the bridge as we stepped off and was heading towards her. There was not really room for a yak to pass a person and Ngima ran forward and put himself between the yaks and Sue. It was a close encounter but no-one was hurt!

The last stretch to Lukla was uphill and quite long and steep. We were glad to arrive at our lodge which was situated only a hundred yards or so from the airport. It was big lodge and the food was quite good but the large dining room had a tiny stove, quite unequal to the task. We were shown to our room, Room 101. “That’s appropriate!” said Carole. It was a little annex that stuck out from the building with windows on three walls, it was freezing cold. I hoped tomorrow’s flights would be running and this would be our last chilly night for a while!