Everest 2006: Fi and Paul: Hiked up to Debuche

Hi all - Hiked up to Debuche

Yaks have right of way on the bridges!

Hi, its Chris here. Today we walked from Namche to Debuche. The hardest part was a 600m climb through rhodedendren forest from the river up to Tengboche, which is a small town famous for its monastary and fantastic 360 degree views of the increasingly amazing mountains.

Tengboche
We had also heard that the world's highest bakery was at Tengboche so we were pretty keen to get to the top. We ended up agreeing that the bakery scored 2 out of 10 for its donuts, -2 out of 10 for its fruit cake, and the cinnamon scrolls were not rateable because we didn’t have a hammer to break them into bite size portions! Fiona drew the short straw and went in to return the cinnamon scroll, which was swapped for a donut no problems, but the rock hard scroll was put straight back on the shelf for the next person.

Debouche
Its Bridget here - we're now settled at our lodge drinking hot lemon tea. Debouche is only 20 minutes down the hill from Tengboche, but for the first time we've had to walk through mud left by melting snow. There's likely to be lots of mud from now on. It was pretty slippery, but no casualties amongst us 4 so far. Tomorrow is another acclimatisation day, and we will be back up at Tengboche at 8am to see its main attraction (monks service at the monastery that is, not the bakery!). We also have to finish a game of 500 we started in Namche, Chris and I are about to complete a stunning comeback to beat Paul and Fiona!

And so another enjoyable days walk is behind us. It was pretty dusty at times, especially when the yak trains pass, but we have bandannas over our faces a lot of the time which cuts the dust and warms the air. Yet another piece of trekking fashion!!

Our porter Passang
We are enjoying our porter, Passang's company. It has been strange for us to get used to someone carrying our bag. From these 3 weeks he will earn about half of the average Nepali annual salary, and is using it to go to English school in Kathmandu. Passang means Friday - most Nepalese are named after the day of the week on which they were born. He is teaching us some Nepali (at which we are appallingly bad) and card games. If we look concerned about crossing a dodgy suspension bridge, he tells us "Don’t worry chicken curry"!!!

All feeling fine
It's Chris here again. We are all still feeling fine and really enjoying getting your messages. Don’t worry mum, we put sunscreen on 3 times today!!

Brad and Tracy, we have all agreed that your new baby should be named Nepali style, so if she comes tomorrow she should be named Tuesday!

Hope all is well with everyone at home,

Chris and Bridget

Updates

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