Day 11: arriving back at Namche

OWe awoke this morning in the warmth of 4000 (ish) meters. I think I slept nearly 12 hours after the epic walk yesterday. 

We headed off for another long day of hiking. Which started mostly down hill towards the river for an hour and a half. Despite it being really nice walking down hill, it was quite tough on our knees and by the time we got to the river at the bottom of the valley we were all complaining of achey muscles and joints.

We then headed up hill ( again ) towards tyanboche monastery. Despite it being a really tough walk up hill it was so beautiful, kinda like walking through a winter wonderland, snow on the ground and frozen streams. After another hour uphill we arrived at the monastery. 

It's one of the highest in the world and where hikers visit for blessings before attempting to summit Everest.

Inside was beautiful. No photos allowed. Hand painted walls and golden Buddhas.

Unfortunately our time there was short lived and we decided to press on back down hill towards the river where we stopped for a much needed lunch by a waterfall, sitting outside in the sun and enjoying the increased level of oxygen. 

After lunch we crossed another beautiful but scary rope bridge before and hour and a half up hill constantly on the other side of the river. It was pretty tough again but much easier at this altitude. The views were breathtaking. It was so nice to be back at the tree line with the scent of pine in the air, but still surrounded by snow covered peaks with the view of Everest. 

We reached the top and the path evened out for another 90 mins until we reached namche. We walked over 30 km today. Exhausted we arrived at our new lodge for the night and wandered back into town to our pizza place with the wifi. 

Namche feels like the first bit of civilisation again, despite being another two days walk to our flight home. There's wifi ( occasionally and very slowly) ATMs ( most of which don't work) and apparently hot showers ( or so we were told but apparently it's too cold).

After what feels like a lifetime of walking I'm looking forward to a well needed lie in tomorrow before heading further down the valley for our second to last day of trekking.