Today I am a weary traveler. We left Namche this morning and took a leisurely 4 hours to Phakding. The day before we trekked for 3 hours from Tengboche to Namche and before that a 6 hour day from Labouche to Tengboche, a journey which in reverse had taken 6 days!
Phakding, just 2 hours walk from Lukla and a plane back to KTM, civilization. As we wander down the valley, away from the mountains I am at once excited about the idea of a warm shower and clean clothes (it has been 3 weeks after all) whilst also already missing the purity of the mountains. I will be sad to leave this scene behind, surrounded by fierce snow capped mountains piercing the horizon. The effect is always both bewildering and terrifying. The scale is like nothing I have seen before, in fact like nothing on earth, and to imagine that the majority of the surrounding peaks have been climbed by human beings is quite mind boggling. It was enough effort just putting your socks on in the morning up there! Yet apparently real people just like you and me with arms and legs and a heart and soul, not at all superhuman like in the movies or comic books, have actually climbed this rocks, its hard to fathom.
I will miss sitting in the sunshine and watching the many chuffs swooping and soaring in the thermals, punctuating the mountainous backdrop like a song sheet. I will certainly have to replace that feeling of wholehearted tiredness that creeps upon me towards nightfall and draws me to my sleeping bag at a ridiculously early hour. Yep there are many things I will miss, perhaps I will take up fell running after all. Oops there you go I’ve said it now