25/01/2018 – Kenjuma (3570m) to Chumoa (2750m)

Not a lot to report for this day. It was a fairly easy day, with both regard to terrain and hiking time. The snowing was no more and we were back to nice blue skies, with just the dusting of white on the trees and trail reminding us of the previous day.

back in namche

We left the puppy house and started making our way down. The snow had iced up a little making some of the steps a little precarious, but nothing too difficult. It was a different kind of morning than usual, with just a 2 hour walk until our first stop, which was back in Namche Bazaar. Hard to believe we were back.

It was actually a lazy 3 hours or so of chilling out there and relaxing. Most of us just relaxed back at the cafe we did on the way up, enjoying some decent coffee. We were actually pretty keen to keep going, but the length of the hike back meant we had to break it up in this way, and it was better to relax in a warm cafe with coffee and wi-fi than get to our guest house at about lunch time with little to do. I got back about the town, but like the way up it was very quiet and not much open, so really it was just time to rest (and caffeinate) up. The streets were amazingly icy too meany getting about was more dangerous than it was worth!

After some lunch we headed off on a fairly easy few hours. Down to the river and along the banks until we reached Chumoa, our home for the night. As luck would have it we had a makeshift football pitch next to us, and the whole crew was up for a game. So 5 a side it was, with team Australia and Ireland facing off against Pasang, Mingma and the porters. A couple of the local kids also jumped in when they could which was ace. Even though we weren’t that high up (now under 3000m) you could tell you were running at altitude. 10 paces and you were gasping for breath! After a bit of time we got used to it, and we played for an hour, every now and then having to retrieve the ball from the riverside. So much fun.

Other than that, it was dinner and a lot more cards before bed.