Fellowship Day 16-18 "The Home Stretch"

Day 16
Namche to Phakding (3250 m / 5 hours ?/11318 ft)
Walking distance is approximately 6 to 7 hours after having breakfast you will cross different Benkar, Jorsale, two Hillary bridges at the confluence off the Bhotekosi and Dudhkosi river. After crossing these you will have rest in Phakding.

Day 17
Phakding to Lukla (2800 m / 4 hours / 9186 ft)
4 hours walking takes you Lukla and has many shops, pool houses, electricity and you will have nice hot showers. There will not have any day flight to Kathmandu at noon.

Day 18
Fly to Kathmandu O/N in Hotel Vaishali

They should be arriving home tomorrow evening. We are all very excited. I'm curious to see if they really 'didn't lose any weight. So curious to hear their experiences, their trials, their accomplishments. I was thinking last night how many 13 year old girls can say they have climbed to base camp Everest. Mo will be in a very small minority as will the rest of the 'boys' eventhough it is more common for men to climb. Anyway, get ready for the onslought of Everest pictures once they are downloaded and ready to post. R told me he took over 2000 pics as did Dave and Allan. R was also supposed to be taking video journals with the cam corder, hopefully I can figure out how to load them onto the blog and you can experience true "survivor" moments.
Stay tunes to find out who gets voted off the mountain next! :)

Fellowship Day 15 "It's all down hill from here"

Got a phone call from R and the kids on New Years Day! It was so good to hear their voices. Mo and R still sounded as jazzed as the day they left. Big T sounded in good spirits too, but had an obvious head cold. He didn't say it, but my mothering instinct told me he is ready to be home, back in his comfort zone.
As far as they could tell no one has lost a lot of weight which was one the biggest concerns as there were several of them who had no room for error in that regard, R being one of them.
They are combining the next two days into one in hopes to get home a day sooner. I hope all goes well!

Lobuche to Pengboche (2900 m / 5 hours / 12795 ft).

You can feel this trail similar as hiking to Namche. You can get a fertile crescent shaded by trees for which you wish to have look. You can the houses of Sherpa and Tibetan, can feel the Mt. Ama Dablam dominating from the far side of the valley, which shows you the real picturesque mountain of the region. Further you can explore the local temple (Pengboche Gompa), the oldest in the Khumbu region. You can too meet the friendly lama (monk) and can see the famous "yeti scalp" as well as some lovely paintings.

Pengboche to Namche (3450 m / 5 hours / 11319 ft).

Now the trail retrace same way back and stop at Tengboche, during the November - December full moon the colourful Mani Rimdu festival is held here with much singing and dancing. Height 3480m.

*The English skills in this itinerary leave somthing to be desired, but at the same time makes for comical reading.