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May 2, 2007– New Member on the Team
We were blessed by a cool soft rain shower just as we crossed the river for the last time and began the 2000 foot walk up the Namche Hil. The group made it all the way to the top and in to the colorful and exciting market village of Namche Bazaar in only two hours. Our pace was slow, steady and consistent. Brad commented several times what a good pace sitter Min, BAI's trek guide set. Today was about a lot more that hiking and being awed but the amazing scenery all around us however. Along the way we enjoyed meeting local people whose smiles and warmth made us know that these coming days in the Khumbu region were going to be rich with great interactions with the people who live here.
"Who's that", I said. Ben replied, "That's Johnny, he's going with us" Then I learned that Johnny is the class mascot for Ben's friend Ian Lee's second grade class in Dayton, Ohio. It turns out that Johnny loves to travel, and when Ben found out about this he told Ian "I bet Johnny would like to travel to Nepal and go all the way to Everest Base Camp". Of course this was all news to me as we were starting out of our first day of the long journey to the Khumbu Glacier and the slopes of Mt. Everest, but Johnny has already flown half way around the world and he is with us now, so I guess we have one more team member. I bet Johnny's experiences will be especially interesting to Ian and all his classmates back in Ohio. We will report how he and the rest of the team are doing as move along the trail and have adventures every day.
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The walk from our peaceful and relaxing lodge along the banks of the Dudh Kosi River today was enjoyable, beautiful and I think it was an encouraging start to a long journey to Everest Base Camp for this group. It is unusually hot in this region right now. Ang Temba and I both think this is absolutely as hot as it can get in this area. Of course we had the infamous "Namche Hill" ascent coming up in the afternoon after we has walked along the river for a few miles and entered Sagmartha National Park, which contains Mount Everest, the villages and monasteries of the Sherpa people and the wild high country of this highest part of the entire Himalayan Range.
Now at the end of our fist full day of trekking toward Mt. Everest I have one more thing to report to you, we have a new member. This morning as we were preparing to begin walking I noticed an interesting character looking at me over Ben's shoulder. He was riding in Ben's pack and was obviously ready to hit the trail.