The hike from Monjo to Namche is short, just 5 km, but quite steep in places as we were gaining 560 m, very crowded in the morning. After checking-in Khumbu Lodge, we walked to Sagarmatha National Park Headquarters located on a hill just outside Namche – great views of the surrounding mountains. Visited Namche Bakery for sweets and coffee, and to recharge batteries (for free). Namche is nice despite being packed with tourists, but we decided to go to Khumjung the next day and stay there for the night rather than visiting Khumjung and Khunde as a day trip. Only ~ 3 km hike on one of many local trails. Very good decision. Better for acclimatization (3763 masl) and good starting point for the hike to Dole next day. Nice Sherpa village, good lodge, sunny/warm room, fewer tourists. We visited Nauche (Namche) Gompa on the way and walked around Khumjung and to its gompa after lunch. Hidden Village Lodge (recommended) was an excellent choice. We were the only guests the first night and had good dinnertime talk with our host. There were two groups in our lodge for the second night, but it remained friendly and clean. The lodge and many other buildings are new as the village was badly damaged in the 2015 earthquake. In the end we decided to stay yet another day in Khumjung, Joanna took her rest day and I wondered around a bit visiting Khunde. Both villages are very pretty, real villages with school, hospital, monasteries, fields, yaks, fewer tourists. I took advantage of sunny weather to do some laundry, in a big bucket, taking water from the central village faucet. Made some people laugh. Sun or not it took 3 days to dry our stuff. Ended the day walking up a small hill to take sunset photos of the mountains – no luck as clouds moved in. At these altitudes it can get cold, but when the Sun is out it feels almost like summer and the weather was quite warm that year, we were told. The lowest temp we were exposed to so far was 4℃ in our room at night in Monjo. We are in real mountains now with nearby peaks 6000 – 7000 m high and some 8000 m peaks not far away.
What views! All the best wishes for the next part of the trip!