Lukla offers more that one can hope for on a rainy Monday evening!

We started early from Namche as we had 19 km to do before completing the challenge by arriving back to Lukla. 

I remember this part from before, it was hours on end uphill, so it must be a lot of down hill.. It was :) and after only an hour or so we arrived to one viewpoint of Everest! And yes, she showed herself to us! Happiness ! Then we walked on and on, crossed that mega high suspension bridge again and it was pretty unreal to look up the mountain and realise that we had walked all the way up there and a lot further and now were coming back down again.. Amazing and unbelievable!

We also passed a collapsed suspension bridge, so we had to cross the river at a different spot, just so scary to see and think if it would have been daytime.. This one collapsed 2 weeks ago at 2am in the night.

After passing a few villages on the way, meeting some horses in the middle of the trail, a huge number of cows and an ever bigger number of dogs and 11km later, we finally made it to Phakding, our lunch place and also Tashis birth place. My legs were about to die at this point, my left calf was cramping and I felt like I was falling apart, but there was a magnificent difference - I could breathe! It's meant that I could walk, as I turn into a mountain goat when I can breathe and enjoy what I do. The last 8 km were hard but somehow we pushed through. Me and Babs walked together the last km and I remember that I had seen a cow eat right at the beginning and that was just in front of us! Soon we could see that gate and we pushed! 

Yes, we had reached our target! We were finally back in Lukla! Accomplishment! 

Checking in at the Hilton in Lukla

As our flight was early the next morning, we had to stay the night in Lukla. We got to a guest house and I asked Babs if she knew where the showers were. She didn't know, but we decided to drop our bags in our room and find out. When we opened the door, the room was really neat and big and - we had our own bathroom WITH shower! This was the first time in two weeks we had this experience! 

We were hugging and dancing and feeling like we had a huge upgrade at the Hilton!

After a very refreshing shower (19 degrees..) in our own bathroom we joined our companions for dinner. As me and Babs had saved ourselves and the Everest beer for this moment, we had one together with the third musketeer Steven. Man did that taste good and like a nice reward! Peter, my brother, I truly understand what you mean with "so refreshing with a cold beer after a good days work"! 

ABBA disco in a Scottish pub!

After dinner we of course wanted to celebrate, and as our guides know everyone in Lukla, we had a whole bar for ourselves. A Scottish pub even :)

I had some ABBA songs played for me and we all danced! Yak-man was of course with us as we'll and danced all night long, I don't really know where we got the energy from but it was clearly adrenalin mixed with happiness :)

Yak-man dancing!

The night ended early in the morning and after a quick wake up we were on our way to the airport. Me and Babs were both a bit disappointed as we really could have stayed a day in Lukla and travelled the next morning as we really liked the atmosphere and the easy mountain life. You just do what is right, easy and logical. Nothing is complicated. But as the weather was clear the flight was going to happen and at 6.30 we were all checked in. Our guides were all there to say goodbye and I had to hug my new little brother one more time before going through security. It all felt so strange to leave, I felt empty. This had been my day to day life for two weeks and now it is no longer.