Mera peak day 15 – Back to Lukla
We wanted to get an early start because of the snow so we set off at 7am for our last day of the trek. It was going to be a long day. Crisp and cold to start, but we had 300m of uphill first thing and it got hot. Really hot. The sun was so, so intense.
We eventually made it to the pass, slowly, with lots of stopping. The porters had a little sing and dance at the top, moments like this I will remember forever. We met our Australian friends who were strapping on their crampons for the final descent.
We watched the porters head off and we too began our steep descent in the snow.
We spent a lot of time standing still, waiting. Trying to convince Dawa to stop in the sunny bits rather than in the shade. It was quite slippy but I managed not to fall over, probably more luck than judgement! Some of the others fell over quite a lot! We got to Chatang and sat for a while in the baking sun. Hot tea and noodle soup, then it was time to get a move on. We got out of the snow line and made a run for it. A group of about 5 of us broke free and we started moving really fast down the steep and rocky path towards Lukla.
We spent the last half an hour or so walking with the porters in front of us and we rolled into Lukla around 4pm, we were pretty tired, it had been a long day. We went to the Scottish bar for a beer, although the sensitivity of my stomach saw me having a Sprite rather than a beer.
We went back to the Paradise lodge where our trip had begun and ordered our dinner, my job now complete. We had a big party where we gave out the tips and gifts to the Sherpa and porters. Lots of dancing and fun – and I did it all sober!