Everest Base Camp Trek Day 8 – Dingboche to Thukla

I found the walk to be quite easy today, slightly uphill but do-able. We enjoyed beautiful views of a turquoise lake and tall snowy peaks. My back was still suffering from carrying a 10kg backpack every day and the shooting pain in my upper right shoulder didn’t seem to diminish. We left Dingboche (4410m) and reached Thukla (4620m) in a couple of hours.

Lake sighting on the way - and look at that clear sky!

The trail suddenly descended to cross the Khumbu river when we arrived in Thukla (or sometimes spelled Dughla) at noon. The village only has one guesthouse with a big restaurant which was completely packed, inside and out. We had to sit on the stone wall as there were no chairs available.  

Thukla under construction (buildings on the right aren't habitable yet)

We had a bite to eat and debated whether we should keep going or not, staring at the scary steep hill ahead of us, climbing 300 meters straight up. Most of the boys were really tired but I felt like we should try to ascend until Lobuche, the next town. It was only noon after all. We started walking slowly, breathing heavily, and literally 5 minutes into it, the decision was made to go back down and stay the night! We had to pay for our room for the very first time on the trek, a meager 100 rupees per person (only 1$!). People had difficulty breathing, almost everyone had a headache and felt tired.

Many guesthouses use solar panel to generate power

 After resting for a while, we went to explore that stunning lake we had caught sight of earlier. It took an hour and a half to reach a good view point, but it seemed too steep and arduous to reach the shore.

The clouds are coming in over the lake and the wind is blowing hard!

Manu enjoying the view

Chris decided to start taking Diamox to help relieve the symptoms of altitude sickness (our friend Edgar had been taking it since Namche Bazaar), while I strongly considered hiring a porter for the following two days of ascending. In fact, I had made my decision of asking for one after being told it cost only 1000 rupees per day (10$), but unfortunately none were available until the following afternoon. It didn’t make sense to wait all this time when I could simply take it slower from now on if I needed it. The rest of the afternoon passed slowly – we were getting a bit bored, but we did meet a friendly Austrian man, Emmanuel, which would continue the trek with us. The night in Thukla felt very cold indeed!