Maximum Altitude: 4,300m

A bit of admin this morning before breakfast. My Solar powered battery was beginning to reduce its power so I decided to charge it as much as I could. One of the good things about being at these relatively quiet Lodges is that stuff like this can be left outside and it is perfectly safe. I checked after an hour or so and it was showing some charge so good news.

We left at 9:00am and headed up to the Monastery. I again met the Monk I had met last night, this time with everyone else. Again we went inside the temple for a look around. I have to say I was pleased I had visited last night, it was a much more personal experience than being with ten or fifteen other people. Via our Sirdar, I asked the Monk if he would bless the small angel I had been asked to bring along. He agreed and whilst doing it, the Sirdar told me I should give him some money as a 'thank you'. Re100 (about 70p) was the suggested amount which I was delighted to hand over.

Leaving the temple we headed off up the mountain, following a zig-zag path but again slightly hampered by much slower moving members of the team. I suggested we split up and allow those of us that could move faster to continue. It was agreed and a small group of three or four of us headed up at a quicker pace, agreeing that 11:00am would be the turn around time as lunch was mid-day and it would take an hour to get back to the Lodge again. We reached a convenient shoulder at 4,300m at exactly 11:00am and decided that would do. The views from there were quite amazing, especially of our route out tomorrow. The summit didn't seem too far away, although it was still almost 1,000m higher and I was keen to continue, but eventually conceded that it would remain unclimbed today. Also, realistically, it would take another two hours, by which it would be early afternoon and the clouds being what they were, would probably roll in by then and we were unprepared for such conditions.

Back at the Lodge, we had Mo-Mos and rice for lunch. My Solar charger was up to just over 80% which pleased me. I doubted it would get much higher as the sun was already disappearing behind the clouds.In the afternoon I took a walk up the valley behind the village, past the new school, following the river. There was no obvious path so I meandered up looking for one without success. At one point I spotted a large overhanging rock with a small wall so went to investigate but it came to nothing. Back down and along the river I decided it wasn't worth carrying on, but spotted a stream descending the mountain and some sort of man-made structure about 2/3 height. There must be a path there I concluded so headed up. It was a stiff climb up the stream on dubious rock but I eventually arrived at the structure. There was indeed a path but it led downhill so I continued up the stream bed on even more dubious rock and gravel until topping out onto a higher path which led to the Monastery.

I went up into the courtyard and sat in the sun, lost in my thoughts and thankful of the solitude, well, apart from two workmen digging up the courtyard! A young lad came over to talk to me. It turned out he was the Chef for the Monastery and on enquiring I discovered they eat pretty much the same as we've been having; Dhal Bat, Mo-Mos etc. Exchanging lives was interesting, I discovered he was 23 years old, had two children, was a Christian and lived in a village on the other side of Lukla. I did ask his name but it was far too complicated to remember. He seemed impressed with my Cross and Buddhist necklace.

Walking back down I stopped to briefly chat with some young Monks who were very friendly and obviously quite happy with their lives at Thame. They were like any other 8-10 year old boys; full of fun and mischief. On the way down, I detoured to the huge Stupa on the other side of the ridge which contained the biggest prayer wheel I have seen so far.

About 10 minutes later I was back at the lodge and amused myself by having a wash and trying to sort the disaster that was my room. I succeeded in the former but failed in the latter so gave up and went for tea. My solar charger had reached 90%. I'm still okay for my watch and phone and the camera battery still shows full and I have a fully charged spare so no worries.