Trekking back down and my adventure ends in Kathmandu

It's May 8 and we leave Everest Base Camp today for a long trek back down to Lukla.

 We retrace our steps, having breakfast in Gorak Shep...

 Here's a look at the menu...

We passed by the Everest Memorial.

Headed to Pheriche, where we spend the night.  Joining us "Fab 5" are members of Ian Taylor's team, who chose not to go higher on their hike to Island Peak.

Just outside of Pheriche, there was enough snow so our Sherpa built a snowman with a little help from our team.

And this is the last picture that I took until we reached Namche as I left the camera (my phone) in the duffel bag for a day, which the yaks carried.

Back in Namche I retrieved my phone.  The yaks carried our duffel bags protected in the orange waterproof bags on their backs.

Namche looked a bit different with sunshine.

We stayed overnight in Namche and then the next day headed out on the final leg of the trek to Lukla.

 We cross over the suspension bridges again.

 Look closely at this photo to see the 2 suspension bridges crossing the river.

 We saw packers along the way with heavy loads containing supplies for the tea houses.

We passed by the Sacred Mani Stones of Buddhists.  There is a particular six-syllable Sanskrit mantra or hymn that's very sacred among Buddhist. It's recited as om mani padme hum, which loosely translates to "Behold!  We saw several of these along the trek.

 At last we reach the end of the Everest Base Camp Trail.

 And we all deserve a brew or 2 as we overnight in Lukla.  Planes returning to Kathmandu only fly in the morning.

 The next morning we are at the airport ready to fly back to Kathmandu.

Here's a video of a plane coming in....at the end you will see the planes ready to leave as soon as this  plane rounds the corner from the runway, which is only 500 meters long.  From touchdown to another take off is about 6 minutes.  They fly back and forth to Kathmandu from 6:15 - 11:00 each morning.

On the plane ready for take off.

 And off we go...

We arrived safely back to Kathmandu.

 I stayed there until it was time to take the long international flight back home.  On the return I flew from Kathmandu to Abu Dabi to Chicago and then finally Denver, where Joyce met me at the airport on May 14.

As I look back on this amazing journey, many factors had to come into play to make this dream of mine come true:  time, $$$$, training, age, family support.  Dealing with each factor was like a countdown to a space shuttle launch.  My liftoff began on April 23 and I felt like I was headed to the moon!  Our "Sleeping at Base Camp" team was great; I now consider them my friends and will always reflect back on the wonderful memories I made with them all.

The Ian Taylor Trekking company staff put together this fantastic journey to enable my dream to come true.  I highly recommend this company if you are interested in this trek or any of the many others offered.  

An experience like this will change you forever!

Our next AngellTravels will be to England for a few days and then on a cruise to the Norwegian fjords during the midnight sun...so stay tuned!