We woke up at sunrise as the sun warmed our tent, it was 20 degrees last night. We packed our bags getting ready to leave Base Camp and had breakfast at 8am. It was the last time the team would be together. We took lots of photos before saying farewell. Panuru and the other Sherpas have been such a great support throughout our journey, we could not have done this without them. The porters who carried our bags all the way to Base Camp are amazingly strong to be able to carry the entire load from their forehead and always smiling no matter how tired they are feeling. Panuru has to stay at Base Camp to help pack up all the tents and gear, Phor Temba will be our Sherpa who will guide Bob and I down to Pheriche. The others will be going with Tashi who will guide them up Mt Lobuche. We started down the mountain to begin our journey home, it was a beautiful sunny day with clear blue skies. As we headed back down we had the same magnificent views of the towering snow capped mountains……..fantastically corniced with overhanging ridges of ice. We reached Gorak Shep where we stopped for some ginger tea before continuing on down to Lobuche. Not only were we going DOWN the trail but we were also losing elevation and gaining more oxygen.
We arrived at Lobuche before the guys left to climb to the advanced base camp of Mt Lobuche, we said goodbye and good luck on their summit attempt. Bob and I spent the afternoon relaxing in the tea house and talking to all the hikers and climbers from all over the world.