Well the stop at ‘The Green Valley Lodge’ will be one I unfortunately will not forget. It was appalling; by far the worst teahouse I had encountered on the entire trip. There was only one long drop toilet catering for over a hundred guests. It was so bad no one used it and opted to finding a convenient rock to do their business behind. There was soiled toilet paper scattered everywhere, creating a minefield of filth.
Our dorm was next to the kitchen where the grain sacks were stored, resulting in the staff coming in and out constantly, thus no privacy. However this was nothing compared to the nighttime. Rats sneaked in under the cover of darkness to feast on the grain. I woke to them scurrying over the top of our sleeping bags to get to the food. It was worse for Irish Neil as he was right next to them!
None of us wanted to spend a second longer than necessary at the place and couldn’t wait to get walking. At 0800hrs we were running out the doors. I disregarded my steady slow pace I had employed to avoid altitude sickness. I just wanted to put as much distance as possible between me and ‘The Green Valley Lodge’.
It was an easy day on the road with the terrain remaining relatively flat. It was very lunar like and our companion for the day was Arakam Tse towering at 6423m. We joined the main trail to Everest and by midday we arrived at Lobuche (4910m), our end point for the day.
The teahouse was a 1000 times better, it even had proper flushing en-suite toilets! This was the Ritz! We spent the rest of the day relaxing either in the common room or out on a terrace basking in the sun. Ron had decided to do some washing and hung his clothing out to dry.
However, embarrassingly for him, when he went to retrieve them, they had frozen stiff like a board. The onlooking Sherpas sitting in the sun were laughing at him, much to his chagrin. For this, he was awarded the infamous jacket!
There is only two more days left before we would begin our descent back down the Khumbu Valley to Lukla. I was saddened by this, as I had been having the time of my life and the end was beginning to crest the horizon. The next day we would reach Everest Base Camp, a bittersweet feeling that I’d be soon reaching the finish line.
Stu's Camino 