Kathmandu, 3rd November 2022

On day 5 of the trek we walked down to Melamchigoan (2500 metres) from our highest point at Therapati (3700 metres).  We say "walked" but it was stone stairs all the way through pine forest with some massive ancient trees, and as we descended further, through a tangle of Rhododendron trees.  Our assistant guide, Lakpa, who is a native of the Helambu region, told us about many sacred Buddhist sites associated with Padma Sambava who brought Buddhism from India to Tibet and Nepal.  We stayed at a tea house in Melamchigoan owned by Lakpa's relatives (he seemed to have an extended family throughout Helambu) and even our main guide, Santos, didn't understand the local language they were speaking.  As you can imagine, three and a half hours of coming down steep stairs left Sue with aching muscles and Santos applied cold spray and massaged them.  After lunch, Sue had a welcome hot shower (a rare occurrence in the mountains), whilst Paul, Santos, Lakpa and Bipin (our porter) walked up to a small cave gompa (monastery) which Padma Sambava used for meditation.  Paul, Santos and Lakpa spent some time meditating here (see one of the photos below).  
The next day we continued descending down to a river, crossed a suspension bridge, and then climbed up the other side to Tarke Gyang.  Due to a lack of time and energy the final day we took a jeep down to a small town where we picked up our transport back to Kathmandu.