Looking down onto Namche Bazaar with the clouds swirling round as we headed out towards Tengboche

After the initial steep climb out of the village the track was fairly level for the next couple of miles

The high mountains at the head of the valley were still shrouded in cloud

However, as we got closer to the chorten the cloud started to clear to give the odd glimpse of snow, ice and rocks

It wasn't that much clearer looking back down the valley either!

Another hazy view of Lhotse, still no sign of Everest though

The view along the valley as we left the chorten and headed off

Is this Everest????

The clouds frustrated us all morning by just giving the briefest of views of the snowy peaks

The cloud was starting to rise up the valley behind us, looked like we were going to lose the views altogether

Our morning coffee stop at Kyangjuma

Starting the long descent to cross the river in the valley below. You can just make out the path we climbed to reach Tengboche on the hill at the other side of the river, and it was as steep as it looks!

The bridge across the river at Phunki Tenga, the lowest point north of Namche Bazaar

The thundering waters of the Dudh Koshi river, to give you some sense of scale, those boulders in the river were about the size of a car!

Starting the long climb up to the monastery at Tengboche

As we climbed the cloud started to descend and the rain soon followed

Looking back down the valley ....

Tengboche Monastery

The very colourful main entrance gate to the monastery

The monks deep in meditation

The whole of the room that we were in was covered in these stunning paintings

Butter lamps ....

The weather was still miserable when we left the temple

It did clear later in the evening though to give this amazing view of the mountains towering over the lodge