I'm alive! We're all alive!

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Just thought I'd let you all know that I'm alive, we're all alive, back in Namche having made it to Everest base camp and up Kala Pattar. And we're OK.

That is of course to re-define what being 'ok' actually is....

Lips - cracked, chapped and have tendency to bleed when we smile suddenly.

Hair - don't ask, not allowed out.

Nose - flaking off in pieces

Skin - chapped and sore from constant nose blowing

hands - have been mysteriously swapped with those if a 90 year old almost overnight...

General health - streaming cold and hacking cough which can render me speechless for up to 20 minutes afterwards. (Insert your own jokes here). The 'khumbu coough' is an endearing little idiosyncrasy of the region and caused by cold dry air and tonds of dirt and dust.

Clothes - don't ask

Gerenal physique - frighteningly fit and you can now play the glockenspiel (if you were so moved and in the unlikely event that I were to let you) on my ribs which of course makes up for all!


So back in Namche now - just to whet your appetite my account of the days to come includes Daley Thompson being jealous of Phil, nudity on Kala Pattar, the ex-President Jimmy Carter and full details of the hardest, toughest, coldest thing I have ever done...

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