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Published: February 1st 2008
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Everest Base Camp - Nov 6th - 18th
On our 2nd day in Katmandu we met our guideand the rest of our trekking group. We were expecting there to be about 10 people but it was just us and another couple from Melbourne, Gary and Rachel. After speaking to them for just 5 minutes we were worried about spending the next 14 days with them. We did try, but first impressions in this case were correct ! On the plus side our guide Binud was really sweet as were the porters.
Early the next morning we headed to Katmandu airport to catch the flight to Lukla to begin our trek. The flight was only 50 minutes, but whilst in the air it was decided by the pilot that the weather was too bad to land and we ended up landing 10 minutes away using a scary 'partime' airport which had a gravel runway and seemed to be just cut into the mountains !
Afrter about 2 hours the fog had cleared and we set off again for Lukla. Take off was scary as at the end of the runway was just a sheer drop. To make things worse
the plane was of the small propeller variety and run by that popular company 'Yeti Airlines'
We arrived in Lukla at about 1pm and had lunch followed by a 4 hour walk to our first hostel in Phakding were we spent our first night at 2600 metres. That night was horrendous as my 'Varanasi food poisoning' returned and i spent all night virtually in the bathroom.
It became obvious on day one just how many Yaks there were on the route doing a lot of hard work ! With everything ( and i mean everything ! ) being carried for days up to the higher villages. You had to be quick in places to move the the high side of the path before you got trampled on or knocked off the cliff by the Yaks.
On day 2 the plan was to walk to Namche Bazaar. I was still in a lot of pain and didn't realise at the time that this was to be one of our hardest days during the trek. We walked for 8 hours with a 1 hour lunch break in between and went from 2600metres to 3400metres. Luckily during lunch a doctor
was sitting at the next table, he diagnosed my symptons as Giardia ( a parasite, nice ). It was embarrassing discussing my symptoms with what felt like everyman and his dog, but at the time i didn't care as i was in too much pain !
Luckily day 3 was a rest day to acclimatize to the altitude, I spent it in bed taking antibiotics whilst Cabbie and the others ( annoyingly ! ) walked to see the sunrise over Mount Everest at the first main viewing spot ( His smug picture is on here for you to see, sour grapes i know ! ). After our rest day i felt a lot better and as a treat Cabbie bought me a Mars Bar and a toilet roll. How romantic !
Day 4 took us to Khumjung. We stopped to have a drink at the 5 star Mount Everest View Hotel, the tea and the views were superb. We then headed to our rather less glamourous hostel ! At our highest point that day we reached 4000metres but slept at 3700.
Tenboche was our next destination on day 5. By this time we were starting to really
High bridge
I was never overly confident with the Nepali engineering ! feel the altitude, which made every step harder. You wouldn't have known this looking at the Sherpas, who made it look easy running up and down the mountains carrying double their body weight ! The food along the way wasn't great and every menu was looking very familiar, a mixture of soups, noodles, spring rolls and bad attempts at pasta dishes ! Most days we would have loved a beer but our guide had advised us not to because this would have made the altitude even harder to take, how annoying !
On day 6 we made our way to Dingboche at 4400metres were we had another rest day to look forward to. By this time it was getting really cold at night. This was Cabbie's justification for not showering for 12 days ! I was slightly braver and had one shower. Mingers i know, but it was really cold as were the outdoor showers. On average we would walk for between 5 and 8 hours per day, the scenary was always amazing. We would normally arrive at the hostels between 2 and 5pm and then eat alot and play cards, it was funny teaching the sherpas to play
using our guide as our interpreter.
We had a tough day ahead of us on day 8, going from 4400 to 5000 at Lobuche. After breakfast we had been walking for 4 hours when disaster struck, Rachel got sudden altitude sickness and was stuggling to breathe. Binud gave her oxygen, but it was decided that she needed to descend quickly to improve her condition. Gary and Binud took it in turns to carry Rachel down a very steep mountain side ( from approx 4700 to 4300metres ). We followed carryingthe bags and eguipment. We reached the nearest village of Pheriche with Rachel by this time ahead of us on a donkey. When we reached the hostel her condition had improved, which was good to see. Binud gave us the option of to continue after lunch, by this time it was 1pm already, to get back on track to reach Base Camp the next morning we would have had to walk for another 8 hours to reach Lobuche. We were already very tired after the 4 hours we had already done that morning and then the 2 hours needed to help Rachel. We decided that we wouldn't be able to
do it, so due to the tight schedule this meant that we wouldn't be able to reach Everest Base Camp. We were absolutely gutted that we wouldn't be able to do it, the scenery along the way though had been amazing and although sometimes very hard work, we had loved every minute.
After staying overnight in the very creepy hostel in Pheriche, we started our descent which took us 3 days via again Namche Bazaar and Phakding. On our last night we stayed in Lukla, we had one last meal with Binud and the porters who more than deserved the tip we gave each of them. We found a nice bar and enjoyed our first beers in almost 2 weeks, a long time when travelling ! The next morning we flew back to Katmandu. Lukla airports runway has tarmac but from the picture you can see takeoff was another scary experience !
On the plus side we arrived back earlier than planned and could go white water rafting ! I think Cabbie was also secretly pleased to return early as he was desperate to find out the latest Everton results, the loser !
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