Jiri - Gokyo - Kala pathar - EBC - Lukla

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Wow!! How cool was that!! The trekking was hard work walking up and down all those hills but the views were amazing, we were so lucky with the weather, we hardly had any cloud apart from one afternoon on the way down!!

Things didn't start to well as we were held up in a road block for 7 hours on the first day as some locals blocked the road. A driver had killed a motorcyclist and the locals accused the police of steeling 15,000usd from his body and they were shutiing the road till they got it back, all very dodgy but eventually we got through!! I think its probably still ongoing though!

The first week or so was treking at a reasonable height so we had no worries about altitude and it was warm enough for T-shirts in the day although at night it is bloody freezing!!!! The scenery is really lush and green likes how i imagine Switerzland to look not that i've ever been!! There were loads of hills to cross though so we spent 1 day walkng up and the next day down again, the walking is quite rocky so not good for people with bad knees!! As we gradually got higher and closer to the Himalayas more snow peaks came into view!

Our guide and porter were really amazing. The don't just walk you along and carry your bag etc. Once you are in the tea house they bring you food and drink and make sure you arent suffering as well as sneaking you an extra blanket and beating you at cards!!

The second and third week were at a much higher altitude and we were really starting to move at the speed of a slow slug!! It really is amazing to feel so breathless just from walking to the toilet!! The mountains just unfold around you though and everywhere you look is a postcard! We visited a porters hospital at 4400m and they measured our oxygen sats to raise some funds at 87%, no wonder we could hardly breathe!! Another portion of Dhal bhat to keep us going!!

There are 2 'hills' to climb up to give you great views of Everest, the first at Gokyo 5300m and the second at Kala Pathar 5600m. We made it up both although KP nearly killed us. The guide physically pulled me up the last 15metres as i refused to go any further, he was like 'come on you're doing it girl!!!' There was no cloud and we saw the best views!! These 2 viewing spots are connected by the Chola pass which is an icy scree slope you walk up and then walk across a massive sheet of slippy ice. It was a really hard 8 hour walk but we made it!!

The next day we walked to base camp but i was feeling very sick and hadnt slept or eaten so we had to get down....oh the air seems so oxygen rich at 4900m on the way down.

We also walked down via Tengboche and visited the worlds highest monastery. We saw loads of wild deer and pheasants but not the snow leopard or red pandas!!

Once in Lukla we took the famous plane down to Kathmandu with a bit of circling mid flight to wait for the clouds to clear, not scary honest!!

Arrgh, sea level air!!!!! What an amazing experience!!!

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