Everest Base Camp

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Well today is day one of our Everest Base Camp trek & already I'm getting increasingly nervous. The group meeting was at 1pm & our guide Ashok speaks english well, is very experienced & seems hopeful of getting each member of our group to Base Camp & back. A friend of mine is also a trekking tour leader & informed Sam & I at dinner the other night that only sixty percent of his last group made it up, however Ashok says his success rate is around eighty to ninety percent, so we are staying positive. We have a full group of twelve travellers, consisting of two couples and eight singles (five males & three females). Sam is happy with the five blokes, as our last tour only had two male travellers (both of whom were attached), however I'm not as fussed. If anything, I'd prefer all women, or really ugly men because after two weeks of trekking, I'm not gonna feel or smell real great & neither will they! The countries represented in our group are Australia, England, USA, Canada, Ukraine, Belaruse & South Africa, so it's a little more of a multicultural mix than the Delhi to Kathmandu trip was. We were all given t-shirts & caps, which should look great in our group photo at Base Camp. Sam & I had already considered having tops made for the occasion in Kathmandu, but I guess it's a pretty standard thing, so Intrepid did it for us bless 'em.

The rest of the day was spent catching up on my blog, or at least trying to. I managed to go through a bunch of photos & start naming them & have almost typed what journal I've written thus far, so it finally feels like I am getting somewhere. We put washing in, fearing that it wouldn't be dry due to the rainy weather in Kathmandu, but although delayed, it was ready for collection after dinner. There was a slight moment of panic when we arrived at the shop, as the doors were closed & the shutters drawn, but that was just because they didn't want partygoers from the festival outside coming in making noise. A forceful shove & the doors opened right up - both Sam & I breathed a heavy sigh of relief; we would have been up shit creek without any clothes for Base Camp if they hadn't come through with the goods.

Our new group (minus two latecomers) met for dinner in Thamel. I had a delicious home made spinach pasta with chicken in a creamy tomato based sauce, washed down with a Carlsberg beer; not bad for my 'last supper'! Afterwards we finished packing; both Sam & I are most proud that we are only taking one backpack betwen us. We didn't want to be the ones taking the most luggage for the each, but decided to pack 'ultra light' when told there was one porter for every three clients and think we have less than ten kilos between us.

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