Whay hey back on flat ground!Well I made it; Everest Base Camp and a mountain (Well more of a hill compared to the ones around me) called Kalapatther! What an amazing experience!
A very BIG thank you to all of you that sponsored my Trek, the group as a whole have so far raised over £53,000 and hopefully still rising for Dreams Come True.
I will try and give you a brief overview of my trip!
We left Kathmandu and flew to Lukla in the Himalayan mountain range (2850m) very early in the morning, crazy little airport and a very short runway. Once we landed, we were told that a plane 2 weeks before we arrived didn’t quite make the runway and all 15 people were killed! Argh.
After sorting out our Sherpa’s and porter’s we set off as Trekking virgins! The terrain was much tougher than I thought, plenty of large rocks and boulders to negotiate, not a smooth well worn path that we all hoped for! 3 hours later we arrived in Phadking (2650m yes we go down) for our 1st experience in a lodge (not bad better than we thought) Food consisted of mainly potato curry, with rice and veggies, sometime pasta, but mainly curried potatoes for the rest of the trip!
Next day was a real killer as we climbed 1000m to Namche Bazaar, a fairly large town situated on the side of a mountain, with plenty of shops and lodges. We spent 2 nights to acclimatize at 3540m, on our so called day of rest we trekked for 4 hours just to get use to the altitude!
From there we made our way to Khumjung, via you guessed it lots of up & down hills! A night here to visit the opening of the Sherpa Heritage House, then off early the next morning to Tenboche, another hard climb up to get there, but a beautiful monastery at the top!
Next stop Dingboche, where we stay for 2 nights to acclimatize again (4350m) No casualties yet. A so called day of rest involved a walk of about 4 hours to Chukhung (4700m) to see a superb ice glacier.
Getting higher now, the temperature is a bit lower than before, but the sun is always out so not freezing cold yet! Still no big coats and thermals put on. A tough day ahead as we head up to Lobuche (4950m) 1st causalities of the trek are lost to altitude sickness and 3 of our party do not carry on and head back down to Namche.
Argh no showers from here on in, so it is a bowl of water and wet wipes to wash! The terrain is getting tougher, plenty of stepping up and down and looking at your feet so as not to fall over and break your ankles. A half day trek to a very cold and windy Gorakshep (5170m) there are not many lodges here. The rest of the day was an optional climb (10 of us went) to the top of a mountain nearby called Kalapatthar (5545m) A bloody tough trip up but well worth it as great views of Everest from here albeit very windy).
Totally exhausted from that climb, but today we all trek to Base Camp (5360m) and it takes most of the day to get there and back. A largish area of ice and rocks, not very pretty and you can’t even see Everest from there but we achieved our goal. Yippee.
After a very windy night at Gorakshep with temperatures plummeting we make a speedy descent down (as the air is thicker the lower we go) via Pangboche and then back to Namche Bazaar. 1st shower for 5 days, heaven also the 1st time for some alcohol, a very well deserved beer indeed.
Final couple of days are spent whizzing back to Lukla via Phadking. A big party or as big as you can with 18 of us and the rest of the Sherpa’s and porters signals the end of a truly amazing experience!
Once again thank you and if you want to go and trek to Everest Base Camp be prepared as its bloody hard work and not a holiday! LOL
