18th April - Dingboche

Well, we came over the Cho La pass in beautiful weather to stunning views all round. The glacier was a bit tricky for the porters but with extra poles and Chris (one of the team) cutting a few steps and a bit of load-slidding we all managed to get safely over to drop back into the Khumbu valley by the afternoon. It was bizzare to be back on the main trail with it's many, many trekkers. We were actually going in the opposite direction to most of them as they headed to basecamp as the culmination of their trek; we will be camping below another high pass and doing a little peak called Pokalde on the way for extra acclimatization. Today is a lovely rest day, spent here in the internet cafe and in the bakery for some rather lovely cakes to make a nice change from the predominantly egg-based diet that we have been enjoying up to now. And then there's the yak burgers at the lodge.......mmmmmmm. Our last lodge; it's all tent's from tomorrow on in.

13 April - Tagnag

Up on Nobby's view yesterday, on a day walk from Gokyo. Good acclimatiozation at 5500m, but unfortunately no views. On a clear day these are spectacular, but not for us!
This morning we dropped slightly in a 'rest' day; over the huge glacier covered in rocks looking more like apocalyptical carnage than the pristine white ice of the glaciers higher up.

12 April - Gokyo

We camped at the lake last night on the way to Renjo La. A lovely frozen lake with a soft coarse sand beach.
The cook tent is astonishing, everything on the ground, half the kerosene stoves not working, and yet the most delicious food being produced.
The following morning a leisurely start, with around 500m of ascent up to the pass with stunning views of both valleys, but Everest itself in cloud.
The pass is at around 5300m - the same as Basecamp. Our idea is to be well acclimatized by the time we get to BC rather than (as other groups tend to do) spend 9 or 10 days getting to BC, then sit there feeling grim for a few days before maybe descending to do a further small peak.
We should arrive at BC good to go straight up to camp 1 and sleep there, and maybe even touch camp 2.

12 April - Gokyo

We camped at the lake last night on the way to Renjo La. A lovely frozen lake with a soft coarse sand beach.
The cook tent is astonishing, everything on the ground, half the kerosene stoves not working, and yet the most delicious food being produced.
The following morning a leisurely start, with around 500m of ascent up to the pass with stunning views of both valleys, but Everest itself in cloud.
The pass is at around 5300m - the same as Basecamp. Our idea is to be well acclimatized by the time we get to BC rather than (as other groups tend to do) spend 9 or 10 days getting to BC, then sit there feeling grim for a few days before maybe descending to do a further small peak.
We should arrive at BC good to go straight up to camp 1 and sleep there, and maybe even touch camp 2.

10 April - Arya

We continued up the side valley to a tiny place called Arya. The valley has become drier and bleaker as as we progressed. It has it’s own harsh beauty, with dry stone walls and tiny stone-built shacks, and the dusty earth peppered with rocks and th odd mani stone. We seem to be the only trekkers in the valley – people only come to go over the Renjo La pass like us, and they are few, hence the accommodation becoming more and more basic. We’ll be in tents tomorrow. Yesterday we wandered further up the valley towards the Cho la pass into Tibet as a bit of acclimatization. This is well off the beaten track as it is past the turn-off for the renjo La, and the only company we had were yaks nibbling at the thin short vegetation and a solitary trader making his way back down from Tibet, heavy load on his back, and in his hand dangling a spool; spinning wool as he walked. Today we have another aclimatization day, and tomorrow we will be moving up to camp just below the Renjo La pass to give us a good slieeping altitude gain, befor e going over the pass the next day and dropping down into Gokyo with it’s lakes and teahouses.

7th April; - Rest Day at Thame

This morning we walked up to the monastery above Thame where we’d arranged to have an expedition puja ceremony (blessing) by the local monks. The room in which it took place was a riot of colour; painted cieling, painted walls, hangings, effigies of buddha, photographs of important monks, flowers, candles.......The whole of the wall behind the monks was made up of little painted boxes, each containing an incantation. Presumably the appropriate one was chosen for our trip, and as we sat round on the floor, four monks in their burgundy robes, one topped off by a matching puffa jacket, began to chant. After a while of this chanting, one of those wonderfully evocative horns was blown, and the instruments were introduced; a pair of carved cymbals with semi-hemispherical middle sections, played horizontally, and a large, brightly-painted circular double-skinned drum that hung from the cieling producing a deep, beautifal cadenced sound. The result s were amazing; kind of tuneful, yet atonal, slightly soporific rhythmic and soothing all in one. This continued for about half an our, so I guess we got well & truely blessed, then the head monk (who looked well-hard, a bit like Bullet Proof Monk in th movie), blessed the kharta (scarves) we’d previously been given, along with, in my case, a lucky charm I’d been given by a friend before I left. That afternoon we went along to a small village nearby where a local artist lived in pretty basic style. He’d been caught out on a pass trading with Tibet and had been trapped in a snow-hole for four days wrapped only on the blankets he’d come to trade. He emerged with terrible frost-bite in his hands and feet. After a year in hospital he is left with stumps for all 4, but he’s learned to paint the most beautiful pictures; scenes of the valley and buddhist symbols. Tomorrow, we will be moving upwards again.......

5th-6th April - To Thame

6^th April – to Thame

We’ve been here less than a week and it already feels like ages. The routine of early wake-up, followed by packing the bags so the porters can get off with them early, breakfast, walk, tea, walk, eat, walk, eat, sleep is becoming familiar again.

Later we will be camping, but for the next few days we will be staying in the ubiquitous tea-houses; stone-built lodges that are dotted along the trails with imaginative names like ‘Everest View, ‘Valley View’ & ‘Sunshine Lodge’.

We left the main Khumbu valley yesterday, and headed up the thame Valley. The usual bustle of yaks with their drivers & porters carrying unfeasibly large loads of anything from bottled gas to eggs, chickens, pringles or coke in wicker baskets stacked high above their heads has fallen away and we’re in a much less well-trodden valley with more in the way of agriculture, and even a yak nursery.

It seems to be potato planting season, and the little walled fields are now all turned brown earth. We’ve seen a family of 4 witha team of 2 yaks ploughing, 2 potato-droppers and a stamper-inner. These are the lucky ones; we’ve also seen lone, bent old women in their traditional skirts creeping round their suddenly enormous-looking plots, bending and reaching slowly, one potato at a time to fill it.

The weather has fallen into apattern of glorious sunshine in the mornings , clouding over in the afternoons with usually a little snow; and cold! Also dry, despite the frequent rain & snow. I’m told that here the snowfall doesn’t melt, but simply sublimatres into the thirsty air and dissappears in a matter of hours.