After revisiting our trek to Mount Everest Base camp through videos, we have come to the end. The day that we arrive at our destination. From the spectacular views of the Khumbu Ice Fall and the South Cole to the bonding with our guide Deep and Porter Sher, it was an amazing day.
We have been re-visiting our time at Everest Base Camp lately as we slowly post our videos from our trip to Asia. It has been amazing watching the footage and it reminded me just how stunning the Himalayas are. Every day was a dream. Sure at times it was tiring and we didn’t feel well at others, but as I wrote in a previous blog post about our EBC Trek, You feel as if you can touch heaven here in the Khumbu Region. The Views compare to nothing I have ever seen on earth and re-living the experience simply makes me want to return to tackle the Annapurna Circuit!
Namche Bazaar to Tengboche on the EBC trek is an exciting day. It is the first time you catch a glimpse of Mount Everest. After spending a day acclimating at Namche Bazaar, it is time to work up to a higher elevation. Surrounded by astounding panoramas of the Himalayas the day is exciting and exhausting at the same time.
Day two of our Everest Base Camp Trek was the longest day of our climb. It involved a 6 hour hike from Pakding to Namche Bazaar. We covered 10 km of mountainous terrain with a final elevation gain of 800 metres. The second day is a lot of fun though because you cross several suspension bridges, you get to challenge yourself by trekking up some steep mountains and you see a lot of Yaks and donkeys on the trails taking supplies from Lukla to Namche Bazaar.
Well, it’s about time we started editing video from our travels in Asia. We were visiting our friends Bran and Dave this past weekend and they suggested that we start putting up more video on our blog and we couldn’t agree more. While we were on our Princess Cruise, we chatted with Rick Griffin from Midlife Road Trip and he made a very good point. In general people browse the internet looking for video first, photography second and words last. As a Blogger, I tend to browse the internet and read words first. As a photographer, Dave enjoys looking at photographs first. And as ex film business employees, we both used to watch videos first and foremost.
It always amazes me how strong the mind can be. We stayed focused and made it to Base Camp with big smiles and lots of energy. It was a little while after coming back down to Kala Pathar to rest that things fell apart.I made a big mistake trekking before my respiratory infection cleared up. Suddenly my head started pounding as I sat by the Yak Dung Stove. After I sat up and blew my nose, large clots of blood kept coming out.Dave couldn’t help me too much because he was dealing with constant trips to the toilet and waves of nausea.
This is the big day. Today we are going to Base Camp after lunch, but we have one final push to Gorepshep. How Are We Feeling at 5000 meters? I have been suffering from a cold since India and it seems to be intensifying with the increase in altitude. Every morning my cough is worse and my nose is stuffed up to the point of being unbearable. Dave has suffered his first symptoms of altitude sickness.
People were starting to feel a bit ill this morning and if we would have brought our Lonely Planet trekking book (which we forgot in Kathmandu and kicked ourselves about it everyday) we would have realized that we should have taken an extra day to acclimate inDingboche . Lucky for us, we felt strong. But other groups were complaining of headaches and dizziness that morning. Everyone pushed through though and we didn’t think anything of it. We didn’t question our guide, we followed him blindly and were happy to see that we were on the same schedule as our new friends.
It is Freezing! Morning came too quickly today at Tengboche. We had our first fitful nights sleep on our Mount Everest Base Camp Adventure. The temperature easily dipped down to -10 and our plywood walls didn’t offer a lot of comfort. For some reason neither of us can make it through the night without a trip or two to the toilet when we are at altitude. We realized that we should have paid the 250 Rupees for a hot shower at Namche Bazaar on day 3 because now the weather is so cold there is no way we can face a bucket bath in a freezing shed. Looks like it is going to be a new record for Dave and I. 9 Days without a shower.
Ah the acclimatization day. Most high altitude treks have at least one and the Everest Base Camp trek is no exception. I don’t know of many acclimatization days that offer such a spectacular view as this day on the Everest Trek. Our hike starts at 8:30 am and we are going up to the Everest View point from Namche Bazar. We are about to see Mount Everest for the first time. It is not as easy of a day as we thought it would be. Just walking through town takes your breath away.
It is part way through our Everest Base Camp Trek and we are feeling good! The Himalaya’s are incredibly beautiful as we are surrounded by astounding panoramic views of the highest peaks in the world. Today, snapshot Sunday is all about us! We’re loving every minute of our time in Everest Region.
In Six Days we will be in India. While it is drawing closer with every minute, it doesn’t even feel like in less than we week we will be on the other side of the world. We may be starting in India, but we have a lot of countries on our itinerary and we can’t wait to visit all of these destinations. So we want to share with all of you the adventures that we are most looking forward to in our upcoming travels. Will Dave be wrestling in Mongolia or will we find ourselves taking part in a Pilgrimage…Most Likely. We just can’t wait to get this adventure started!
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