Base Camp, Baby! (Part 2)

Day 4: Rest day in Namche Bazaar

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Wet wipes used: 65

Somehow on the journey to Namche I managed to contract a full blown cold and a hacking cough which is pretty awesome for one when one is already struggling to breathe in the thin mountain air. I therefore opted out of the 4 or so hour hike to the Everest View Hotel planned for our REST DAY and instead went for a hike with one of the guides and 2 others in the group who were also not feeling hundreds, on a shorter hike. We went up about 200m above Namche in the name of acclimatisation, took a few snaps and then I went into Namche to have a look around. On the weekend they hold a market in the village and people come from all around to sell their wares – some from as far off as Tibet. Unfortunately since we were there during the week everything was pretty quiet and shut up.

While staying in Namche, instead of sleeping in the tents we were in one of the tea houses that World Expeditions uses when they bring groups to the town. We were all dreaming about hot showers when we arrived but unfortunately the pipes had frozen and so there was no hot water. Sad faces all round. But I was able to semi wash one or two items of clothing which I then lay on the rocks in the sun like a serious local.

After my exercise for the day I still wasn’t feeling well and had developed a headache and was experiencing some serious waves of nausea, so I thought it best after speaking to Harka to start hitting the Diamox.

Even though I wasn’t feeling on top of the world the views from our tea house were crazy and overwhelming and totally made me feel better.

Wish you were here.

Day 5: Namche Bazaar -> Tengboche Monastery -> Deboche

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Wet wipes used: 476

After the usual morning tea, ‘washy washy’, pack-up and breakfast we headed towards the Tengboche Monastery on a lovely flat-ish road out of town. Was bliss until after lunch at a tea house near the Dudh Kosi (Milk River), when we began the climb to the monastery. I can’t speak for the others but I was rather happy when we arrived, as I was in serious need of a rest.

At the monastery, we were allowed to stand and watch the monks engaged in their afternoon prayer ritual. This pretty much just involved lots of chanting and drinking what looked like tea. The ceremony was a privilege to witness, and it was all really beautiful and ornate inside, but after about 15 minutes I had lost all feeling in my feet (we had to take off our boots to be allowed inside) and all I could think about was putting my poor feet IN a fire to warm them up.

Before the chanting started.

From the Monastery we headed downhill about 150m to our camp at Deboche.

Day 6: Deboche -> Dingboche

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Wet wipes used: 3856

Poor Nix had been vomiting all through the night and was feeling rotten and understandably not ready for the 6 or so hour trek to our next stop at Dingboche. But she was a trooper and struggled her way through.   I tried to distract her with mindless chit-chat. Not sure if I actually helped or if it just made her want to push me off a cliff (there were several around; it being the Himalayas and all.) Another distraction was the awesome view of Ama Dablam on the way to the camp; a super impressive looking mountain that is a lot more distinctive than Everest and is apparently more difficult to climb since it is actually a technical climb whereas Everest isn’t.  

That night we were treated to a fire in the building that was used as the dining room - which was DOPE. We definitely started to feel the cold even more from this point on. Each night we got into a red blanket type sleeping bag liner, then our black liners which were kind of like thin sleeping bags and after that we squeezed ourselves into the mother of all sleeping bags. (Nix and I being the serious cheapskates of the bunch hadn’t thought to get our hands on a ‘thermarest’ (sp??) which the others had. They look like li-lo’s and apparently help in keeping warm because you are raised off the cold hard ground.) Anyway, as you can imagine it was a mission to get into “bed” each night and with the thin air Nix and I were left huffing and puffing like 89 year olds after the whole rigmarole of getting tucked up. Add the fact that we were scrambling around in the dark with one head torch between us. And don’t even get me started on when we had to get out in the middle of night to find the loo! But you see, the golden rules about walking at altitude are to keep well hydrated (I soon got used to our guide asking if my urine was clear J) and to take it slow. So as much as I didn’t want to have to get out of bed at night in the freezing cold, I preferred it to the idea of altitude sickness - which sounded horrid – and I made sure I drank water by the bucket load.

Day 7: Rest Day in Dingboche

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Wet wipes used: 4000

It being a rest day we didn’t carry on with the trek but stayed at the same camp site - all in the name of acclimatisation once again.  I know I have been banging on about the ‘A’ word a lot but the importance of it was pretty well hammered home while we were on the trek and so now I feel it is my duty to mention it at least 76 times a paragraph. During the trek we came across quite a few people who had tried to climb too high too fast and had to descend quickly because they were so sick.

Since Nepal is just coming out of winter in February there were fewer trekkers on the trail than there would have been during the high season but we still managed to meet a fair few of them.  Most were cool and awesome, but some can only be described as wankers. The wankers were the ones who were trying to get to Base Camp in about 12 minutes, with just a day pack and a wooden stick to guide them, judging us as they sauntered past us because we had 45 guides and 345 porters to assist us in our goal. 

Anyhooooo we climbed up out of the village and back down again before lunch and then chilled the hell out for the rest of the day, huddling together to get warm (we had not yet started to smell too bad at this stage). By now we were all pretty acquainted in the team and Nix and I had well and truly unleashed the crazy. Everyone knew exactly when one of us wasn’t well because we were quiet and meek. The rest of the time we were loud and boisterous and quite possibly slightly annoying.

Striking what could be a mountaineering pose, at the top of the ridge we climbed near Dingboche. (And that's Peter's finger in the top left hand of the photo.) 

Over it again, folks. To be continued. Again.

Peace and love and fuzzy warm beanies. X