Mt. Everest

After a night at Old Tingri it was time to set off to Mt. Everest! For my part, this was one of the highlights of the journey. At least it was supposed to be.

We set off early in the morning, well prepared for the 160 km up to Base Camp. The road was steep and windy as we had to drive over another high-pass which was about 5200 meters above sealevel. Of course we broke down a couple of times on the way. We had lunch in a local village along the way, and at about 4 pm we reached the Rongbuk Monastery, which is the highest one in the world, located just 8 km from Base Camp. By that time it had started snowing, so I almost felt at home! We took a tour around the monastery before we set off to the final destination, the foot of Mount Everest.

There are two basecamps, one at 5200 meters and one at 5300. The one at 5300 is the one the climbers use, while the one at 5200 is the one the tourists use. It was so cloudy we couldn't even see Everest... And as it turned out, it didn't clear, so we never actually got to see it. Bummer! I'm really sad about that. And when there was a chance we could se it in the distance when we were driving somewhere it was always covered in clouds.

Anyways, the camp was nice, we stayed in "hotels" which were big canvas-tents with an oven in the middle and 5 beds around the side of the room. They functioned as sofas aswell, so when we arrived we were sat down and given tea. I shared a tent with Renate, the other Norwegian, Maeve, Matt and Jack. We just sat around and played cards until it was bedtime. The lady running the hotel was very nice, although she hardly spoke any English, and she even tucked us in when we were all snuggled up!

I didn't sleep very well, the altitude really kicks in when you're so high up, so it felt like I slept for an hour and was awake for an hour and I woke up in the morning with a massive headache. It got better after some food and water though. We had a tiny hope that the weather had cleared but it had snowed about 5 cm during the night and it was still snowing. So we gave up hope of seeing Everest, and we didn't even get to go to the other basecamp, because of the weather. There was a chance that we had to stay longer if it didn't stop snowing, but luckily a jeep managed to get over the high-pass, so we set off at about 1 pm. We broke down about 3 times along the way, but made it at last. One time it looked really bad, and we were afraid we might have to camp on the cold mountainside. But once over the high-pass it cleared up and we made it to Baipa where we spent the night, and next day we drove to Shigatze where we are at the moment.

Dragomans motto is "Not your everyday journey" and I can certainly say I agree so far! I'm really sad that we didn't get to see Everest, but I guess that's one of the things you can't do anything about. Better luck next time!!

By the way, I can't access the blog here in China so I'm updating it via my e-mail. Sorry to say I can't post any photos untill I get home, or read any comments, but don't let that stop you!