Day Eleven
Spent a very snug night with hot water bottles tucked in beside me. Fell asleep to the sounds of yak bells tinkling as yaks meandered across the meadow, grazing. Got up about 6am for a loo stop and found myself surrounded by mountains! The clouds had lifted and mountains shone all around. Ama Dablam is looming behind us. We really and truly are at its base! More yak bells this morning as the whole herd began to move, and lots of birdcalls - Nima said they were Tibetan snowcocks. A huge flock of them wheeling overhead.
All the tents were covered in a thin layer of frost and the washie water outside the toilet tent was frozen. Breakfast was porridge, toast and coffee. We'll soon be off for Dingboche - camp is being struck as I write.
4pm. Well that turned out to be a tougher walk than first expected. The first part of the walk was OK. Steadily downhill and along the Imje Khola, with quite a slog through the rhododendrons and streams. Lots of rockhopping, which was OK until I had Zoe and Glenn on my heels - made me feel pressured and hurried. Lunch was in a meadow beside the river. Unfortunately it was really windy and cold. Soup and french toast for lunch.
Afterwards it was uphill again. Once more slogging through the shrubbery - very hard work. Mandal seemed to be having trouble finding the trail and George started complaining why didn't we go down and follow the river. So Nima led some people down, Mandal came back for Toni, Jack and me and we joined Richard, Zoe, David and Glenn, going upward through the scrub. Then those four decided to go downhill and join Nima, Carmel, Colin, George and the other Sherpas. Nima called Mandal down and they had a mid-slope conference. Meanwhile, Kanccha insisted it was better to stay up and keep going because if we went down, we'd have to come back up to get the bridge later anyway. So, Toni, Jack and I followed Kanccha and eventually he found a beaten trail and everything got relatively easier from there.
Still several sessions of rockhopping and stream crossing, but more enjoyable. One scary section where we had to cross loose gravel and rocks - a landslip that went all the way down to the river. But we all made it safely across! During one stream crossing, my foot slipped and I fell sideways before catching myself - sharp pain across my ribs, but as it soon faded I thought nothing of it.
I was very happy to cross the bridge (hand tightly held by Kanccha - he didn't want any of us falling off the logs!) as the whole 'walk' had made my leg muscles very tired. A longish, but nice, slow walk back to Dingboche for tea and bikkies before going to our rooms.
We had been right to stay up high. The rest of the group had a hellish time following the river. The footing was treacherous, rocky and slippery and they had to do a lot of scrambling. Crossing the landslip was even scarier for them, although they would have had a shorter distance to fall, the chances were higher for them than us as it was all that much less stable!
We made our beds and were relaxing for a bit when Mandal brought some washie water. We decided to wash our hair. Right then, I began to feel nauseous. Carmel told me to take a Maxalon and lie down. A headache started and I couldn't get warm, so climbed inside the bag and Carmel gave me the Migrastik. Next thing, the lotion is running into my eye. Oh the pain! Burning sensation that lasted for ages! What a misery guts I was! Carmel got me up for dinner and we joined the others in a very lively, rowdy dining room. I skipped the soup - too creamy - ate half my pastie and all the chips and had a mouthful of Raju's chocolate biscuit cake.
Zoe, Carmel, Richard, David and Mandal are playing Uno whilst I write this. The dining room is full of people - quite a United Nations. I'm feeling a bit fragile in the tummy and still have a headache, but am enjoying being toasty warm. Carmel and I were a little disappointed earlier on to hear we would lose the afternoon's 'rest' in Chukhung tomorrow. The walk up to Chukhung Ri will have to be done tomorrow because, according to Nima, it will be too much to do it the following day then go on to Base Camp below Kongma La.
What I'm Carrying In My Backpack
* Wet weather gear - coat, trousers and pack cover
* 2 knee supports
* Money pouch
* 5 rolls of prayer flags
* Diary, sketchbook, map
* 2 one litre water bottles and 1 750ml drink bottle
* Camera
* First aid kit
* Roll of toilet paper
* 5 canisters of camera film
* Sunscreen lotion
* Gloves
* '200'/'100' jackets (sometimes wearing one or the other)
* Beanie/sunhat (wearing one or the other)
Altogether, about 8kg worth of gear.
What's In My Kitbag
* 1 Down sleeping bag
* 1 Down jacket
* '300' Jacket
* 6 Short sleeve shirts
* 2 Pairs shorts
* 2 Long pants (one fleecy)
* 2 Pairs thermals
* Runners
* 5 Sets of socks and undies
* Toilet bag and towel
* 2 Rolls of toilet paper
* CD player, book
* Spare boot laces, matches, lambswool liners
* Head torch, hand torch
* 1kg munchies
* 16 rolls of film
* Gaiters, gloves, scarves, thermal hat
Altogether, about 15kg worth of gear. Each porter carries two such kitbags.
At lunch today, George's altimeter showed 14,000ft, or 4200m and Zoe said she had jumped out of an aeroplane at that height! Kind of adds perspective to just how high we are at the moment.
Day Twelve
Ensconced in the sunroom at Chukhung Resort listening to Samsara on the CD and sketching. We arrived here about 11.30am after a pleasant, gradually uphill walk from Dingboche. I decided to stay behind Carmel and let her pace me as I had a bad stabbing pain just under my left rib that really hurt as I breathed. I also discovered that my leg muscles were a little weary and they ached on any steep climb. Still, I'm in far better shape than poor Toni. She's been suffering terrible stomach and bowel upsets and today we had to leave her behind at Dingboche. Nima's plan is to walk her around to Pheriche where there is a medical centre and have her checked out there. There's a big chance that she may have to be evacuated out. Otherwise, if medical opinion is on her side, she'll meet us in Lobuje. She looked really upset and didn't want us saying goodbye. I patted her on the shoulder and said see you soon.
The walk was really pretty, with 'bonsaied' rhododendron bushes, little purple, pink, blue and red flowers lining the track. We were accompanied by the delightful sound of the river splashing over rocks. Interesting view of the back side of Ama Dablam and of Tawache. Also saw Island Peak, or Imje Tse to give it its local name. A lovely mountain with a beautiful smooth cone of a peak. A large ice wall with stunning fluting dominated most of the skyline between Ama Dablam and Imje Tse. Lhotse dominated the lefthand side of the horizon. At one stage, a cloud of snow obscured its peak.
We were all sitting in the courtyard of our lodge, enjoying tea and bikkies and waiting for our bags to arrive and rooms to be allocated when who should walk through the gateway, but Toni! We gave her a huge cheer and lots of hugs. Turns out that the woman we had been chatting with last night at Dingboche lodge was a doctor. She gave Toni the once over and said that she may as well go forward as backward and so here she was!
Have taken one look at the path up to the first of Chukhung's peaks and said no thanks! Far too steep for the way I'm feeling right now. David, George, Jack, Toni and Carmel have all decided to stay behind too, whilst the other brave souls have gone on up. This afternoon will be one for resting, reading, writing postcards and listening to music. Tomorrow is going to be a big day's walk up to our camping spot just below the Kongma La and I intend conserving my energy so I can get there.
3pm! IT'S SNOWING!
Day Thirteen
It continued to snow in a slushy, rainy sort of way throughout the night. When we got up, the snow had stopped and the cloud had lifted enough that we could see surrounding mountains but it was all looking fairly dubious for moving up to the Base Camp for Kongma La. Nima decided we would wait until lunchtime to make a final decision. So spent a very enjoyable morning in the lodge dining room playing cards with Carmel, David and Toni. The snow started coming down really heavily and we were pleased not to be going anywhere.
Come lunchtime and the decision was made to go down to Pheriche and onto Lobuje next day - skip Kongma La altogether. Zoe and Glenn elected to stay at Chukhung and try for the pass tomorrow. If they get over it they'll have to keep going to meet us in Lobuje. If they can't make the pass, they'll have to come down to Pheriche and onto Lobuje all in the same day.
So after lunch, the rest of us donned our wet weather gear and set off through the falling snow downhill to Pheriche. The snow soon stopped and by the time we got to DIngboche, we had all shed the raingear. Cloud was beginning to descend and by the time we reached our lodge - Mt Kailish - at Pheriche we were surrounded by cloud. Spent another very enjoyable few hours playing cards and Pass the Pigs before coming to bed. We have a comparatively big day tomorrow - climbing about 700 metres over 5 hours to Lobuje. Hopefully, by then the weather will have cleared to give us good viewing opportunities from the top of Kalar Pattar the next day.
Taste Sensations I Would Never Have Thought Of At Home
* Lemon tea - ie black tea with lemon cordial
* Hot Tang - orange flavoured Tang with hot water. Surprisingly good
* Warmed tinned fruit salad
* Apple and chocolate pie
* Popcorn salad - ie popcorn mixed with mayonnaise. Gave that one a miss. Others said it was 'interesting'.