It’s morning. Already, we had grown accustomed to hearing the retching/coughing sound of the locals, where they would quite literally cough up muck from their lungs. This is due to the dust/thin air of the mountain. At first we were slightly put off by it, but now it’s a familiar sound! After a porridge breakfast, a massive jug of boiled water was brought out and we all filled up our bottles before setting off for our morning trek.

We walked for 3.5 hours up and down a mountain, stopping at Jorsale for lunch which was very similar to the day before. We went past some beautiful waterfalls. The sun was very strong and I made sure I wore my factor 50 on any part of uncovered skin, but I had to take off my hat as my head was getting too hot and I found out later that my scalp got sunburnt!

We saw the most spectacular view of what I thought was the summit of Mt. Everest, but after asking the guide (who laughed at my naivety) we discovered that it was Thamserku, a mountain which stands 6608 metres tall. It was hard to imagine a mountain over 2000m taller!!

After lunch the walk began to get much harder. It started off medium-difficult but ended up being incredibly challenging! We got to a point where we were walking up steps for hundreds and hundreds of metres, never stopping. The views continued to stun us with their beauty. We got to a suspension bridge where two rivers join, one river running from the top of Everest, the other from Tibet; they join at this point and run into the Ganges. The wind was getting stronger and the flowers were becoming scarcer.

Very gradually, the Everest Base Camp Trek was becoming more and more challenging, every few steps we’d have to stop to breathe and I felt exhausted all the time. The climb was getting steeper and there were times where many of us just wanted to turn back! I was told today that someone actually thought they would burst into tears they were that fatigued. My toes began to hurt a lot. My boots have never been a problem before I’ve had them for about 5 years, but I think they may be too small! A combination of wearing thicker socks than usual, and my feet being constantly swollen. I’ve put on blister plasters underneath my big toes to reduce the pressure on them.

The walk was about 4 hours long, when we finally saw Namche Bazaar (3,500 m) in the distance (our next destination) it felt incredible - but it still took what seemed forever to get there as we were moving so slowly! Namche is in the cloud line - we were literally level with the clouds!

When I finally got to the hotel, I collapsed in bed and slept for 2 hours unable to move. My back felt very sore as did my feet. After eating a fantastic Dhal Baht we fell asleep looking forward to having a lie-in before our rest day that would follow.

Here are a couple more photos of our Childreach Charity trek group.

 This one is of Hannah sporting the dhauni on our way into Kathmandu.

 Next, on Day 6, we prepared ourselves for the famous air flight to Lukla airport, where our Everest Base Camp trek would finally get under way!

x
R

Sweating and tired, we heaved our belongings off the roof of the bus and schlepped to the boarder to meet the tour company. We had our passports and visas checked both at the Indian side, and over the road in Nepal. It was surreal walking from one country to the next, momentarily crossing ‘no man’s land’.

We piled on to the next coach and headed off to Kathmandu. We were given pale yellow, silk scarves called dhauni with Tibetan good luck symbols and writing, and were told that it’s the Nepali custom to hand these out whenever there was a special occasion i.e. a wedding/birthday or in our case, a trek to Everest Base Camp.

We soon found out that the journey was over seven hours long. I had never smelt so bad or felt so disgusting before. We hadn’t washed for nearly three days, had been literally sweating solidly the entire time, wearing the same clothes, covered in dust and dirt, sleep deprived and very hungry!  But ironically, because everyone was in the same boat it didn’t matter – we saw it as training for the trek!

When we finally reached Kathmandu at 4am we walked down to the hotel and we were met by a magnificent sight too good to be true. The hotel was beautiful, with wooden carvings on the walls and ceiling and gold leaf along the pillars. It was like a dream! Within 10 minutes we had our room keys and could finally get some sleep.

We found out later on that flying from Delhi to Kathmandu takes just 2 hours! – two members of our group who had been unable to get Indian visas had done this and were bragging about their good fortune in comparison to ours. However, I would not have changed our journey from India to Nepal. The experience was tough but so rewarding, and it made everything in Nepal so much sweeter.

Here are some more photos of our visits in Delhi to the Childreach-related projects. I’m really glad that we got to see this in the run up to our Everest base camp trek.

Hope you like em!
Rosanna

Day 2 of my Everest Base Camp Trek adventure began with a much needed lie-in before we went to breakfast at the Smile Foundation’s office – the partner charity in Delhi. We had spicy crackers, biscuits and a MacDonald’s veggie burger … interesting! We were then given a briefing about their partnership with Childreach and the projects they have in India.

Then we went to visit two of the projects. The first was a college where the students could learn beauty therapy, English and basic computer skills. The students attend sessions which last for 6 months, 6 days a week. The students couldn’t speak much English and when they spoke to us they were quite shy, but they all wanted us to write our names out for them on paper.

We went to a shopping mall briefly before going to the next project and I was again surprised to see that in the toilets there was a shower hose connected to the wall to use in place of loo roll!

The next project was in a slum and I was shocked at some of the conditions the people were living in - flies and bugs were all over the food which was being prepared in the streets.

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Last night, I went out for an ‘authentic’ Indian meal with my family to prepare and get in the mood for the journey ahead. I had just one hour’s sleep before the taxi came to take me to the airport (at 2.30am!)…so, I arrived at the terminal exhausted and met the rest of the Everest trekking group there.

It was pretty weird everyone all getting together for the first time – a lot of us hadn’t ever met each other before. I spent a fair while talking to one of the guys, Andy, who runs the Leeds Student Television Channel. He had decided to make a documentary of the Everest Base Camp trip for the LSTC channel and Childreach! Pretty cool.

The flight was delayed so we sat in the departure lounge getting to know each other, but we were all so knackered we could barely hold any conversations.

The flight was not direct – we went via Paris. The flight on the way to Paris (once we got started) was quick and I slept the whole way with the aid of my velvet, padded, lavender-smelling eye mask – I fully recommend one!

The connection to the plane for Delhi was smooth on the whole even though the first plane was delayed – Pardeep managed to leave his passport on the plane to Paris, but fortunately he got it back in time for the next plane! Read the rest of this entry »

Rosanna will be back soon, having completed the Everest Base Camp Trek. She sent me her kit list a few days before her departure. It reads like equipment for an adventure -
I hope it did the trick.

  Read the rest of this entry »

After a week, Rosanna and David and all the others on the Childreach trek will be well on their way now. Everest Base Camp Trek routes. The latter stages show the Kala Pattar variation of the Everest trek where you climb to the summit of the neighbouring mountain to overlook Everest base camp. I just posted this video really to give a sense of Kathmandu and the first few days of what Rosanna and David will be seeing.

Here is a video I found showing the opening locations on one of the

Thanks to justindav1s for putting this up on Youtube.

There was a pre-departure meeting and social on Wednesday evening for the Leeds group going out to Everest on the Base Camp Trek. It was good to finally meet some more of the group that would be going up the mountain with me.

The meeting was informal, held in a room upstairs in a pub opposite the university. We went over bits and pieces such as medical forms, booking forms, insurance (which I still haven’t got!!!! – but I will get very soon) the itinerary, and general questions. We saw some pictures and video footage of the trek. It’s all getting very exciting!

There were nine of us at the meeting. In addition to Dave and I, there was Chris who I went bag packing with, Lucy, Jack and Paul who I met at the last social and some new people I hadn’t met before: Hannah, who’s Irish and studying at Edinburgh university but is going out with the Leeds group; Alex, who’s American; and Andy who’s on the Leeds Uni film/TV crew and will be making a documentary while we’re out there!

After the meeting we went downstairs to have some drinks and get to know each other better. Everyone’s very friendly and we all got on immediately, sharing our anxieties/excitement about the trip and how our training’s been going. I’m really looking forward to going out!!!