Everest Base Camp - Day 5- Namche Bazaar

Had another great night’s sleep, surprisingly as there were dogs barking outside my tent all night. Thank god I packed ear plugs.

Woke up this morning to the most amazing views, we are literally meters away from the snow line. After a 10min walk we caught our first glimpse of the mighty mountain itself, Everest . It was AMAZING! I actually felt like crying as it finally dawned on me what we were about to do. This place is beautiful, my headache has cleared and I feel fantastic.

We did an acclimatisation walk today. It was the first time I have tried out walking poles. I wasn’t sure if I was going to get any, however after yesterday when one of the guys had to lend me one of his to literally drag myself up to the camp with, I thought it was a good idea to invest £12.50 in a pair. The walk was 400m high and quite steep, but we took it really slowly so I felt a lot better.

Taking it slowly is defiantly the key, I woke up this morning and forgot how high we were and went speedily walking ahead, that lasted for 5 minutes before I was out of breath. There were more amazing views of Everest from the top. I actually found out for certain which one is Everest. Turns out I may have been pointing the wrong one out to people this morning. Ooops.

There was a volleyball pitch at the top of the walk. Some of the guys from the group decided to play, they did really well for the 10 minutes they lasted. It was a nice walk with the sun shining down and best of all a hot shower waiting at the end. This hot shower consisted of a woman boiling water and manually pouring this into a plastic tank which filtered into a shower head. It was greatly appreciated.

In the afternoon we were free to explore Namche Bazaar. It’s a lovely place surrounded by mountains and it’s a shame we can’t stay longer. Hopefully I will get to come back one day as I would like to do the Annapurna circuit which is meant to be even better than base camp. I did some shopping for some Nepalese tat, after all you have to go home with a prayer wheel and a yak wool hat.

I am also progressively losing my mind. It’s crazy what the altitude does to you. I keep forgetting things (even more so than usual). While trying to enjoy some quality alone time I momentarily got lost and couldn’t remember the way back to the camp. There was a rush of utter panic until I managed to spot our team of Sherpers at the top of the hill. I’m blaming the altitude for this, but really, who knows.

I also need to mention how grateful I am to have these teahouses to eat in. Apparently on Kilimanjaro and on other Everest base camp trips they eat in a mess tent. These teahouses are great, they are comfortable and heated (by burning yak shit) but they are definitely appreciated.