Everest Base Camp

We arrived at a mountain pass about 5,000 m (17,000 ft) and we got our first proper sighting of Mt Everest in the distance. Unfortunately it was covered in cloud but that didn’t stop us from saying “Wow” and from being impressed all the same. We continued down the other side of the mountain pass, down the wiggliest road we have been on and descended to the valley floor. Here the good road we were on became a dirt track as we passed into the EBC National Park. In the evening 102km later, over the most stunning mountains and scenery we have ever seen, we arrive at our tent camp over 5,000 metres up. Both our heads are getting achey now due to the altitude, a throbbing pain in the back of our heads. We have an early start in the morning at 7:30 as we plan to walk up to The Base Camp viewing point about 5km away. We were shown to our tent where a girl was lighting a fire to keep us warm for the night. Watching the fire burn is like watching the log burning stove being starved of oxygen. Slow flames grabbing all the oxygen it can get. Oxygen we would rather have!! The air is very thin at 5,000 metres and doing anything more than a slow walk is really hard. You have to walk very slowly, stand up and sit down very slowly, otherwise you go dizzy quite quickly. We can’t imagine what is must be like at over 8,000 metres up on Mt Everest. We met up with some of the other people we had got to know along the way and got chatting to them for a while before going back to our tent for a warm. It was night time and looking outside the tent watching the stars was amazing, the advantage at 5,000 metres is that the night sky is so clear so the night sky is perfect for viewing all that it has to offer and there was no moon which makes the sky darker. Perfect for star gazing. We took a blanket from the tent and stayed huddled up out there for ages watching the milky way and shooting stars. Just beautiful. We spent that night without much sleep due to our head aches getting worse Bryan kept going outside to check on the weather every few hours and at 4am the night sky was dark and everything was so clear. All good so far - the next viewing would be at 7am just was the sun would be rising over the horizon. So at 7am Bryan got up to check the weather and horror of horrors it was low cloud and Mount Everest was completely hidden. (Hum how do you call low cloud that is at 5,200 metres!) It’s all a matter of perspective, anyway, it was grey and cloudy, buggers, so Bryan climbed back in to bed disappointed that our photographs tomorrow would be of nothing except clouds! When we both got up at 8am Jody’s head was much better but it was still cloudy! You mean to say that we had both suffered all night long just to see clouds? However it was looking like it might clear so undeterred and a cup of tea later, we went and bought a bus ticket to take us right up to Base Camp. You could walk it but after our head aches in the night and lack of sleep we did not want to be ill when we reached the final point. At about 9am we looked up towards Mt Everest and to the right the clouds had started to clear. The sun had come out and was doing it’s best to burn it off for us. Our hearts started to beat faster and we started to get excited that we might just see it after-all. So on the bus and after the short 5km drive to the viewing point. We got off the bus at this final check point and we could see that the clouds had dispersed and we could see Mt Everest properly for the first time. And what a view it was. We had to wait while all our paperwork and permits were checked, and that of our guides, then we dashed off up a small hill (slowly), which was only 10 metres high but we had to stop three times to catch our breath on the way up. Once on the top, covered in prayer flags of course, it was just amazing. The perfect day to view Everest. The sun was shining, no sign of the clouds and we were just standing there looking at the spectacular, marvellous view of the top of the world. Even our guide said that is was very unusual to have such a clear view of Mt Everest. Looking up at it was just amazing (sorry we keep using the word amazing but there is no other word to use here). The Tibet side of Everest (the side we were on) is apparently the best view as you can see the glacier further down the mountain too. It was the perfect picture moment with the peak rising in to the clear blue sky. 8,848 metres of just stunning and breathtaking (literally) beautiful rock! We sat down and just looked, and thought of all those people who had lost their life's trying to climb the mountain, just so they could be on top of the world. Being there makes you realise why people want to climb it but you will be glad to hear neither of us intend to go there! Photos and more photos in every way we knew possible just so we could find the perfect shot and record every moment. All the other people we had met were there and we were all taking photos for each other too. Then after about an hour we headed back to the bus and back to base camp. It was perfect, we could not have asked for any more. Our head were still hurting and it was time to head to a lower altitude. Back in the 4x4, and after we had returned to below about 4,500 metres our heads felt better again. What a relief. Base Camp Guest House Room rating: 2/10 a tent shared with 3 other people. raised beds of reasonable comfort. a fire but no bathroom or shower Location: 10/10 - just 5km from Everest Base Camp Staff: 7/10 - very friendly & helpful Value for Money: 8/10 - £4 per night per bed Other comments: very clean & cheap nice food, warm too Stay again? yes if we can brave the headaches! Overall area experience: 10/10 What can we say - it’s Mount Everest!!!