Day starts with big big climb (what's new!) . We reached Lamjura pass at 11.00 a.m. Or so we thought. Ulrich had been told it was the pass. Turns out, the real one was still 2 hours away. We keep running in to English coulple Graham and Mo. Always nice to chat with.
Going down takes a long time, but goes through beautiful forests. We end up in the town of Junbesi. We talk a bit about the trek ahead. The Aussie group wanted to do Gokyo (valley with beautiful views) first and then go over to the next valley to go to everest base camp and Kala Pattar (superb everest views). I however, don't have time for all of that, and prefer to go to Kala Pattar and Base Camp. The others will probably go with me to do that first.
Saturday March 23rd
Woke up cranky! Last night a bug (orenkruiper) fell on my head and everybody that knows me, knows I don't like that kind of stuff at all. However, after 2hrs of walking, we had our first views of Mount Everest. It was far away, and looked a lot smaller than the other mountains, but still, it made my day!
I usually walk a bit slower than the group (don't know why), but the good thing was that Graham and Mo are about my speed, so I had some time to spend with other people than the regular group. Tonight we stay at Nuntala (2250m). It's party time. We have beers tonight!
Sunday March 24th
Frist part of day was tough. Very hot and steep. Was really cranky when we finally reached Karikola (for lunch). Felt better after a coke! We walk on until Bupsa (2300 m). Today we went from 2300m down to 1680 and back up to 2300. Feels a bit useless, but we were warned for this. Today, we saw some maoist writing and flags along the way (later we found out, that the writing was remembering the moaists that died during the attack on an police post).
Monday March 25th
Slept great. Best night so far! We woke up early (6) because we have a long day ahead. All the way to Lukla. In Lukla, there is an airport. Many trekkers fly into lukla and skip all the ups and downs from Jiri to Lukla. In total you climb (and descent) 9000 m from Jiri to Lukla. That's even more than Mount Everest (8848)! Had my first coffee in Nepal with breakfast. Result was, I had to run to the toilet halfway through the morning. Nothing bad, just the caffeine. We had a long climb ahead, but I felt really good and strong. Everybody is looking forward to lukla. Matthis desperatly wants some chicken. He might get some tonight. along the way, we meet Graham and Mo again. They are eating crackers and cheese (again). They bought this big yak (big buffalo-like animal) cheese somewhere along the way and were now eating it all the time to get rid of the weight.
In Lukla, we had to buy our tickets for the way back. I bought mine for the 10th of april. We all lost eachother and found eachother again (hey, we hadn't been used to towns with more than one street for the last week). Ulrich and Matthis get into a fight. Ulrich wants to go on (he's always really goal oriented) and Matthis wants to take it easy. It's already 5 p.m so we decide to stay.
In Lukla there's more army people around and there is a 7 p.m. curfew.
Tuesday March 26th
We starterd early from Lukla because we have to go all the way to Namche Bazar (capital of the Khumbu region). Yesterday we heard that an Everest Expedition with Tashi Tenzing (grandson of Tenzing Norgay- first person (together with Sir Edmund Hillary) on Mount Everest in 1953)) is on the same schedule as we are. We might run into them. Ulrich is scared we won't make it to Namche today. There are lots more people on the trail now. AFter a few hours we enter Sagarmatha National Park. Beautiful. Looks like scene in Lord of the Rings. Very green valley with a river. Super. Had to run to the bridge to cross it before yaks from the other side started crossing. We had lunch. It started to rain and in some rain and even some hail we climbed to Namche (700m to 3445). Was exhausted when I got up. Didn't think I could make another step. But I did and it was towards the Internet cafe. Had to check my mail (withdrawal effects). In Namche there was a big get together. We met Axel with his friend Heiko again and also some aussies we'd seen before. Had pizza at night and no altitude problems yet.
Wednesday March 27th
Acclimatisation day. At this altitude, every breath won't give you as much oxygen as at sea level. Your body needs to make more red blood cells to cary more oxygen otherwise you will end up dead from drowning (lungs) or too much fluid in your brain. This was a very short description of altitude sickness. Rule is: 'don't sleep more that 300 m higher than the night before' and ' work high, sleep low'. We went to the everest view hotel today. This japanese hotel was built for people that would fly from kathmandu, have lunch looking at everest en fly back down. However, the altitude change was too much and people would spent their lunches being sick. So now, people just go there from Namche. Had a good climb up and then lazed around on a hill with the most spectacular views I had ever seen. Did some sunbathing too (was cold when you stood up, but nice and warm when you lied down). Rest of the day some washing and last shower for a very long time. Cedric and Avril buy more warm gear (down vests etc). I just hope I'll be allright with the stuff I've got. If not. I'll go down to warmer places.
Started to snow at night. It feels like an expedition almost.
Thursday March 28th
Woke up in white Namche. Had a nice stroll through forests (beautiful again). right now there ar many tourgroups on the trail (big groups with only daypacks. The porters carry their loads). More yaks on the trail as well. When you meet them. Press yourself against the wall and pray that they don't hit you with their horns. After a big climb we reached the monastery of Tengboche. In about 1989 they got electricity up here. A few months later, the monks burned the monastery down because they let a heater stay on. So the place is pretty new. It's nice to see the monks with their dark red robes and then an ACDC t-shirt on top. Once it gets colder, they put on their fleeces (sometimes in matching colors, sometimes not). We visited a chanting session (hummmmm hummmmmm hummmm, very relaxing) and celebrated matthis' birthday with some bread, cheese and wine.
Friday March 29th
Spent the whole day in the Fog and wind. No views whatsoever. We arrived in Dingboche (at 4375 m) relatively early and spent the afternoon there. At night we had a ' map session' . Ulrich wants to go to some place called Chukkung Ri. Most others don't. We find a way around it. He will do it by himself. It's an early night again. We usually go to bed around 8 and wake up around 6.
Saturday March 30th
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