On the top of the world!!!!

You really can’t underestimate the excitement of travelling the world whether it be in Australia or overseas. Sometimes it is hard slog and long days of waiting and being hungry and using dirty toilets but then you have days like we have just had and all those things become so insignificant because you have had such a high (literally for us) that it just doesn’t matter about small inconveniences.


When you wake up in the morning and walk outside your little Tibetan tent where you have slept soundly by a stove fuelled by yak dung and with the pots bubbling away on top, and there, close enough to touch, framed against a brilliant blue sky without a cloud in it, is the highest mountain in the world, you just immediately laugh and cry at the same time. What a beauty!!!! We overnighted in Everest Base Camp on the Tibetan side after a long and rough drive in. After leaving a little town called Shegar at six in the morning to get to the top of a high pass to get our first glimpse of Everest we found it was covered in cloud. However, we stood in the minus five temps waiting for the cloud to lift for probably an hour and a half. Our driver and guide were devastated for us but hey, northing they can do. So off we headed across the barren and stark Tibetan countryside, through little villages and yak herds, over mountain streams, along a road that was bearly recognisable as a road even though it lead to EBC.

Finally our guide turned around and just looked at us and said :There she is!!! And there framed by the high brown and treeless mountains was Everest with only a small amount of cloud coming off her but the summit in full view and absolutely amazing. We were beside ourselves. This was the main reason for our trip and of course it is is flukey as to whether you see her or not but there she was!!! She got clearer and clearer as we headed towards and finally arrived at EBC where we walked along the road to get closer and closer. You can drive to EBC in Tibet. It is at five thousand three hundred metres and then take a bus another six kilometres further on to a military camp where they have a small stone sign announcing that you are at Mt Quolomongo Base Camp. We sat in the rocky pass near the mountain river roaring down the slope and just watched for a long time.



Sunrise at EBC - there she is!!!



We slept that night in a Tibetan tent where the Tibetan lady cooked for us and we drank some Lhasa beer with our guide and driver. The high altitudes had not been kind to us and we each suffered from headaches and nausea controlled occasionally bysome Chinese high altitude tablets which they don’t recommend to take very often. However the tent was warm and cosy and we all slept soundly and our Tibetan host even came round and tucked us in under doonas and warm blankets.



The next morning when we got up it was to perfectly clear skies and the sun just rising and casting its light on the mountain. We were jumping around like school kids and it was perfect. We couldn’t have scripted it better. Everest here is at the end of a valley of high treeless mountains looking like moraine. It is the only mountain in sight with snow. It is close, it is majestic, it was glorious on this clear May morning.



Obviously I could go on and on about this highlight of our travelling, but we finally left this basic EBC with a view and headed to the Nepalese border. The roads in and out of EBC are almost impossible to find they are so basic. Rough and across extensive rocky plains. Once we got onto the Friendship Highway again we headed south and had views of the vistas of the Himalayans. It was glorious. Finally we headed to the border town of Zhangmu which hangs on the wall of an amazing gorge which we drove along for hours.

Yesterday we crossed the Chinese border into Nepal and shared a six hour taxi drive with two Hungarian girls into Kathmandu. As is our habit we threw the bags in, had a shower and out we went







Grubby sign for base camp



. It is wonderful not to have to worry about the altitude and feel like you can walk more than six steps without being breathless. We immediately loved this place and spent yesterday wandering our local area. It is full of book shops, map shops, knife shops, carpet shops and wonderful restaurants – so guess who is happy!!!! And it is so cheap.

We loved Tibet. It is a glorious country and the scenery is beyond beautiful. This will be much easier though being in Nepal. There is so much to say but the last few days have been a wonderful experience for us both and we are grateful that we were given the perfect weather and the oopportunity to be on top of the world!!!!