gorak Shep to Lobuche - November 8th 1999

My nose is still blocked and my mouth gets dry, making breathing difficult. This combined with Dave's snoring led to a night of broken sleep. Temperature down to -8 degrees Centigrade overnight, my liquid soap and toothpaste were frozen solid.

Awakened at 5:30am with tea and washing water. A quick breakfast then off towards Everest Base Camp, Gorak Shep is situated on the Khumbu Glacier at the side of a wide frozen lake. The turquoise lake that I saw from Kala Pattar yesterday was now completely frozen over under the deep blue sky. Skirted around the lake up the valley past the memorials, including one to Rob Hall and others who died on the 1996 expedition. The trail soon deteriorated into a seemingly unending rocky scramble over the moraine along the top of the glacier. Stopped many times to admire the amazing mountain views. This is a desolate place, fortunately for me the weather is kind as I sit in the sun with my thoughts. The base camp area could be seen from quite a way off, there were no expeditions in residence. This is the nearest I will get to Tibet, I can see the Lhola pass and the mountain at the end of the valley is in Tibet or should I say China? Took lots of photographs before turning back to the Snow Hill Inn. This lodge proclaims that it is the highest in the Khumbu at 5181m which converts to 16,968'.

Sat outside the lodge soaking up the sun with goraks flying around and a group of pheasants running around looking for food. Had a few drinks before setting off back down to Lobuche. In theory this should have been an easy downhill walk but as usual involved lots of ups and downs and lots of scrambling.

Stopped off at the 8000m Inn up a small valley just north of Lobuche. This is a centre of research into the effects of high altitude funded by Italians. The building is in the form of a glass pyramid, trekkers can stay here if there is room and they do serve food. Had a plate of potato chips which were the best of the whole trip, I even noticed a bottle of Heinz Tomato Ketchup but unfortunately it was reserved for the scientists.

After this interesting interlude I continued the walk down the valley to Lobuche in the gathering gloom. Noticed an interesting sign at the riverside in front of the village, I can't remember exactly what it said but it warned tourists not to mess up the river! Anywhere else that would have been reasonable but at Lobuche?