The morning dawned to a crisp temperature, fresh dew, and the sound of a dozen Nepalese men violently clearing their throats. The sound of phlegm being cleared from the throat and lungs was to be the theme tune of the entire trip. Men, Women, Children, and even the occasional Yak had a thing for a good hock. And not just a casual spit, a completely thorough clearout of the lungs and throat.
I was quite happy that the 'soft tissue injury' that Breck had diagnosed the night before (Doctor talk for 'there's nothing wrong with you') in my right shoulder had cleared up enough for me to carry my bag. G-Unit was also kind enough to lend his considerable strength to tightening my straps on my rucksack around my waist, chest and back - and this combined with my now 'broken-in' shoulders meant that the load was a little easier. Again we set off in Hillary/Tenzing split groups.
The first half of the day, save for Markby upsetting just about everybody present by going for a naked swim in the glacial river that doubtlessly used to be sacred to the locals, went by in a fairly pedestrian manner. 3 hours of flat walking that took us into the official entrance of Sagamartha National Park. Kirt had to fly out to Nepal a few weeks previous to sort out entrance permissions to the national park, and the subsequent release of the details of those conversations has since seen an official of the national park relieved of his duties after it transpired he wasn't going to let us in. A press release was issued that day mentioning the issue, and it caused a fair stir in the Nepali newspapers of the day, however being 10 days walk from the local paper shop combined with Kirt manfully shielding us from the issue meant we were blissfully unaware that there was even a problem in the first place. Incidentally, inside the national park office was an impressive papier-mache 3D model of the entire park and the mountains it contained. This really kicked home how far we had to go, both in distance and altitude, and how far Everest towered over Base Camp and Gorak Shep.
This was all a predecessor to our first big challenge, the 800metre incline to Namche. Crossing one of the many Indiana Jones style bridges was the connecting point to the massive hill we had to ascend. This was our first real test of what altitude can do to you and by far our hardest physical test of the trip so far, and in hindsight maybe of the entire trip. My unacclimitised lungs stung with every intake of thin air, sweat literally poured down my forehead and several times I had to stop to flush suncream that had dripped with sweat into my eye to stop the intense stinging. On the plus side, the squats and leg work that the Sharlands had torturously put us through during the winter was paying off as my legs felt fine. So much so that I passed Neil Sharland himself on the final uphill stretch. After a stop of about 15 minutes (incidentally, we were all so tired that none of us realised we all had our backs towards our first view of Everest) that I thought was going to refresh the legs, we set off again, only to realise that starting up is the hardest point. None of us knows exactly why but we thought that getting your heart-rate back up seemed to be pretty painful, but after 10 minutes, once the heart rate settled, things became a little easier.
I was quite happy that the 'soft tissue injury' that Breck had diagnosed the night before (Doctor talk for 'there's nothing wrong with you') in my right shoulder had cleared up enough for me to carry my bag. G-Unit was also kind enough to lend his considerable strength to tightening my straps on my rucksack around my waist, chest and back - and this combined with my now 'broken-in' shoulders meant that the load was a little easier. Again we set off in Hillary/Tenzing split groups.
The first half of the day, save for Markby upsetting just about everybody present by going for a naked swim in the glacial river that doubtlessly used to be sacred to the locals, went by in a fairly pedestrian manner. 3 hours of flat walking that took us into the official entrance of Sagamartha National Park. Kirt had to fly out to Nepal a few weeks previous to sort out entrance permissions to the national park, and the subsequent release of the details of those conversations has since seen an official of the national park relieved of his duties after it transpired he wasn't going to let us in. A press release was issued that day mentioning the issue, and it caused a fair stir in the Nepali newspapers of the day, however being 10 days walk from the local paper shop combined with Kirt manfully shielding us from the issue meant we were blissfully unaware that there was even a problem in the first place. Incidentally, inside the national park office was an impressive papier-mache 3D model of the entire park and the mountains it contained. This really kicked home how far we had to go, both in distance and altitude, and how far Everest towered over Base Camp and Gorak Shep.
Finally, after 2 and a half hours of toil and just as the calorie counter attached to Nick Walker ticked past 7,000, we hit Namche Bazaar. Namche was by far away the best town we stayed in on the way up, and justified it's status as the capital city for Sherpa's. We were directed to our hotel, again Hillary and Tenzing were split into different hotels, and I thought the third flight of stairs was going to finish me off. As I walked downstairs to have a shower (my final shower for the next 13 days), I saw Butler refusing to climb anymore stairs and begging Sambu to get him a room on the ground floor.
That evening a few of us gathered to test out some Yak Steak and sup on a well-deserved lager. Only 1 was consumed though as I started to feel a bit tipsy as I drained the can. Further enhancing the dizziness was running up a set of stairs with Chris. We both stopped at the top to catch our breath and remarked at how tough the game was going to be, bearing in mind it was a further 1700metres up.
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