We go for a walk to a lookout point giving us a good view of the valley and mountains including Choy Oyu and our first views of Everest. Then we head off at about half ten having sent the truck (with all the equipment) ahead.
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| Himalayan view point - Everest over my head and Cho Oyu the large mass just to the right of centre |
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| Close up of Everest with the usual high winds sweeping snow off the summit |
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| Close up to Cho Oyu |
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| Wandering through a market on the way back - walking pole in hand in case of problems with dogs |
We come across the truck after a few hours having suffered something catastrophic - we can't work our what this is but it is clear that the truck can't continue. The team seem rather blasee about this which is pretty frustrating a we keep losing days but then they realise that they have not told us that a replacement truck is on its way and lo and behold one arrives after about 10 mins much to our great surprise - the advantage of using the Chinese Tibetan Mountaineering Association!
We then set about transferring all the gear from one truck to the other - which is quite a bit smaller. This turns out to be a great mix of Western planning and organisation (plus a bit of brawn) with the locals getting stuck in and bodging anything that didn't really work.
The local villagers appear to enjoy watching us work and take great interest in my bare legs - for some reason this develops into throwing stones at them when I am concentrating on something else and then dissolving into fits of giggles when I turn to glare at them.
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| Transferring equipment tot he new truck |
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| Tying everything into the new and smaller truck! |
As we head up the Rongbuk valley, we come to the famous Rongbuk monastery from where we get our first close view of Everest itself.
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| Rongbuk Monastery |
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| And their TV satellite dish - good use of the money donated by all the desperately poor local Tibetans!! |
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| Everest - it looks huge and daunting from here - going to be a tough climb! |
and after that on to BC where we start setting up camp - or at least as much as we can before night drew in.
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| Starting to erect camp |
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| Inside of a tent (bit too neat to be mine). Comfy sleeping mat and space for all our gear. |
Setting up camp is not all plain sailing as as the zips to my vestibule are broken and pretty much all of the tents are missing guy ropes and so we had to use all our spares - we just have to hope that we have no problems higher up the mountain; not exactly the way to start such an expedition!!
Then a few more camp chores, supper and bed. The pillow and extra blanket I bought make an excellent extra addition to my tent and keep me pretty warm despite the temperature in the tent falling to about -10c!
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