The rhythm of the trek was established today. At about 7am we were woken by our guides with tea. Nice! We then had about 30 minutes before breakfast. This was usually porridge, and sometimes an egg on toast. And lots more tea.

Here’s the intrepid 13.

From left to right…

John (UK): A real Everest enthusiast. He’d read all the books and watched all the documentaries. He was a fount of useless knowledge 🙂

Mary (UK): Mother of 2. Has summitted several fearsome Lake District peaks – some of them without tears.

Andy (UK): (Long suffering) husband of Mary.

Darren (UK): Partner of Helen. We became good chums with Darren and Helen during the walk – our senses of humour were aligned. We met up with them at Glastonbury a couple of years later for fun in the mud.

Helen (UK): Partner of Darren.

Peter (Hungary): A chef, based in the UK. Worked long hours – this was the longest holiday he had taken in years.

Katy (UK): A bit of a tech entrepreneur from what we could gather, but to be honest I never did really understand what she did.

Phil (UK): Excitingly a sea-captain. Rather less exotic was his day-to-day route, between Liverpool and Dublin.

Evelyn (Australia): Married to Wayne. She unfortunately suffered more than most gastroenterologically during the trek. We felt for her.

Doritt (Germany): Some sort of lawyer – and a keen taker of interesting photos, some of which I have nabbed for this blog (we shared each others’ photos at the end of the trip)..

Michelle (Ireland): An anaesthetist from Dublin who seemed to spend more time travelling than anaesthetising. To be honest I was a bit jealous.

Fiona (UK): Regional bank manager of some description and another keen photographer.

Wayne (Australia): Semi- (and possibly permanently-) retired, after having a picture framing business in Brisbane. Married to Evelyn

I think you’ll agree we looked like a fine bunch of explorers. God knows what the locals thought as we tramped past them. I guess they’d seen it all before.

At breakfast, Ngima gave us our daily briefing about what lay ahead. Well, today we were heading for the sherpa town of Namche Bazaar – a romantic name known to all Everest afficianados. Each day had between 6 and 8 hours of walking (approximately). With a stop for lunch at a tea-house (cafe/guest house) en-route.

After breakfast we left at a normal stroll and Ngima immediately called for us to stop. He then told us exactly how we should walk for the next 8 days. It was at stroll pace divided by two. To describe it as a very slow plod would be about correct. A guide would be at the front of us and we should never pass him. And a guide would be at the rear – just to mop up the bodies as we dropped one-by-one. It was only several days’ later we realised that setting this pace gave us the best chance of reaching Base Camp – it was all part of the acclimatisation process. But today it felt ridiculously slow.

The weather was beautiful and we walked through coniferous forests and also forests of rhododendron. We were in the autumn trekking season in October. The other main season is in April when the rhododendrons are famously in full bloom. We criss-crossed the Dhudh Kosi river which drains directly from the foot of Everest and is therefore, unsurprisingly, the highest river in Nepal. Dhudh Kosi means “milky river”, because none of it is flat – it is mile upon mile of whitewater rapids.

Although none of us was tired it was lovely to stop for lunch at the Monju Guest House. Its unique selling point was that it had a horse for rent, and while we were sorely tempted we left the horse for someone else.

We ordered lunch – probably fried rice, and just sat in the sun and waited for it to be brought to us. I forget the price, but it would have been cheap – about £1 each. While we were eating our yaks trundled though laden with our bright green Exodus bags – some heavier than others! We guiltily stared at our plates.

This is where we encountered our first solar cooker. Exodus – the company we were trekking with – has sponsored many of these heaters all the way up the route. They were super effective and every 15 minutes or so, the tea-house owner would come out and make a small adjustment so it was pointing directly at the sun. The pan of water in the focal point did not take long at all to boil. Physics in action. Just a simple solution like this has made an enormous difference to people’s lives. Firstly they chop down fewer trees for firewood and secondly, they have fewer indoor fires. Lung disease is a major problem in the locals as they share their whole lives with a smoking fire in their home. Anything to reduce this has a beneficial effect.

Our first mountain came into view. This was just a foothill, but it was still very impressive to us. I don’t think it even had a name. We asked Ngima how high it was – and he replied “4,400m … approx”. We came to know and love that “approx”. All his heights and distances were suffixed with that word.

After lunch we entered the Sagarmatha National Park, Sagarmatha being the Nepalese word for Everest.. There was a ticket office here, but we had already been issued with our trekking permits – 3000 rupees each (about £20).

Now things began to get more interesting. The bridges became more frequent and the valley sides were steeper.

And then we saw our first major challenge – a terrifying-looking pair of bridges up ahead. There used to only be one bridge here, but the volume of trekkers and yaks meant this became a real bottleneck with trekkers queueing for hours to cross. So another bridge was constructed higher up. At this point our group divided into two distinct sections – those who were happy to wander over the top bridge, preferably jumping up and down to make it wobble, and those who wanted to turn back. But there is no other option – this is the only route. If you want to go to Base Camp then this is the way you must go.

The wimps (as we shall call the second group) all chose to go over the lower bridge as they thought it would be less scary. The brave, intrepid explorers took the higher bridge. This is a picture taken from below by a wimp.

… and this is a picture of three wimps taken by an intrepid explorer. Some people had to be led across by a guide. But we all succeeded. I can’t help wondering if some people actually give up at this point?

Emboldened by her bridge-crossing success, Mary now got the impression she could replace the yaks. This was one of our guides, Kami, who was very amused when Mary tried on his rucksack.

We had taken a few simple things – pens etc. to give to the children here. Even an orange balloon is a great toy for a day.

At the top of a big climb we came to Namche Bazaar (3440m, 11300ft). It is a colourful collection of houses in a bowl in the mountains. Green, red and blue roofs.

Our first proper day’s trekking was over. We were happy (and slightly amazed) to see that even Namche has an Irish Pub. Is there anywhere in the world that doesn’t? Also the happy hour lasted from 5pm-11pm. But we were all strictly teetotal on our ascent because alcohol and altitude do not mix.

This was the local Pool House. This table would have been carried in on someone’s back – at least a 7 day trek!