September 5th- Everest Base Camp Trek: Day 3

Tea with a View

Although it was supposed to be a rest day, we were woken at 7:00 again for breakfast before we embarked on a short 3 hour hike up to the Everest View Hotel. First though, we walked to a national park nearby and got our first look at Mount Everest.


Don't worry, we were unsure as well. After double checking with Raju (that one? No that one! Oh, you mean that one?), we confirmed the peak that would become familiar to us over the following days.

Close up of Lhotse.

Close up of Everest. She was shy and hid in the clouds!

Afterwards, we headed up a steep slope that looked awfully familiar (more steps!?), though we were thankful to leave our packs behind at the teahouse this time. Despite it being a mere two hours up, we were exhausted and short on breath. We both caught our fair share of sun as well, and we both have mild burns on our nose, cheeks, arms and necks. Note to self: sunscreen from here on out.

Find the Matt in the mountain!

It might not look it but the path was on the edge of a steep cliff.

Arriving at the Everest View Hotel, we were once again amazed by the view. Perched on a mountainside facing North, we had a birds eye view of the valley below, and Raju could even point out the town we would head for the next day. And looking up, the view was no less spectacular. Arrayed in all their glory where the peak of Lhotse (8414m), the Nuptse range (7861m) and, of course, the hotel's namesake, peaking at 8848m, Everest herself.

Shedding her shrouds, the peak of Mt. Everest.

Not sure which peak this is but it is breathtaking.

We enjoyed a brief pot of tea while basking in her glory, snapped a few pictures, and headed back down to Namche Bazaar just as the clouds rolled in over the mountains. The view on the trek down was every bit as amazing. 

View of the valley we trekked through yesterday.


Sitting in the mountains, burning to a crisp!

We then had a quick wander around town, scoping out prices as we looked for a few essentials and steeling ourselves for another round of bargaining. Matt never felt so pleased at buying two rolls of toilet paper for 3.50$

Determined to put the rest in rest day, we headed back to our room and spent a cozy afternoon in reading. We were told that next day's trek would be every bit as challenging as the road to Namche, so we braced ourselves for the day to come and rested up with all our might.

Interesting side plot: Matt got chatting with a man and his daughter who had arrived at our tea house that day. Using his excellent deduction skills, he could tell from his Hockey Canada hat that he might be from back home. Turns out he lives in Oakville, and that his daughter is in Ottawa. It seems that every other person we meet on the trail is from Canada, and that every other one of those are from Ottawa. It's good to catch up with people from home, swap stories, and speculate about things to come.

Altitude at Everest View Hotel: 3880m
Altitude trekked: 440m
Hours trekked: 3

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Where the Rainforest Meets the Reef

Image
Finally, we've made it out of the Outback! A few wrong turns, a couple canabalistic acts and some hair raising encounters with kangaroos later, we've finally made it out of the desert.... No, only joking! We've been out of the outback for months now, and wow do we have a story to tell! While in Alice Springs, we made the most of our time and applied to a couple jobs in and around the Cairns region, hoping that someone would reply by the time we reached the coast. Resumes sent, we went off into the Outback. Turns out we had left the worst of it behind us and the journey through Tennants Creek and detouring to the Devils Marbles was hot, yes, but completely manageable. We definitely felt we could take our time.... However, things don't usually work out the way we plan and we suddenly had a deadline looming over us. The "Devil's Marbles," a series of curious rock formations in the Outback, North of Alice Springs. The day after we left Ali...
Read more

October 25th- So This Is Van Life!

Image
As of Sunday (the 21st), we can officially call our new van our home! We sprung from the nest (thanks a million Barrie, Shana, Stephen and Asha, we had an amazing time!) and have been travelling around the Blue Mountains region. We're sticking around the national park as we find our camping legs and are enjoying getting into the swing of van living. Our journey so far! To be honest, our route planning skills aren't quite there yet, we are bouncing around a little bit and back tracking rather than doing everything in sequence, but it's been fun so we're not complaining! After we left Sydney, we drove to Old Ford Reserve in Megalong valley and set up camp there for 3 nights. It was a beautiful, small camp ground with fire pits down a long snaking road that boasted spectacular views. Matt the photographer taking some snaps of our campground neighbours. It was admittedly a bit far from any towns or attractions so we found ourselves with a lot of spare...
Read more

November 3rd- The Sun is NOT a Lie

Image
We last checked in from Oberon, a lovely small town in the Blue Mountain Regions, where we were re-cooperated from the bumpy glowworm fiasco. We spent the day sitting around the library and enjoying the sunshine before we started off towards the Boyd River campground located in the Kanangra-Boyd National Park. We set off, admiring the scenery which had changed from winding roads to country lanes. We reached the park and were immediately engulfed in flashbacks to the glowworm tunnel, potholes everywhere! We struggled through and made it to our campsite. It was lovely, tucked in the middle of the forest with tall gumtrees all around and a fire-pit with every campsite. This was by far our favourite campsite yet. The next morning we walked down the end of the park road (we were not taking the van over the rest of the potholes!) towards the Kanangra Walls Lookout. From there, we walked the the Kanangra Walls and walked the Kanangra-Boyd Plateau Cliff, taking in astounding views again. A...
Read more