Slept pretty well last night all things considering and felt pretty good and ready for the day ahead…”Doing what you like is freedom. Like what your doing is happiness”.

Usual routine – done – were off!

So today we start climbing the ridge we had climbed yesterday. With Dingboche officially being 35 feet lower in elevation than Mount Whitney, we would now be above the highest point of the continental United States the rest of the way to Everest Base Camp – pretty exciting eh!

On reaching the top of the hill we could see miles to the northwest where we were about to travel.

The excitement kicked in at this point by the prospect of this unusually flat plateau. The trail traverses through meadows and farmland before continuing along the lateral moraine of the Khumba Glacier.

On both sides of us were monstrous and scenic mountains. We are traversing scenery that literally takes your breath away.

Photos capture a small portion of the view, but it was such beauty…we are in such a special place.

As we passed through the small village of Duglha we had lunch. This was a good place to stop as afterwards there was a large hill that needed to be climbed, it looked intimidating.

So after lunch we made a start and I was pleasantly surprised how I handled it. Once at the viewpoint there were stone memorials as tributes to climbers who have perished on nearby summits, including Everest. Scott Fischer’s was there also – if anyone has read Into Thin Air or seen the movie Everest, you will know who he is.

This place felt quite moving and we took time to take it all in. It’s easy to see why they chose this place to build the memorials as it was a calming, beautiful place…full of spirit.

There is a change in scenery as the air gets thinner the landscape and vegetation becomes increasingly stark and dramatic.

After this point the trail drops a bit and follows the western side of the valley to Lobuche where we were staying in a tea house called Good Luck…they can pick the names eh!

When we arrived and checked out the place it was dark and very cold and the ‘toilet’ facilities were definitely nothing worth writing home about – let’s just say – OMG…good luck we certainly needed over the next 22 hours!

Tea houses provide an invaluable source of income for this remote region.

Ow and guess what…we found a ‘coffee shop’…so we just had to have one as this must now be the highest ‘coffee shop’ in the world?!

Evening consisted of some much needed heat around the yak pat burning stove although the smell can get a little overwhelming…but we had heat at least so who cares. It’s going to be a long cold night for sure!

Tomorrow is the big day, we hike to…

…EVEREST BASE CAMP!!!!