Made it!

We made it! All 18 of us despite the headaches and funny tummies. The day started at 5.30 and all of us made it back together safely if slightly knackered. We all feel very proud. The altitude - 5364 m and boy did you feel it at times.

Tonight we'll rest, and tomorrow get some great views over Everest - photos to follow. The connection here at Gorak Shep is slightly rudimentary, but the guy who owns it is certainly an entrepreneur - the highest connection I've used.

More to follow as we descend tomorrow!!

At Dingboche

This is truly magical. After several days trek past spectacular scenery, mountains ahead, the land has opened out and we are surrounded by frosted peaks - this is really the Himalayas as you see in pictures. There are seven or eight majestic summits around our teahouse. Last night a few of us wandered up the slopes and saw the whole thing swathed in rose with the sun setting. Am Dablam rises up right ahead of where we are staying, and the moon was 3/4 full over it last night.

This is a place that makes you feel glad you're alive and you get a sense that anything's possible. Maybe why further up, they say, there are so many cairns to the memory of those who believed that too.

We went for a walk this morning to test the altitude (4760 m) and experience the peace, with the flags strung across the path here and there. It's the highest I've been yet and I think it's a truly original landscape. I'm in good company to appreciate it - lots of cheery Irish and the same goes for the ever patient sherpas. They're ever watchful - only two of us have had to go into the decompression chamber so far. Two days to go - on Saturday we get to Base Camp. It's 9-10 hours walking, and hopefully we'll all be fit enough to make it.

Prayer bridge

We've seen the most fantastic bridges, in iron, on the way here. They stretch across gulfs that plunge down towards a river - the Milky River, so called because of the white froth and the glacial blue colour. They're often decked with prayer flags, a cheerful sight. The bridges are commissioned by something like the "the Royal Bridge Company", which was inaugurated apparently by the Swiss years ago. Well, they know something about mountains too.

It's been a great day again. We climbed up to the Everest View cafe, an apparently unprofitable locale built by the Japanese - the plane crashes didn't help. It's been a great way to spend a birthday and my companions have presented me with different Nepalese nick-nacks, prayer wheels, beads and the like. Roll on my 22nd :-).

Route to Namche Bazaar

We've spent the last few days trekking up to Namche Bazaar. Scenery is superb; the sherpas friendly and attentive. Our guide was born at 4000m, he tells us. So he's used to the altitude and is attentive to our lowland constitutions. No booze, no meat, slow trekking, and rest in the evening. The group is a bunch of lively Irish. There is one pretty visually challenged person in the group, but he's managing - it's a great achievement. Larks in the evening and it's joke-a-minute. Tomorrow we get a rest, but the next day the trekking gets longer and colder. Good feedback from all we cross on their way down. Weather is fantastic - sunny and clear. :-)

A week to go

A week to go, and starting to get excited. Ran a half marathon the other week - picture to follow(!) Lots of moral support from friends, family, colleagues and friends of friends has helped the fundraising. A major music event in Dundee by family and friends will raise even more. on Friday So may have beaten the orignal £4.5k target by at least 100%. More news tomorrow on that.