Well, the sicknesses have well and truly kicked in now! We woke this morning with rubbish colds and both of us feeling very lethargic. We got stuck into the medicines early to try and lift our spirits – nothing like some drugs for a quick pick-me-up!
When we stepped outside, the air was certainly crisp, but there were gorgeous blue skies above and the sun was doing its best to warm the place up. This morning’s walk offered fantastic views of Tim’s favourite mountain – Ama Dablam. While we had a couple of steep climbs, the walk wasn’t too hard when compared with the past few days.
By lunch time, Teone’s spirits were down as her illness was worsening and she was physically exhausted. To make things even worse, the clouds rolled in early today, making it the coldest walk to date. We were now up so high that we were walking through the clouds. It was a pretty spectacular sight to see, even though the wind was bitterly cold and you couldn’t see more than 100m in front of you. It was like a thick fog was surrounding you. It made the afternoon walk very tough.
During the afternoon walk, we also made it above the tree-line. This is the place where trees no longer grow above a certain altitude. Although particular shrubs and a little bit of grass were still growing, the land was starting to become a lot more dusty and rocky. We were now about halfway to our goal!
After a 2 hour slog, we finally made it to Dingboche! It was a good-sized village that sat at the base of Ama Dablam. We checked into our teahouse and immediately had our daily baby wipe shower and changed into some warm clothes. You can’t shower at these higher altitudes as the cold will make you sick almost straight away. Baby wipes are the perfect way to keep yourself feeling clean and smelling half reasonable.
Just as we crawled into our sleeping bags for an afternoon nap, it began to snow outside – another milestone for Teone as this was the first time she’d seen consistent snow falling. It was a pretty sight watching snowflakes fall on to the potato farms outside our bedroom window.
Before dinner we went downstairs to the common room, sat by the fire and had lemon, honey and ginger tea – which really did the trick. We both instantly felt warmer and a little better. Besides water, this became our drink of choice for the remainder of the trip.
That evening, Ram told us that we have a hefty “rest day” climb ahead of us in the morning, so had another early night and prayed that we would be feeling better in the morning.
- Trekking Time: 6 Hours
- Teahouse: Good Luck Hotel
- Altitude: Dingboche – 4410m
- O2 Levels: Teone – 90 / Tim – 83
TnT Travels 