So this morning we bid farewell to Dingboche at 4400m and began our journey to Lobuche at 4900m.

I woke up feeling great again and ready to take on the day. How quickly things can change on the mountain at high altitude...

Ok so the trek began well with a pretty substantial uphill part followed by a "Nepalese flat" (the Nepalese call anything not ridiculously steep a Nepalese flat). Anyways we took it slow and were well dressed to take on the bitterly cold wind. Then it started to snow. Fantastic.

We then stopped at a half way tea house for lunch and we bumped into the ex-Nepalese foreign minister who is 82 years old! I wasn't quite sure how he managed to get this far but what he achieved was not easy let me tell you. I was seriously impressed. Then we spoke to him and his crew (we noticed he had his own camera crew!) and found out he was on his was to Everest Base Camp! You will never believe why...he is going to climb Everest and make a summit attempt - at 82 years old people!!!

After lunch we started our trek again but we hit a wall. That's the only way to describe it. It was steep, the terrain was rough and inconsistent, it was snowing, it was cold, but that wasn't the worst thing. The worst thing was the altitude and complete lack of oxygen. It was insane. The only way I can describe it was it would be like walking up 3 or 4 stairs, then having to stop. You would be breathing like you've just sprinted 50m and your heart would be racing. You would have to stop, recover and push on. It was a totally energy draining experience. It was demoralising and it just plain sucked! And the mountain seemed to go on and on - never-ending. But it did end finally and we felt like collapsing on the ground. But we pushed unknowing that our lodge was only about an hour away. But the altitude and the mountain finished us. As we were walking on flat ground approaching the hotel we had to stop to recover our breath. That's right we have to stop to recover even on flat ground at this altitude.

Welcome to 4900m y'all.

(No sign of altitude sickness returning however - thank you science).

We are now doing our best to recover in our lodge so we get well rested. Tomorrow is going to be a very long day. Up at 6am and out the door by around 7:30am then off to Gorak Shep to drop off our bags at the next lodge then off right away to Everest Base Camp! Wow we are so close to our goal and I've certainly been though some ups and downs. Down to start, then back to full strength, now really being affected by the high altitude and having to fight it every step of the way.

Wish me luck on our trek to Everest tomorrow!

p.s. No showers for the next 3-4 days. Mmm what a nice smell...