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Saturday : sunny, overcast, raining
It's my birthday today!! At 4400m
I didn't even take advantage of the sleep in. I was up before 6:30, and outside with the camera. Lucky me the clouds were gone and the snowy mountains were out. I went for a walk around taking photos, in my PJ's. Soon Kim and Jordan came out to have a look. Kim went back to bed and Jordan and I went for a walk to the top of a hill. To take some photos of Ama Dablam and island peak. Island peak is a mountain 6190m and four people in the group will leave the main group later on the climb it. Pretty cool.
We came back and got clean up for breakfast. We ate breaky outside today for a change. It was great with the sun out, and everyone said happy bday. I had a snickers pie, muesli, and a birthday beer. I got a gift off a fellow trekker (Nicole), it was two snickers bard. A bunch of people in the group bought a box each for the trek. They will come in handy. I also got a top north face fleece off Kim, and a bottle of wine and biscuits off Jordan, Nissa and Kim.
We then had our water bottles filled up, for a big walk, up a mountain that is behind where we are staying. The plan was to get to 5300m, that's the height of Everest base camp.
It was a big walk straight up, zig zaging our way up the mountain. Jordan and I had already walk some of it this morning too. We were following another group today they were a bit slower than us. We overtook them and left them behind.
We got to 5000m, i still felt great. No altitude affects yet. The group wanted to keep on going to. The guides were not so keen, but were convinced. The group made it to 5200m, the wind, clouds and cold picked up by that stage too. No longer could we see the valley and town below. The guides wanted to pull the pin, there were four that thought differently, I was one of the four. We got told that 5300m still wasn't the top of the hill too. That didn't change our mind, when we could see our peak. The group turned around and we continued up, the guide overdid it, he started to run up taking photos, and once at the top of our peak he collapsed for about 15min. We really had to give him a good wakeup too, before we went down. It took 3hrs to climb 1km straight up and 1hr to get down again. Not to bad.
Once down we opted out from eating and the lodge for lunch. We still were offended by the note on the menu. Jordan, Nissa and Kim, had gone to the shop and picked up, some goodies. Pineapple, Nak cheese, and bread to all go with the biscuits and wine. To make a fantastic birthday lunch. Thanks guys! We had to eat it in our rooms or we would of gotten charged. It was a top effort from the bunch, I had a really nice time.
We had to cut the lunch short slightly, for a portable altitude chamber demonstration. It's used when someone gets altitude sickness, and I was the test dummy.
Its the shape of a swag, but made from jumping castle plastic. Then it gets pumped up and pressurized to a lower the altitude inside the coffin. It's a fixed pressure depending on how high you are at the time, at 4400m the pressure inside was equivalent to 1500m. The pressure was full on the whole time I was in there, I had to keep popping my ears. If you were sick you would stay inside for 3hrs, I stayed in there for 20min. I hopped out and felt slightly dizzy. One minute at 4400m then 1500m then back up to 4400m.
After the demo we had free time, we went to the internet cafe. It was super slow, but while we were there we got to charge our camera batteries which was 150 rupees cheaper than our lodge. My dizziness had turned into a headache now. Kind of regretting putting my hand up to be the dummy.
We came back to the lodge and on the walk back it was raining very heavily. It didn't stop all night. we came back to the room and finished off the wine. Then went out to a weak fire and played cards for the hour before dinner.
We had stew, pizza and mars bar pie. We got briefed on our walk tomorrow after dinner, another big day planned. Then got back into the cards.
Surprise!! Out came a cake and everyone started to sing happy birthday. I was so surprised and happy.
The trek leader organized the cake to be cooked at the lodge, Lukpa what a legend. Lukpa is the head guide, started off quiet but now is in full swing. He also gave me a Nepalese scarf and hat to wear. Ended up for keeps. I cut up the cake, and we all got a piece even the trekking staff. Feel bad about bagging out the lodge now, and I'm sooo full I haven't eaten that much for awhile. Top effort by all!!
We wrapped up my awesome birthday with more card playing before bed.
That birthday was great definitely one to remember, thanks too all.
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