Hi everyone, we are safe and sound back in Kathmandu, after a wonder 20 day trek. We flew into Lukla, which is a tiny community that has sprung up around the only airstrip in the Khumbu region. The airstrip itself is very short, and on a 45 degree angle, as it is in the middle of the mountains, there is nowhere flat for it to land. We had to take a special "STOL" plane (short takeoff and landing), which was actually terrifying. I think I kissed the groung as son as the plane stopped moving.

As part of the new government regulations, we hired a porter for our trek - he was entrusted to carry our sleeping bags and some extra clothers for the trek. His name was Deskumar - and he spoke no english - which made copmmunication quite difficult - but amazingly we got by. All he knew how to say was "Rest?", "Ready?" and "Lunch?" - which was pretrty much all we heard the whole trip!

We set off on a short 3 hour hike on the first day to Phakding - which was a little lower than Lukla, which was so that we could sleep at a lower altitude to give our bodies time to adjust to the lower oxygen levels. The next day we had a killer of a climb up to Namche, which was over 800m higher than Phakding. The climbing didn't seem to end, and our bodies were definitely taking a beating. We finally arrived in Namche and went straight to bed - without even eating as we were so tired, we could hardly open our eyes. This was also our first taste of the bitter coldness that envelops the mountain of a night. We climbed into our down sleeping bags wearing two pairs of thermal underwear, longsleeved shirt, fleece jumper, goosedown jacket, beanie and gloves, and still we shivered!

We had a rest day for acclimatisation at Namche, then made our way to Khumjung, a few hunmdred metres higher than Namche. We stayed with a local family here which was a lot of fun. The lady of the house could speak some english, so we taught her how to play Go Fish and s***head and played cards most of the evening. She had a young daughter who was probably around 7 who Dean taught how to play memory - they stayed up playing that game - we had a really nice time with the local family.

The next few days involved lots of climbing and cold nights until we reached Gokyo - which was the first goal of our trip - to climb okyo Ri (5200m) and see Mount Everest. It was a gruelling climb - we were very out of breath as there is only 50% of the oxygen at that height so you find yourself breathing twice as fast to get enough air. The views were stunning - it was a 360 degree panorama which included Mount everest. Nuptse and Cho Oyu - It was such a beautiful place.

From Gokyo, we needed to cross a mountain pass, known as the Cho La Pass in order to get the the Everest side of the mountain range. We were warned that this pass could be particularly dangerous if it has snowed, as ice forms on the very steep cliff face, and the snow can mask hidden crevasses. However, the locals said that the pass was currently okay to cross, so we set out. We left at 6am, and had to trek up into a valley for a few hours before we could actually see the pass. We bumped into another couple of trekkers and asked them where the pass was, and he pointed straight up, and said - "it's that one there". I laughed as I though he was joking , then I saw him putting on his crampons and grabbing his ice-axe out of his bag and I realised he wasn't joking.

Dean and I looked at each other and I was dumbstruck by the enormity of the task ahead. W didn't have any mountaineering gear - just our trusty hiking boots and this pass looked almost vertical from where we were standing. We said - "oh well we've some this far - lets just do it!!" So we started our climb. It was by far the most physically challenging thing we have ever done, at one stage we were on all fours clambering over the ice to gain some ground. When we finally made it to the top, we both felt like we were about to die. The air was so thin and we were so exhausted - then we realised we'd have to climb all the way down the other side to reach the next village. A whole 9 hours later we made it to our base for the night - and again it was straight to bed without dinner, as we were so exhausted. OUr odies were also fighting to stay warm as well. which put further strain on us - we were just utterly worn out. The next day we were off agian, however, as we still hadn't recovered from the tough day before, it was very hard going, our legs were like jelly. The next day we walked to Gorak Shep - from which we would climb Kala Patter, a 5,600m mountain that would get us close to Everest. We left at 8am and were on the top of the mountain 2 hours later. The view of Everest was amazing. I felt like I could almost reach out and touch it! The wind on the top of the mountain was fierce. We heard the story of someone a few weeks earlier who was knocked off their feet by the wind, and plummeted to their death, so we made sure we held on to the nearest rocks as anchors!

So we finally did it - climber Gokyo Ri, ChoLa Pass and Kala Patter - I must say that the sense of schievement is amazing. When we had been talking about it for so long - to actually do it was the best feeling!.

It took us about 3 days to make our way back to Lukla - and at this stage we were so keen to get back to civilisation - we hadn't showered for the whole trip and we were dying to get warm and have nice hot showers. However it wasn't to be - we woke up on the morning of our flight and loked out the window and it was pur white - We were in a giant cloud and there was no way that the planes would be able to land as the airstrip was now invisible! So we had to wait anouther day, praying that the weather would clear up for the planes to land. Luckily it did and we were able to fly out the next day!

SO we have spent the last few days bumming around Kathmandu - pretty much doing nothing at all. It has been lovely. Yesterday was our 1 year anniversary - and we had a nice dinner at one of the restaurants here. We fly out to Delhi tomorrow, where we have to stay overnight and then fly out to Hong Kong for some shopping and sightseeing before heading to Thailand. We are flying straight down to Koh Samui from Bangkok to do some serious beach-bumming before we get home on the 18th!

Cant wait! Take care and we'll see you soon!

The Deans