Everest Base Camp, Friday 13th, Sept 2013...A Summary

OK so this blog didn't really happen... even though we had a lot of free time in the afternoon and evening I was always a bit too tired and spaced out to think enough to write, and sometimes I didn't feel like reliving the day! I did buy a diary with elephants and handmade paper in Thamel, our area in Kathmandu, but that didn't see too much action either! When I started to get ill I spent the evenings reading the Hunger Games trilogy on my kindle as it always makes me feel better immersed into Katniss' world to forget my own aches and pains! Whilst I was away I also read Revenge Wears Prada (pretty good!) and Wedding Night the new Sophie Kinsella book. In the evenings if I wasn't hibernating we played card games like cheat and sh*thead and rummy (James had the cutest cat cards!) or just sit chatting in the main room warming up.

Anyway the most important thing to say is that around 2pm on Friday the 13th (13 is my lucky number, and 2013 has been the most amazing year so this is fitting!), on the 8th day of trekking, I finally made it up 5364m to Base Camp, with something like 1/3 of the oxygen than there is at sea level, and it snowed all through our trek that afternoon. I have to say I was a tiny bit disappointed as it really was just a raised pile of rocks, with the icy background of the true base camp, and it was quite cloudy so we couldn't see much of any mountains. BUT I am so glad I made it, despite the painful back, then a bad stomach ache for days, feeling sick often and having a lack of sleep, I got there in the end!!

All the UEA people got together for a video in front of the base camp monument, and sung the UEA song; 'Oh UEA (Oh UEA) Oh UEA is wonderful...its full of ..., ... and rabbits, oh UEA is wonderful!' (rude bits missed out)

I made it up there under my own power but then as we left Base Camp in the snow, I started getting a tight chest and then I couldn't breathe, was really scary!! So Tashi and Bali, two of the sherpas, took me down via piggy back and also on Tashi's shoulders, that was pretty scary because he was jumping between huge boulders taking shortcuts whilst I was clinging on for my life!
Back at Gorak Shep (5164m) at the Yeti Resort where we stayed that night I had really bad chest pains and only slept a little, then we were woken at 4am so we could trek to Kala Pattar the highest point of the trek where you can get amazing views of Everest, however it was too snowy so they woke us up only to tell us we couldn't go, quite gutting! Then it was up again by 7 to begin heading back down. It was strange trekking back, knowing we'd seen it all the other way around, recognising some bits but not others, plus we did it in half the time. They were VERY long days though like 9 hours walking and the last day back to Lukla with a stop in Phakding for lunch (where we spent our first night) was very tough and tiring and it was great to high five Padam (another Sherpa) as I was the first to cross back under the arch to the village of Lukla where our trek ended.

Most importantly, my Yeti made the journey that is the title of my blog; from Expedition Everest, Animal Kingdom, FL, USA all the way to Base Camp, Nepal, with a 10 hour time difference and currency worth 1% as much, it really is two completely different worlds! I sent some photos of me and my Yeti to the cast members who work the ride, they enjoyed them!