Another early start at 8:15, however the rain last night had cleared and it was a bright blue sunny morning. I was excited to get going as today I would be walking closer to Everest than I had before. The route would take us through Tenboche and hopefully great views of the Himalayan range. However I remembered that to reach Tenboche it was a hard upwards slog for about 3 hours and my memory didn't let me down. Phew what a struggle, but it was nothing to what the porters go through, look at this poor guy:
Once we got to the top of the climb we were immediately rewarded with one of the most spectacular sights: on our left was the Temboche monastery
and centre and right is the Himalayan range of Nuptse 25,800ft/7,864m, Everest 29,000ft/8,848m, Lohtse 27,880ft/8,501m and Ama Dablam 22,350ft/6,814m
This is zoom on Nuptse, the crinkly ridge in front of Everest and Lohtse on the right.
It was time for lunch at a tea house and taking some more photos of this amazing location.
As we followed the trail down towards Pangboche we took a detour to visit a Buddist Nunnery, however no one was home.
Further along we were now walking on snow and ice, making it very slippery and I was wishing I had brought my micro-spikes!
At long last we reached the lodge at Pangboche and had a very welcome black tea and slice of nut cake; food was becoming an increasingly important part of the day.
At dinner that evening we met a couple from Manchester who were on their way back from Base Camp. They told us how tough it had been and that climbing Kalar Pattar had 'almost killed' her. Aaaarghhh that was something to dream on!
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