The “road” to Rhongbuk and that massive mountain

This was the moment we were all waiting for and despite the long, bumpy and at times slightly nerve wracking journey to Qomolangma (Everest) National Park, the minute I set eyes on those snow capped peaks I was mesmerised. The drive lasted around nine hours but with such enthralling scenery I would have gladly sat through longer.

The first few hours of the ride took us through seemingly endless open deserts featuring some enormous sand dunes which of course we stopped at to scale and tumble down!

Our pause at the Gyatso pass (at a height of 5,252m) was particularly memorable break in the journey, not least because that is the highest point I am ever likely to reach in my life!

We arrived at the Rhongbuk guesthouse exhausted but thrilled that we were finally at the foot of the world’s highest point and following such a long day and at such an incredible altitude all I could muster was a short walk to the chorten outside the monastery to gaze towards Everest. After such exertion we settled down for our overnight stay in the basic but perfectly located monastery guesthouse in anticipation of the next day’s task – climb to Everest……base camp!








Next morning at dawn we began the 8km walk up to base camp. We were blessed with the best possible weather conditions which provided us with a perfectly clear view of Everest making an already unbelievable experience all the more magical. My words and to a lesser extent our pictures hardly do the event justice but it was the once in a lifetime opportunity we had dreamt of and much, much more.