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We stopped early in Tingri to stock up on snacky stuff for a few days since we won't be near any towns, buying all sorts of weird Chinese snacks, and also stopped to buy the permits for Qomolangma National Park. We turned off the Friendship Highway into the park itself and headed up and up and up around hairpins with great views down the valley. The pass at the top was 5100m, and at the top there is supposed to be an amazing view of the whole Everest range, but unfortunately it was cloudy so we could only see the bases of snowy mountains. It took us ages to get down the other side, winding down and down more hairpins and switchbacks. Eventually we stopped to camp at about 4300m again, not far from a villlage. Before long we had a few guys riding past who stopped to check us out, then a gaggle of kids from the village hung around fascinated for ages.

On day 99 of our journey we drove up the rest of the road to Everest Base Camp. We headed south past some gorgeous scenery but on a terrible road. As we rounded the corner into the final valley, Mt Everest appeared. It was a crystal clear view, only small wisps of cloud hanging around - we were extremely lucky. We drove up the valley, stopping a few times for photos and eventually reached the "tent camp" area which is a tent-hotel and shopping place for tourists. This was as far as the truck could go so we paid ¥25 for a bus to take us further up the valley to base camp, which is also just for tourists. Real climbers apparently use a base camp further up. We had to climb a small hill to get the great views - and at 5200m that's not easy! We took loads of pictures and got the bus back to the lower camp, where we bought overpriced jewellery and sent postcards from the China Post office.

It was agreed that we probably wouldn't see a better view in the morning so instead of spending the night up there we headed back on the bumpy road to about 4300m, near the same place as last night. Altitude is getting a bit easier now and I think most people had a good night's sleep once the adreneline from seeing Mt Everest had worn off.