A sluggish start this morning saw us leave at 8:45am. A bit later than we'd planned. We were informed to prepare for a cold morning. We did, and instead of cold we got glorious sunshine! Fleeces were quickly replaced with sunglasses and hats as the slow roasting of my neck continued...

I should say something about the scenery here. It's simply beautiful. Because of the gorgeous weather we could see the snow-capped peak of Thamserku to the right as we followed the raging river up to Namche. Trees lined the river on either side and we were treated to a few river crossings on some cable bridges - some incredibly high up!

Next up was a fairly back breaking and relentless climb up to Namche before another steep climb to our teahouse, the Moon Light Lodge, where we arrived just after 2pm. Tired.

By this point we'd met up with Warren and Amy, a couple from Perth who we're starting to form a little group with, as they were victims of our impromptu charades game last night and our two guides are old friends. We bumped into them in town where we'd gone to exchange the last of our pounds for rupees. Our hopes for an ATM were unfounded.

It's pretty cold up here when sun isn't out. We're already at 3340m and the overnight temperature is a little over freezing at around 5 degrees C. We're staying here for two nights, which is good for acclimatisation, but otherwise bad as our en suite toilet (with no flush) and basin smells like a mix of Exmoor Rangers' changing room and piss.

Namche is also the first place where we've really starting noticing the effects of altitude. Strenuous tasks take your breath away (don't run up the steps, Matravers) and everything is generally a bit slower and more difficult.

We should get our first view of Everest tomorrow as we do a short acclimatisation trek to the aptly titled Everest View Hotel. Hopefully it does exactly what it says on the tin. We would have seen Everest today but the clouds were high and blocked our view.

That's about it. Gez keeps farting like a trooper, the toothpaste in my washbag exploded and we both haven't showered for two days and counting.