Written in retrospect (though present tense) due to extreme shock and terror. Well there was an earthquake. A big one. And it shook us to the core. We are alive and safe, and now stuck in Nepal for an unknown length of time. Yesterday we took a rest day and relaxed, knowing that today (our final day of EBC trek) would be a long hike of 8-9 hours. We set off before 7am, anxious to get the day started. We went solidly for four and a half hours with only one t...

What a wonderful and relaxing day we had. Starting with sleeping in till after 7am, we laid in our separate beds, in our separate sleeping bags, and read until 8, and then wondered down for a leisurely breakfast. (can't wait to get back to being a normal couple again!) I must also report that Damian had his first shower in about ten days yesterday. He said it was the best shower be ever had. We finally had a good, long, well overdue cuddle. Almost feels like w...

As the snow fell lightly over our heads, we descended into Phortse Tenga, the town where we had to decide whether to go up to Dole or down to Namche. Both of us were exhausted after going hard for the last week, hiking over six hours every day and we decided to take a break. Plus with the weather forecasting snow up at Gokyo, we will keep it on our bucket list for another time. This meant we had to continue on to Namche, which was cumulatively down 400 meters...

We've been higher than we've ever been and now it's time to come down. At 5640 meters (18,504 feet), Kala Pattar was one of the most beautiful scenes I have ever been privileged to be at. To say the views of the Himalayas surrounding you 360 degrees is breathtaking, would not even do it justice. It was serene, enchanting, and magnificent. But it was more, and words cannot describe what it was like to be up there. I look back at the photos I took and they look pho...

Talk about exhausted. We slept in till 7, had a leisurely breakfast and walked to Everest Base Camp. Though nowhere near as difficult as Kala Pattar, we were exhausted from the few days before, combined with poor nights sleep (common at this altitude), and the two and a half hours there was exhausting. It only ascended 300m from Gorak Shep but it went up and down, up and down. For the first time since we started almost ten days ago, I had to sit down to rest, f...