This morning we made our way to the trekking company to meet with them and discuss our base camp trek. We met with the company boss and enjoyed a chai tea as always. Within 10 minutes or so, he told us about an additional pass that you can do after base camp, called the Chorla Pass. He showed us a couple of photos of the pass and the Gokio lakes. The pass was tricky and took an extra 3-4 days but we signed up for it in seconds. We got our gear list from him and also decided to start the trek a day early, on the 20th instead of the 21st which meant that today was prep day for the trip as we would be flying early the next morning to Lukla. After leaving the office we set off to get the remaining gear we needed. Almost every second ship in Thammel is an outdoor/trekking gear shop stocking mainly fake but decent quality 'North Face' stuff. After visiting a few we decided to check out a cafe called OR2K. After some dal bat and a Nepalese version of 'Hello to the Queen' we continued our mission. We probably visited around 20 shops trying on down jackets, gloves, trousers, hats and everything in between. Finally we negotiated a good price for the hire of a couple of sleeping bags, a jacket and trousers for Helen and some gloves. We carted all the gear back to our hostel and got our bags ready for the adventure and packed away our summer gear and hair straighteners into the hostels store room for a couple of weeks. We had an early night as we were being collected around 5:30 the next morning for our flight to Lukla.