Trekking to the Everest Base Camp is all about going up.  From the roadless mountain town of Lukla and its amazing airport at 2,830 metres we were to spend nine days climbing to the base camp which is at about 5,400 metres (almost 17,000 feet).  In those nine days we expected to have to deal with the relentless uphill hiking, we expected to deal with the debilitating altitude sickness and we expected to deal with the sub-zero cold weather.  This we expected.  What we didn’t expect to deal with is the down.  Yes, going up means a lot of going down.

So as we left Lukla with its one road/trail through the centre of the small town and embarked on our trek the first thing we did, in fact virtually the only thing we did the first day, was go down.  And from a psychological point of view, that’s not good because (obviously) every step down means another step up later on. 

But we learned many valuable things that first day.  First, it doesn’t really matter about up or down when you are walking through such a magnificent place.  As we got into our rhythm, typically with Carl closely behind our guide Arjan, Anna following Carl and me playing the caboose (much more on this issue later) on the well-worn track our heads were spinning trying to take in all the amazing scenes. 

First, of course, are the mountains.  At this level the mountains soared above us but only a few of the distant ones had snow and glaciers.  But the mountains were steep and dramatic, towering over our heads, blocking out sun for most of the day, creating an amazing barrier which we were trying to penetrate.  The villages we passed through were very modest, farmers working small patches of land growing mostly cabbage, buckwheat  and potatoes, women going about their daily chores, kids playing as kids do everywhere, but all of this amongst their small wooden homes with no modern conveniences, scant electricity, outdoor drop toilets, very basic stuff. 

We also learned the nature of travelling on the only trail that supports dozens of small villages up the valley, all of which need to have supplies brought to them or goods taken away via this trail.  And all of these supplies are carried by either animals or people.  And I mean amazing animals and amazing people.  At this lower level the animals were all donkeys because donkeys can only handle the lower altitude and the higher temperatures. 

The people, mostly men – porters – were all tough as nails and would carry huge loads, usually bent over at the waist, sometimes as heavy a load as what they weighted themselves.  And we learned quickly not to get in the way of either form of transport, especially the animals who do not deviate from their path and will knock you off the trail with their wide load if you are not paying attention.

And here is where we also learned the important term Nepali flat.  Nepali flat is what Arjan the guide would call most of the trek which is basically not flat at all, mostly marked by long up and down sections, sometimes gentle climbs or descents, sometimes steep steps, rarely real traditional flat.  So when we ask Arjan, “What’s the next couple of hours like?” and he shrugs while giving us his little smile and says, “Not bad, mostly Nepali flat” be aware that what is flat to a young strong Himalaya trekking guide is not flat to Australian city slickers, even very fit Australian city slickers. 

Having said that, we arrived at the village of Phakding for our first night with excited energy to spare.  The temperature dropped to around 5 degrees centigrade and the only heating in the communal room was a little stove that was stocked with a bit of wood and dung for a couple of hours around the dinner hour.  The tea houses, as they’re called, serve decent meals which we order off the limited menu (specialty is potatoes and every imaginable variation of same) and provide a comfortable place to sleep even if your little thin-walled bedroom is virtually the same temperature as outside.  Remember that all building materials, food, furniture, everything needs to be carried up the mountain so there are no frills or extras on offer.

The next day from Phakding at 2630 metres to the largest town in the mountains called Namche Bazaar at 3430 metres was an epic journey and introduced us to up like no other, crushing relentless bloody up.  But to say we climbed 800 metres doesn’t tell the whole story because that should read 800 net metres.  What we really climbed was closer to 1200 metres because remember when you are going up in the Himalayas you also have long sections of down. 

As per most days, we started trekking around 8 am after a decent night’s sleep and a good breakfast.  We continued up the same valley, following the churning white water Dudh Koshi River which is mainly snow and glacier runoff from the mountains high above.  And another surprise, pine trees.  Pine trees everywhere, they are the main form of trees, beautiful healthy pines with the unmistakable childhood smell of California and Lake Tahoe, forests of them up the steep mountains, at this altitude with long needles and good sized cones.  Who would have thunk it?

But there’s a lot of Nepali flat following this raging torrent and we stop just after 11am for lunch in the last tea house before starting what we are told is a big climb up to Namche.   Very worrying if Arjan calls it a big climb – in fact three hours of up, he says.  But of course not all up because after passing into Sagarmatha National Park we have a maddening 250 metre down section to the river so we can cross over to the other side.

Eventually we cross one of many long suspension bridges but this one is the highest of them all, far above the fast river and covered in prayer flags which are flapping wildly in the strong wind.  After the bridge the climb was very tough, the trail very dusty from the centuries of animals pounding it and the ever present wind stirring it, steep rocky steps, endless up at an unforgiving angle.  And I was carrying a nasty chest cold (cleverly imported from Bangkok) which reduced my lung capacity, made my throat sand paper dry and occasionally made the caboose fall behind the rest. 

But the dust was another surprise, constantly part of what you breathed as you avoided the endless chain of animals going up or down along with the porters and locals treading the trail.  Trying to breath in this thinning air and sucking in mostly dust seriously added to our misery.

But to balance the scale of surprises, we came to a little knoll in the trail and through a gap in the pine trees Arjan proudly pointed up the valley and said “That is Mt. Everest”.  Unbelievable, I never expected to see it on day two of the trek but there it was, the granddaddy of them all, majestically surrounded by blue skies and its smaller sisters, an unbelievable sight.  We dropped our packs and took photos, not knowing if the weather would change later this week and this could be a rare – if somewhat distant – view. 

Eventually we made a ridge and followed the mountain line until we hit the amazing town of Namche Bazaar.  Namche is an ancient trading post between India and Tibet, protected by a huge fold in the steep mountain but built in its natural amphitheatre, all buildings made of the same hand chiseled granite blocks with blue painted trim of its windows and doors.  At 3430 metres (10,600 feet) the air is quite thin, the temperature is much lower and the mountains are much closer.  But Namche is a stand out place, home to less than 2,000 people, basically still existing to support the trekking and climbing industry.  Another great surprise.

My room in our teahouse was cruelly on the third floor and that’s where I stayed for the rest of the afternoon, starting the antibiotics and giving my body a chance to rest while Anna and Carl explored this amazing town. 

So we’d been introduced to the Himalayas, even seen Mt. Everest, absorbed the villages and life on the trail plus experienced a seriously demanding killer three hour uphill section in the thick dust and thin air.  Having accomplished all this in only two days surely nothing can stand in our way of our ultimate goal, right?