The drive to Everest Base camp is long (duration, not distance), rough, winding, arduous and spectacular! As we entered the Himalayas in our petrol mini van (with limited suspension), the journey started and we could feel every bump/. As we progressed through the mountains, the snow started. How atmospheric! But clouds mean poor visibility, which means the chance of not being able to see Mount Everest!Before long, we picked up signs to the giant (local name Mount Qomolangma). Amazingly you can get a pretty good mobile phone signal on the way to Mount Everest!
We stayed in a home-stay style tent, attached to a family's residence (it was called "Mount Everest Happy Tent"), where we could sleep six people. They had a yak dung-burning stove, and heated some Chinese food up for us that Jian had kindly procured for us at a restaurant earlier (this is a place where I had failed to eat pig ears because they weren't in stock!). Due to more logisitical problems with the tour company, Sonam had to sleep in the van!
Looking outside, the weather had worsened significantly. It was now raining very badly, and the chances of seeing Everest even the next morning were next to nothing. We should have been able to see it on the way! You can see from the picture, conditions at the camp had become grim!
