Friday 6th April – Day 8

   Nuptse

Everest here *  Follow directly up from the Asterix and Everest point is in that tiny white cloud. The pointed tip. Make the pic larger probably easier to see.  Our first sighting of the Khumbu Icefall  the blue white crumple zone spilling down and into the moraine  just out of sight in this pic is the coloured spots of the highest tents in base camp   This is Gorek Shepand just at the back right side of this photo you can the cricket pitch when the highest cricket match in the world was played between Indian and Brits. Now it’s been beaten by a pick made somewhere on Kilimanjaro. All players had to acclimatise and play a certain number of overs for it to be a legal game

Yaks in the snow. These ones are returning after dripping at base camp. No loads  The toilet here. Apologies if youre having your lunch  

Pretty uneventful day, nice walking for the most part, pretty flattish to start and then about half way it went up and down and up and down and up and down over and over the moraine until we reached Gorek Shep. About 3 hours walking.
We’re staying in Himalayan Lodge at 5189m. The food is great especially macaroni Bolognese which isn’t macaroni it’s Conchigli shells; my favourite.
Just before we saw Gorek Shep we could see the Khumbu Ice Fall tumbling down and little coloured spots right at the bottom of it -base camp.
We see yaks all the time passing now with gear for base camp and helicopters flying all the time dropping there.
We are now surrounded by the beautiful white giants, Pumori, Nuptse, Changse (in Tibet) and the west side of Everest and it’s south summit. Lobuche was there somewhere in the clouds.
It’s snowing again this evening but this time more snow and it’s lying. It’s pretty baltic up here.