I am 4910 m above sea level, and feeling pretty good!

It's not the complete truth, but kinda. I got Diamox this morning along with paracetamol and that took away the buffalo dance and the heavy legs! Amazing how good it can be on this altitude :)
Today we should have walked for 4 hours but as we had two ill girls it took a bit longer for us, 7h.. We had lunch at 3 pm and we weren't the happiest guys.. We walked through a very rough landscape, alpine, and it was up and down.. Just rocks and some very short greens. Some flowers also survive here but they are very small.
I have got to know one of our Sherpas pretty well, Padam. He has been walking with me quite a bit as he is the last person and I like to be in the back- a bit quieter and I can walk in my own speed. My best friends are also normally at the back so it's perfect! 
Padam is 22 years old and comes from Lukla. He is starting university in November where he will learn management and nutrition, so he can bring this knowledge back to the Himalayas. He is a very sweet young man with the heart at the right place. If there is anyone I want give the world to, it's him. I wish for him all the success in the world. 
He has also taught me a song in Nepali which I now sing without problem and he finds that very funny. What else is there to do than learning songs in a foreign language when walking for hours? :) 

Me and Padam at a monastery 

Thukla pass memorial - 4830m above sea level
Half way to Lobouche we stopped at a memorial site where there were monuments set up in remembrance of all people who died on Mount Everest. It was a very sad place and my tears were running down my face. The messages or last words were so touching and it felt like I personally had lost all of them. So incredibly sad. Many died on the way back down, some in the arms of a Sherpa..
I could see how the families came there to put up these monuments and the sign and had a ceremony at a spot where their loved ones just loved to be. "Aim high!" was a message to one of the guys. 

Tomorrow- arrival to Mt Everest Base Camp!
First we will arrive to Gorak Shep, the first base camp for Edmund Hillary and Tenzin Nurgey Sherpa in 1953. After a lunch there we will go on to the current base camp, another 3h. It's a bit strange to have the goal so close after so many days of walking.. Can't really believe it.

Jen x

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