'Forget it man, you're doing it the wrong way. You're imagining food that doesn't exist, whatever comes will disappoint you. We're 5000m up. Just eat what the local's eat, like I do'.
'Dahl Baht... pah. I'm sick of it'. I knew how he felt. I had eaten nothing but local food since we started. Chapati and omelette for breakfast, rice and dal for supper. Each night Mark had tried something new from the menu, and each time had been bitterly disappointed. He even went in to the kitchen one night to supervise them making Beans on Toast, and they still made a mess of it.
'I'm sick of it, sick of it all,' he repeated looking at me suddenly. 'The bad food, the cold, the sleepless nights, the going to the toilet in the feckin cold and freezing your nads off....'
Indra bustled over. 'So tomorrow, we get up at five am, climb Kala Patar mountain. Good view of Everest sunrise'.
'How high is it Indra?' I asked
'5500m. And you must have head torch as it is dark then. Wear all your clothes too as is very cold'.
'And then what?' I asked, trying to liven the mood a little.
'After sunrise, we leave Gorak Shep, walk to Pheriche. Spend the night there, then walk to Kanjuma, near Namche. Next night Monjo, then last night Lukla, and Kathmandu next morning. Four more nights'.
'Really? Do we have to?' Mark asked Indra.
Indra looked surprised. 'No of course not! Its your trip, we can change itinery if you like, go back early'.
Mark and I looked at each other and nodded simultaneously.
'Lets look at the map'.
'Here, look', Mark said. 'We could make further than Pheriche tomorrow. We could make Tengboche. Lukla is only a days walk from Namche. We could save a day, do it in three'.
'How about this Indra? We walk to Kanjuma today, and then make Lukla the day after. 2 days instead of 4. Do you think it can be done?'
Indra looked thoughtful for a minute. "I have never done this before, but I think is possible. two days walking about 8 or 9 hours. Are you sure you want to do this?'.
Without even looking at each other, we both said a hearty yes at the same time.
The lodge was quiet that night. There was a general feeling of tiredness, both emotional and physical after the excitement of reaching base camp. The other groups of trekkers we had been sharing the route with, slipped early off to bed. They had no choice but to climb Kala Pattar and stick to their itinerary.
I didn't sleep well again - three hours for the third night running. I lay from 9pm to 3am, thoughts drifting round my head. Strangely, the lack of sleep, and loss of appetite hadn't really affected me so far;I hadn't felt tired or low on energy. Maybe it was something to do with the pure air, or rarefied atmosphere, or perhaps being in the realm of the Gods. Whatever, when I did sleep I didn't wake when the others left at 5.
We were having breakfast when the first of the trekkers returned from their sunrise ascent. 'How was it?', we asked.
So frozen were they, that we could get no sense from them for a while until they had warmed up.
'Cold, so cold', one said. 'Hard, I thought I was going to die'. 'We missed the sunrise anyway' said a third.
Half an hour later we said our goodbyes. We had grown quite close to a few of them; Nick and Rachel from Sarf London, Canadian Jen who was a nurse in Kathmandu, Irish Anthony whose Dad had died a few months previously, softly spoken ex special school principal Dan, American business journalist Matt, Reah, Joe, Brad, Anna, Gavin, Ian and many more. You get to know people quickly when you are sharing such a journey. We had expected to be with them a few more days, but we were bailing out early.
It was a strange feeling descending. We had completed our mission. The sense of achievement from that was undeniable. Also the emotional and physical and perhaps spiritual experiences we had shared were very present. Perhaps there was a bit of an anti climax, but there was no way to indulge it, there was still an incredibly long way to go and a lot of effort to put in.
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