21 September 2011
It was day 11 of our trek to the Everest base camp when we were finally able to communicate to the outside world again.
I am just recovering from altitude sickness. It kicked in on around day eight when we got between 4,000 and 5,000 metres above sea level and when it takes hold it’s like nothing I’ve ever felt before. It was like my brain was trying to get out of my skull!
I had no appetite, no energy, nausea, no sense of humour and a really dry cough. You couldn’t even lie down, because that made it worse.
Then, suddenly, it passed once I got to 5,000 metres and some of the other guys – who are half my age, I hasten to add – got it.
Even throughout all that, it’s been really enjoyable and I’ve tried to make it as much fun as possible by getting people to sing songs as we were trudging up sheer hills for hours at a time (as the sherpa called it, the Nepalese flat!). I’ve even had the sherpas singing too!
Because of the ages of the other walkers in our group, I am completely down with the kids now and I know all about the latest technology.
I’ve also been telling them all about the drilling industry and the fact that I’ve been striving to make D-Drill as eco friendly as possible. When you see an environment like this, it makes you realise just how important that is.
We’ve seen lots of people also chipping away at stones to create the buildings such as tea rooms that you see during the climb because they have no real tools to speak of up here.
I’ve mentioned to one of the sherpas that we might have to open a D-Drill office in Kathmandu so I can send all the best sawing equipment up to be used to cut the stone. He says he wants to run the operation!
We are now above the tree-lines and the scenery is quite barren and rocky – we’ve left the milk river and lush landscape behind. There are still very beautiful flowers, the like of which I’ve never seen and they all seem to be wearing fur coats.
There’s also a lot of bird life up here and they also have a version of a very fat pheasant, which runs around chirping a lot. I think they know they are not allowed to be killed up here because they are so loud and cocky!
But, in all seriousness, it’s been great fun and a real eye-opening experience and we have base camp – an even higher peak called Kalapatar – to conquer.
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