Day 4: Namche acimatisation day

After another broken sleep ( I think it's the altitude ) we awoke to glorious sunshine and the sounds of helicopters going up and down the valley. 

I woke up with a mild headache but was hoping it would just pass.

We had a breakfast of bread eggs and potatoes with a lot of coffee ( my favourite part of the day ) before heading out for our acimatisation walk. 

We started heading up 100 m to the museum and I was feeling really breathless, having to stop every few minutes to get my breath. One of the disadvantages of growing up 0m above sea level. Finally we made it to the museum and turned around to see our first view of Everest. It was epic. I could probably come home now and be happy.

We took a few photos and then wandered around the museum looking at photos of Edmund Hillary and learning about Sherpa culture. 

Next was a brutal acclimatisation hike up another 300 m to the helipad above Namche. I found it really tough. Was really breathless and lagged behind the group a little bit. When I stopped I recovered quickly. But as soon as we started heading up again, became really breathless. One of the Sherpas kindly stuck with me, encouraging me to stop when I needed to and take it slow.

We were cheered up by the appearance of Kurt, a lone American traveller we met on the plane who we lost track of yesterday. 

We finally got to the top, shortly after a helicopter landed bringing up wood for building. We wandered over the watch it upload then take off into the mountains.

Was a nice site to greet us. 3845 meters up. The walk down was a dream. So much easier. I instantly felt better. And less oxygen hungry.

We rewarded ourselves with pizza and wifi for lunch. Connecting to the real world. And making sure people knew I survived the lukla flight. 

On the way back to the lodge for an afternoon nap, I picked up some fleece lined yak wool socks I was eyeing up yesterday. Probably the best purchase of my life.

A well deserved nap later I felt a whole lot better and warmer and was ready for lemon ginger tea round the fire followed by chips for dinner and another evening of sharing stories. 

Feeling pretty apprehensive about the next few days after how unwell I felt this morning. I really hope the diamox kicks in and I wake up fighting for tomorrow. 

Fingers crossed.