Day 6: phortse to dengboche

After a reasonably good night sleep, with only one toilet run to the outside loo, we awoke to glorious views of the Himalayas and a breakfast of fried egg and chapati. 

I little apprehensive, as Dodja had previously said this was a particularly difficult day. Although we'd also met some Trekkers going the other ways hi said the views were spectacular. 

We started heading up and up and up over the top of a hill before joining the narrow path cut into the mountainside. We walked along above the tree line, Everest in the distance and the half frozen river below us. It was steadily

Up for hours. My little legs struggled a bit with steps half my height. I chatted away to Pravin the Sherpa about buddism and Nepalese culture, and chatted to Dodja about summoning Everest and k2. 

Exhausted after 3 hours of hiking we stopped for 'tea' in a beautiful village with bronze prayer wheels. Unfortunately we were greeted with the news of no tea. While Dodja did a lap of the village to find someone willing to make us tea and we  sat in the sun. 

Finally he found someone who made us coffee in a smoke filled room before we headed up hill and above 4000 meter mark for the first time towards lunch. This part was reasonably flat but I was exhausted. I think the last few days of hiking were starting to catch up with me. 

We finally arrived at lunch. A lone lodge in the middle of know where. I had the best veg fried potatoes of my life. 

After lunch despite only a short 1 1/2 hour trip to our next stop, we had a lot of up hill to reach 4430m. A total climb of 600 meters today and a distance of 14.5km.

I was relieved and exhausted when I arrived and glad to have a room with tons of blankets and pillows. We're planning to stay here for 2 nights.

We chilled/ cleaned up / re packed my whole bag before more honey ginger lemon tea and siting round the fire learning Nepalese games with stones and talking about our favourite films and music. I had a delightful supper of tomato soup and chipatis and can't wait for a lie in till 8 am tomorrow! 

Altitude wise, i feel tons better today. Less headache, less dizzy. I feel tired but it's been a really tough hiking day today. 

I now feel like I might actually make it to base camp and kalapattar which I never thought I'd say this time yesterday.