And so to Everest! Tibet.

We steadily made our way to Everest through the lonely lunar landscape that makes up most of Tibet. Imagine empty and desolate gravel plains - a barren wasteland with no trees just patchy scrub - as far as the eye can see with an horizon of snowy distant peaks. Every so often we would reach the top of a pass or an edge of a glacier generally always marked by sacred stupas and tattered prayer flags flapping madly in the wind. The gravelly, pitted, bone-jarring roads left us exhausted after only a few hours in our Landcruiser. The dust was amazing too - even with our windows closed it still managed to filter into the car and stick to us. Add to this the heat from the intense sun and by the end of each day our hair would be stiff with dust and sweat. Urgghh!

Our first glimpses of Everest were of it far off into the distance but still really AMAZING. Another breathtaking moment of our trip without a doubt! We really couldn't believe it! We arrived at Rhombuk monastery that marks the start of the foot of the mountain in this region mid-afternoon. At 4900m - about 17000ft- we decided to take a horse and cart up to the base camp instead of walk - our bodies certainly not ready for anything remotely strenuous at this altitude. Don't worry, we weren't going to climb Everest - just going to camp overnight. Base camp was another 200m higher and was mainly made up of a row of large tea tents and guest houses. Unlike the Nepali side of Mt Everest this base camp was pretty clean and litter-free - probably because there are not as many expeditions from the north side of ther mountain. We set up our tent a bit passed the guesthouses with a wonderful, undisturbed view of the mountain out our tent door. The grey moraines and screes of rock leading up to the mountain were barren and bleak even with the sun on the snowy capped peaks. We watched the last of the sun go down at the very top of the northern face, and then the bitter cold set in. We wrapped up well in our layers and had a surprisingly warm night. *Mush