Everest Trek, Day 4 - Namche Bazaar to Tengboche

At breakfast this morning about 5 of our group of 14 were pretty sick; some had altitude sickness (vomiting and stomach upsets) and two others still suffered from food poisoning from Katmandu. The other gal has been sick off and on since the beginning. Now the rest of us are all just waiting to see what happens to us.

Today's hike was another tough one and what we've learned is that even though we're only going up 1,200 feet or so, the route actually requires us to descend several thousand feet to a river where we cross a long suspension bridge and then climb back up again, only higher. Today we descended through a cool, pleasant pine forest in the morning, passing rhododendron bushes and a few other small spring flowers. I tried to stay on my own for awhile to enjoy to soothing sound of the wind through the trees and the river rushing below and to get away from the dust kicked up by the other hikers' boots.

We had lunch right near the river at the bottom of the gorge, and after that we had a tough climb for the next two hours. I thought I was almost beat and started to get my first altitude headache. I struggled on and, believe it or not, I'm considered one of the strongest hikers. THAT I believe is more about mental determination than my actual physical ability. Several in our group have been saying they can't do this trek, but Tashi keeps spurring them on and directing what they should and shouldn't eat. For example, garlic soup and ginger tea and toast are some of the things the sick are having at meals. Two were ready to bail out last night, but they made it up to Tengboche. Porters carried more packs for the sick up the last climb - it was very stenuous. I don't know how a few of them made it feeling the way they did.

Tengboche Monastery

Tengboche is a tiny place with a beautiful large Buddhist monastery. I've asked Tashi if we can visit it in the morning. So we're going to go there at 7:00 while the monks are praying, before breakfast and our move on to Dingboche. That's all I can write for now - dinner will be ready in a few minutes, it's getting dark outside, and I forgot to bring my headlamp down to this Internet spot.