11.4.2007
The Easter dinner menu included an egg course so my “pomlazka” celebrations seemed pretty apt! I sang carols whilst whipping the heathens, but they evidently could not understand why I would not eat without performing the time-honored Easter ritual!
 It’s morning now and after a ten kilometer long trek in the cold and wind, we have finally reached Rongbuk Monastery where the student monks are in collective prayer. I feel a sense of humility and relaxed comprehension as I contemplate the endless dimensions of space and time, and the poetry of the monumental and omnipresent mountains which have drawn me here again. The return journey is colder than Narnia and I cannot wait to slide between the welcoming, warm folds of the High Point sleeping bag!
The earlier we go to bed the later we seem to wake up! Tashi, me and our two sherpas (Nim and Pem) are renting two old Chinese motorbikes and have been catching up on our prayers with the able assistance of nine monks. It’s a one hour rally drive race back (occasionally riding through snow!) to the relative bedlam of our over-civilized Base Camp. And now the time has come once more to pack…Whilst Everest looms above us and seems so close, it is hard to believe but it is still 20 kilometers away!
By the way, we’ve just heard that the official Chinese expedition to Everest is already at Advance Base Camp (ABC 6.640m) and is taking the precaution of carrying the Olympic flame, (just in case the weather makes this impossible next year!)
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