Everest Base Camp - wooohoo!

After the incredible summit experience of Kala Pathar, and views of Mt Everest and surrounding mountains that none of us will ever forget, we had a quick drink and bite to eat in Gorak Shep then set off on a 2.5 hour trek to our key destination and overnight location of Everest Base Camp.

The terrain was extremely rocky which made trekking on weary legs that much more treacherous and it was a very tired group that finally sighted the many yellow tents and numerous strings of prayer flags that signaled we had made it. What was surprising to most of us was just how big Base Camp is - it takes half an hour to clamber over the rocks and ice to get from one side to the other - and it was exciting for the team to see the number of expedition groups who were about to summit Everest over the following days.

A wonderfully, welcoming team of sherpa chefs greeted our exhausted team with soup and a late lunch in a tiny mess tent that was fit to bust with our whole team crammed inside but the sense of achievement inside the tent was huge. We really felt like, in our own way, we had "knocked the bastard off." The sense of achievement was soon to be replaced by a sense of freezing as the temperature plummeted to -25 degrees during the night and we hunkered down in our two-man tents on foam mats atop beds of rock and ice - not quite a 5-star hotel experience but a once-in-a-lifetime experience nonetheless. It also gave us an insight into the incredible achievement of those that undertake summiting Mt Everest as most will spend up to eight weeks here in these exact conditions.

I'm so proud of our team, it's been a long, hard road to get to Everest Base Camp but we did it!

Love to everyone back home, Haley xx