Sunday, October 12, 2008

By Maggie (Group 2) from Italian Base Camp

Day 7: We are now 4 and a half days from the nearest road – a very treacherous road from which we saw the wreck of a bus which crashed with fatal consequences. We ascended today through dense cloudforest in a Monsoon rainstorm to reach Dobang – at 2,400m twice the height of Ben Nevis. We are very wet and having a rest day here to dry out. Everyone is well and in good spirits. ‘Doctor’ Andy and ‘Sherpa’ Matt send love to their respective girlfriends. Andy sends belated birthday wishes as well.
Day 10: Second rest day. We are at Italian Base Camp, 3,600m, and walked up to 4,000m to acclimatise and watch Group 1 climb down and up the narrow gorge towards Japanese base camp, where we all hope to break our journey to French Pass and Dalaghuiri Base Camp. It’s great to be out of the beautiful but damp cloudforest and into low Alpine tundra with sun-loving gentians in flower, and watching the astonishing cloud formations come and go below us. It’s just below freezing until the sun appears at 9am from behind the icy summit of Dalaghuiri, which we somehow have to get behind, and which was once thought to be the highest in the world. We are becoming blasé about the scenery – picture postcard perfect when the sun hits the snow-covered peaks; morning and evening.
Matt sends the following message: Hello love, thanks for messages, keep them coming! Hope you had a good time in Brazil. We’ve been trekking for more than a week now. We’re just below the snowline and getting fitter as we go, and having a lot of fun, too. I’ll try to call you when we get to basecamp. – Matt


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