My journey to Everest base camp

It was actually 25 years ago that I traveled to Everest Base Camp

There is probably a Starbucks there now :) it was pretty primitive back then

If you didn’t know, there are two base camps: one in Nepal, which is relatively easy to reach, and the one in Tibet, which is far more challenging

I went to the Tibetan side

The journey itself was an adventure: an 8-hour each way, 4x4 ride through rough terrain

A rough track with no coffee shops, the toilet was a “bush toilet” 

The convoy moved slowly, as the vehicles were often in poor condition, requiring frequent stops to make on-the-spot repairs

It still amazes me how, in the middle of nowhere, a few gestures and some sign language could somehow get a broken-down jeep back on the road

I remember it was my birthday, and the local food, let’s say, was very Tibetan (and Chinese)

Rice, chickens feet and turtle lungs were delicacies 

But that day we stayed at a hotel with a shop, and I celebrated with a packet of Jammy Dodgers and a bag of pistachio nuts, which never tasted so good

My travel companion was unwell; it later turned out to be pleurisy

I’m sure the 16-hour return journey didn’t help

When we finally reached Everest Base Camp, the view was not quite as I imagined

The camp had become, in many ways, a rubbish tip, with climbers leaving trash behind

The day was cloudy, so there was little chance of seeing the summit clearly

And, of course, I did get a shot but my original 35mm photos have long been lost

Thank you to the person that took this image, I have linked back to the Reddit post here

Conclusion:
Everest Base Camp was not just a physical journey but a lesson in resilience, resourcefulness, and gratitude

Even decades later, it’s the small memories, the Jammy Dodgers, the shared fixes on a broken jeep, the clouded peaks, that stay vivid, reminding me that adventure is as much about the journey as the destination