Travels in Nepal # 32 The roof of the world

Mt Everest from Tengboche

The views upon reaching Tengboche are truly awe inspiring. Truly this is called The Roof of the World. What it would be like from the very top of Everest I can only imagine. This was our goal, so I had to be satisfied with the view as it was. And was it spectacular! Mighty mountains in all directions.

In the above photo of Everest taken from our lodge in Tengboche it is the dark mountain just left of centre. It is not a particularly impressive mountain from this vantage point, but that doesn’t matter.

I made it.

The enormous effort was worth it.

Writing this some nine months later it still amazes me that I was actually there. It astounds me that I achieved it. Since then I have been diagnosed as having diabetes. How I managed to get to Tengboche knowing that I had this condition totally puzzles me. Yes, to be honest, I did feel rather distressed at the time, but I put this down to slight altitude sickness, sheer exhaustion, lack of food due to poor appetite and an emotional response to having achieved my goal.

Related article:

• Avalanche! From my travel journal written during the trek.