Location: Lobuche

Altitude: 4930m

Hi to all our families, friends, work colleagues, guys from Southern, and occasional browsers of our myeverest.com blog! My name is Rosalba and I will be sharing with you some of my thoughts as well as today's events. Unlike yesterday (a recovery day) we went back to rising early 6am with a 7.30 start. Today our destination was Lobuche (4930m), a 5 hour walk with an increase in altitude of 600m.
Every day as I wake up, open my curtains and look out my window I marvel anew at being surrounded by the majesty of the mountains. I am constantly mesmerised by their beauty and sometimes have to pinch myself because I can't believe I am here. It is an awesome sight and I never tire of looking up at the different formations from the different angles. Something that I have personally enjoyed are the myriad of waterfalls and swollen and gushing waterways. As we walk alongside them or over them along the narrow steel bridges, the sounds from the flowing water pierce the silence with a deafening roar.

But let's get back to today. As I was brushing my teeth in the paddock this morning I was surrounded by the majesty of Ama Dablam to our left, Lhotse Shar up ahead and to our right Tawoche Peak....and a yak grazing beside me!! What a delight!

We set off for Lobuche at 8am enthusiastic yet apprehensive that today altitude sickness could claim any of us. However, all was soon forgotten as we began our journey. The sky was clear and a deep blue and against it, like giants rose the snow laden peaks of the Himalayas. Our journey today was a smorgasbord of mountain peaks and it was delightful having these mountains as our companions. With every new turn were heard gasps of delight and the ever present clicking of cameras. If you are following our trek with a map some of the major mountains we saw today were the TAWOCHE PEAK, CHOLATSE, PUMORI and NUPTSE (all incredibly impressive).

Along the way we were privileged to stop at the Memorial area above Dugla to honor all those that have perished over the years in the Himalayas. The stone shrines erected honor both the Sherpas and foreigners that have perished. We had a moving service on a hill overlooking the cemetery where Lindsay (pastor of Southern Community Church) spoke a few words on the meaning of courage and serving others. The four sherpas accompanying us then performed a short Bhudist chant.

We then trekked a further hour to our destination where we settled in for the rest of the day (some playing cards, while others explored the environs and yours truly writing this update).

In conclusion I would like to add that I feel privileged to be traveling with this amazing group of people from all walks of life (including our 2 guides and 4 sherpas) who are bringing humor, humility, knowledge, and most importantly fun to this incredible trip. Thanks for supporting us with your messages, we really look forward to reading them together after dinner. Please keep them coming! We will reply to your questions soon, but for now we seem to always be running out of time at the end of the day.