Last night was my first without John for simply ages (probably two months) and it was very strange. I have not been able to speak with him either, in fact all I managed was a couple of messages sent via the Danish channel 5 film crew’s borrowed satellite uplink and Facebook of all things!
I was thoroughly back into the swing of things today, and resumed my usual position at the head of the first group. I have really started to get the hang of using poles now too – it is rather like cross-country skiing if fact, using them to push myself along. The reason I was up the front, by the way, is so that I could stop and take pictures of some of the breath-taking scenery without getting left behind the group – rather like I do when SCUBA diving!
We stopped for lunch just past 13,000 feet – a massive 4km up. Unfortunately the weather turned, and it was very much “head down and get there” for the last stretch to Periche at 14,000feet (4.3km) – the highest point on our trek. Despite the rain the scenery was still awesome, walking along the base of a glacial valley dotted with massive morraine (boulders deposited by the glacial flow several thousand years ago). We had also no moved well about the tree-line, and the plant life was become more and more sparse; small shrubs clinging to the landscape.
