We are very close to Everest base camp now. Hopefully we will reach it tomorrow. Today we went from Shigatse all the way to Tingri, only some 250 km but it took us more than 8 h. First we were stuck in a colonne of the Chinese army, some 50 trucks that drove slowly but would not let you pass. Then we got into the higher parts with high passes which don’t allow a very high speed. At the highest pass (5200 m) Ciprian and I decided to climb to the top of the mountain aligning the pass (~5380 m) to acclimatise which went quite smoothly. After that we had only to drove down. We got to a military check point which we believed to be the last before Tingri but in the next village there was another police check point. We had been speeding according to the officer since we arrived there 29 min too early. We had to wait these 29 min before we could go on.A little later we arrived in Tingri, we could see Cho Oyu on the way. We stay in the best lodge in town: the Ha Hoo hotel. The bed looks like half a dozen people have slept under the same sheets, there are no showers nor warm water. I wished I was already in base camp…
