The day we climbed Everest.

Day 9. Stage 9: Monte Retondu & Refuge de Petra Piana -> Refuge de l'Onda

Tim and Paddy are still missing.

Last night, nobody slept at all. Our tents were on an exposed flat patch of ground, which was horribly exposed to the wind that howled up the valley. The temperature plummeted, and we all lay awake in our tents wondering if we'd used enough pegs......

Having survived the night, but not exactly feeling refreshed, we eyed up Monte Retondu- the islands second highest peak.

While this peak shouldn't have proved much of a technical challenge, there were no way markers... so we decided the best way was to head up and see what happened...!

For once we were right, and found our selves standing on the shores of a 'glacial lake' just below the summit. The lake had melted in the intense summer heat, but the water was still amazingly cold - 10 minutes with my feet in the water, and they started to hurt!!

The summit of the mountain looks like a kid drew it - sharp and pointy! It meant that it was a little cosy on to perch for photos!

On the way down, we began talking about last night - neither of us slept, and we'd heard that the wind is a regular occurrence every night. In the end, we decided to do exactly what we'd told our selves we wouldn't do:

We packed up our tents, shouldered our bags and headed off to do another stage of the GR20!!

Generally speaking, it wasn't too bad. We were approaching the half way point of the trek, and the scenery had started to change. Most of the afternoon was spent walking through woods and along a small stream. Without warning, the stream opened up though and began to form crystal clear deep cool rock pools.....

It would have been rude not to stop!

It struck me that afternoon, swimming around in the pool and looking down the valley; that no-one could have designed this any better. The location, the waterfalls, the colours were all perfect, and it was all made naturally!

That evening, we sat around the tent and started to do some maths...

Not so fun, you might think, but we had had another thought.

Over the last 9 days, we'd climbed over 8,848 metres.... other wise known as:

Mount Everest!
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In other news:

We caught up Joey and Mark on the route today. They'd had enough, and were going to hitch hike back to the coast to finish the rest of their holiday on the beach!