Day 1/2 – Depart from Manchester airport by Qatar Airways. The flight is around 7 hours to Dohai in Qatar and a further 4 hours from Doha to Kathmandu . You will be met at the airport and taken to your hotel in the Thamel district of Kathmandu.
Day 3 – Our first full day in Kathmandu is a relaxed affair. You can spend the morning relaxing at leisure visiting the local surroundings of Thamel. After Lunch we will take a walk up to the impressive surroundings of Swayambhunath (Monkey temple) where we will explore the extensive grounds of this world heritage site.
Day 4 – We will spend the day visiting three of Kathmandu’s many places of interest. We will start the day with a visit to the beautifully serene monastery of Kopan. We will then make our way down to Bouddhanath site of the great stupa where we will take lunch. In the afternoon we will then visit the great Hindu temple of Pashupatinath before returning to our hotel in Thamel
Day 5 - We take the spectacular flight from Kathmandu to Lukla and enter the Khumbu region where we will spend the next two weeks trekking. Our first day in the mountains will take us down to the Dudh Koshi River crossing the bridge at Phakding where we lunch before heading on up to first evenings accommodation at Monjo.
Day 6 - After a short trek we enter the Sagamartha national park. We continue up the Dudh Koshi River until reaching the 120m long Swiss built suspension bridge. Once over this we then make the hard ascent to Namche Bazaar (3440m) where we will take the first of our acclimatisation days spending two nights there in total.
Day 7 - This is the first of our acclimatisation days. This day can be taken as a rest day or you can take our optional walk up past the landing strip at Shyangboche and on towards the Everest view hotel were we get our first glorious views of the peaks of Ama Dablam, Lhotse, Nuptse and Everest. We also visit Khumjung to visit the school built by Sir Edmond Hilary before returning to Namche Bazaar.
Day 8 - We take the trail out of Namche Bazaar, which eventually runs down to the Imja Khola River before steeply ascending up to the village of Tengboche (3860m) with its picturesque monastery. We will arrive early afternoon and after taking time out to rest we can visit the monastery to sit in on the four o’clock puja ceremony
Day 9 - From Tengboche we head on up the trail along the Imja Khola River gradually making our way above the tree line following Ama Dablam to our right. Our next destination is the village of Dingboche (4410m). Here we will take another of our acclimatisation days when you will be offered an optional walk.
Day 10 - This is the second of our acclimatisation days. This day can be taken as a rest day or you can take our optional walk up the valley towards Island peak. We head up to the village of Chukkung. This walk rewards you with an all round panoramic view with stunning views of Ama Dablam, Island Peak and Nuptse ridge. We spend a second night in Dingboche before heading for the glacier.
Day 11 - We leave Dingboche trekking with the stunning peaks of Taboche and Cholatse to our left. We head through Dughla and up over the demanding Thokla pass. Here we get our first views of Pumo Ri, Lingtren and Khumbutse with Kala Pataar below and stay at Lobuche (4910m) for the night.
Day 12 - We leave Lobuche and following the glacier up to Gorak Shep. After ascending the Lobuche pass we start to see Everest again and the tents at base camp. After a break at Gorak Shep we head on up to Base camp where we will see all the expeditions. We will spend the evening at Gorak Shep (5140m)
Day 13 / 14 / 15 / 16 - Its a six o’clock start as we set out to ascend Kala Pataar to see the sun rise over Everest. At the summit (5545m) we will see a stunning 360-degree panorama of some of the highest peaks on the planet. After taking in the breathtaking scenery we will head back to Gorak Shep for breakfast before starting our steady descent back to Lukla to make the return journey to Kathmandu.
Day 17 / 18 / 19 / 20 - We will spend the remainder of our time in Nepal relaxing and doing charity work. After having a day to relax and do some further site seeing we will head out into a rural area of Nepal where we will be guests of honour at one of our charity projects. We will take the journey by four wheel drive and due to the remoteness of our projects will spend the night in the village and make the return journey to Kathmandu the next day. On arriving back in Kathmandu you will have time to do some last minute shopping before the evening flight home to the UK.
The cost of the trek is £1595 which covers all accommodation in Nepal. It covers all food and hot drinks in the Khumbu but not lunch and evening meal in Kathmandu (cold, bottled, canned drinks and hot flasks are not covered). All transportation in Nepal including flights to and from Lukla are covered. You will be required to arrange your own travel insurance, which must cover Air ambulance/Helicopter evacuation.
If you would like to join us on this very worthwhile excursion we would require a deposit of £750. We would then require the remaining £845 by end February 2011.
A reasonable level of fitness will be required for you to achieve the goal of reaching Kala Pataar and Everest base camp. It is possible to get up there with a limited amount of fitness but your enjoyment of the trek would be dramatically increased the higher your fitness levels become.
If you would like to see photos of previous DCWC Nepal treks please click on links below -
Everest base camp trek 2005 >
Everest base camp trek 2006 >
Everest base camp trek 2007 >
Everest base camp trek 2008 >
