Grania Willis/Everest Diary: We arrived at the Himalayan Experience Everest base camp yesterday afternoon after apparently endless days on the road en route to the start of our assault on the north face of the world's highest mountain.
It's actually only seven days since we left Kathmandu, but it seems like forever. We've stayed in a succession of steadily deteriorating hotels as we've neared our goal, but kept our sanity by feeding our spiritual souls with visits to some glorious temples.
After three days in Lhasa, including a last- night hiatus when it took an hour to explain where our hotel was to a bemused taxi driver, we headed for Shigatse via the Friendship Highway.
We had to embark on a diversion off the main road due to roadworks, but the 5,300m Shogu La and 4,840m Donggu La eventually got us to our destination after a horrendously bumpy nine-hour trip. We had seen some sensational sights on the way, including a stunning unclimbed peak the name of which seemed to elude everyone, including the guides.
Our hotel was brand new, but its smart exterior turned out to be a thin veneer. The heat and light in our bedroom were cut off just five minutes after we'd turned them on, but at least I was out of Lhasa, where being a journalist is decidedly non-PC.
Just as he had for the Cho Oyu expedition last September, team leader Russell Brice had me down as a housewife on the permit. There are two other "housewives" in the group, although neither of them is sending their recipes back home on a regular basis as I am.
With another eight-hour trip ahead of us the next morning, we made a quick sprint to the Tashilhunpo monastery to see the world's largest gilded statue. The 26m image of the Future Buddha resides in the Chapel of Jampa and is the highlight of the monastery.
Each of the Buddha's delicately pinched golden fingers is over a metre long; 300kg of gold was used in the creation of the statue, which took 900 artisans four years to complete. It is totally breathtaking and, even though we were surrounded by throngs of devout pilgrims, I felt that the serene expression in the Buddha's slanting blue eyes was solely for me.
But serenity proved to be a temporary state as we were herded back on to the bus for the journey over the 5,220m Gyatsola La. The dusty track eventually dropped down to our destination, the town of Dingri, close to Shegar or New Tingri.
Thoughts of a final proper hot shower before we headed to base camp evaporated, however, as we discovered that the Quomolungma Hotel adhered to the bare basics school of thought.
In one room the light switch lay on the bedside table, although there was a distinct lack of bluetooth connection to make it work. Fancy gift boxes of toiletries were in every room, but there was hot water only in flasks. Most of the toilets downed tools at the first opportunity and one basin dispensed simultaneous hand and foot washing facilities as cold water poured straight through and on to the floor.
But at least the hotel provided us with the chance to get out for our first proper bit of exercise in a week. We're ostensibly mountain climbers, but we've been sitting in hotels or in buses for an eternity and are all beginning to feel like geese being fattened for foie gras.
The approach to Everest from Nepal involves a 10-day trek in, with the body acclimatising at every step. Access to the north side in Tibet involves virtually no physical exertion, so it was glorious to get out on a hill, even if it was only the 4,600m peak above the Choide Ganden Lekshe Ling monastery.
As we walked back through town after stocking up on water, we saw a sign advertising the facilities that supposedly existed in our hotel. It not only claimed to have something obscurely termed a "baseness center", but also boasted "24.00 showers". We knew that didn't mean 24-hour showers, but nobody had the energy to stay up and discover if it meant that the showers were available at midnight.
We had few regrets departing from Dingri yesterday morning and drove past the "Friembshit Resturant" without so much as a backwards glance. We were looking forward, forward to our arrival at Everest base camp above the Rongbuk monastery.
And, at just before one o'clock Chinese time, or 10.45 Russell Brice expedition time, we set foot for the first time on the rocky, windy campsite that will be our home - on and off - for the next two months as we head for the top of the world.
The Grania Willis Everest Challenge 2005, supported by The North Face, SORD Data Systems, Peak Centre Ireland and Great Outdoors, is in aid of the Irish Hospice Foundation and the Friends of St Luke's Hospital. Donations to the fund can be made to the Grania Willis Everest Challenge, Permanent TSB, Blackrock, Co Dublin, account number 86877341, sort code 99-06- 44. Visa card donations to 01-230 3009.