Day 20 of our attempt to hike to EBC and sadly my last day of hiking. Our goal was to hit another 11km back down the mountain from Pheriche to Phortse losing about another 1000 metres in elevation to about 3800. Once again we started with amazing weather. The plan was to take the high path up the side of the valley to get great views on our way. The path was quite uneven as it climbed the steep sides of the valley. The views were phenomenal though. I couldn’t capture the scale on my phone. Hopefully my camera photos come out better. It was a super hot day and we made slow progress clambering up and down the trail. It is what Sonam calls “Nepali flat” which means a little bit up and a little bit down. We were lucky to have a close encounter with some mountain goats along the way. After 7 hours we finally hiked into Phortse. Unfortunately this is where the story takes a turn. We decided to have lunch and I ate my first full meal in days of tomato soup which was pleasing progress. Sadly this would be my last meal for several days as about 15 minutes later I started violently vomiting. It started at 3pm and didn’t stop until about midnight. Unable to hold fluids down I asked if we might see a doctor, unfortunately this town didn’t have one and the next one was over 6 miles by foot away. Unfortunately we were left with no option but to ask for a helicopter down to Lukla hospital in the morning. I wouldn’t be able to complete the hike anyway. Once again Sonam was an absolute hero going over and above his duties. At one point he was even holding my hair out of my vomit bucket whilst arranging helicopters. He tried every medication and remedy they could think of but everything came back up. The suspicion was food poisoning, though I have never had food poisoning come on so fast without any warning. By the time the helicopter arrived in the morning I had managed to keep some fluids down but sadly our hike had to end there two days short. The helicopter dropped me at the hospital where I was treated before being released to a hotel to recover for two days. So an unfortunate end to our adventure. I never did like soup! Thanks for following along!
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