Little girls giggling – and little boys giggling for that matter – are delightful all over the world. I would love to know what was so funny for these three, I knew it was us, with our big boots and shorts puffing our way up yet another seemingly vertical hill. Was it our white skin? Was it simply that they couldn’t understand why all these funny people needed Sherpas and porters to help them? Could they not cook their own meals? Why did they need a little blue tent over a hole dug in the ground away from their other tents? I’ll never know their thoughts but it was great to see them having so much fun at our expense.
It was 1975 at about 8,000 feet in the Solu Khumbu. We were on our way to Thyangboche Monastery at about 12,600 feet and then maybe on to Everest Base Camp.

We had been trekking for about eight days by now and were actually feeling pretty good. Our bodies on the whole had been successfully adjusting to the altitude each day.

We had spent a few days being blown away by the ancient city of Kathmandu at 5,000 feet and then started our trek at Lamosangu a town to the east of Kathmandu on the road to China, which is at 2,500 feet so we had felt pretty good coming down a little in altitude.

Our nice comfortable feelings didn’t last long though. We quickly realised that we would be climbing very steeply or going down very steeply all the time for what seemed like the next few lifetimes.

However, we coped and pretty quickly – I’m talking days here – got into our own walking rhythm enjoying the beautiful rice terraces of the Rai villages.

The Rai people have been in Nepal since ancient times, living in the foothills of the Himalayas growing rice, millet, wheat, corn and cotton. They mostly practice their own nature loving religion but many now follow Hinduism.

Our first high crossing on about day ten was the Lamjura La Pass at 12,000 feet and after that we were in Sherpa country with the visible and exciting changes from Hinduism to Buddhism.

My whole life had been spent hearing about Sherpas and the Himalayas, my father was a mountaineer. Now finally I was here and it felt so good to be as high as Mount Cook and feel great.

Walking for four weeks gave us plenty of time to acclimatise but I must say I was a bit giggly by the time we were at 12,000 feet. The altitude got me. Maybe those little girls knew what we were headed for.