25

We were at the frost covered bikes at 7.30 ready to get rattled about. Nyima was pillion with me as George had taken him on the way up. We made it safely back to blessed tarmac, swapped bikes and made good ground until hitting the same 40 kms of road works, this time uphill. I was so elated at our luck with the weather nothing could dampen my spirits, Everest was completely hidden from view when we left and it seemed as if the gods had opened the mountain just for us before closing it firmly once more, Nyima and his fellow guides said we must have good karma...who knows where I picked that up!

After flying down a descent from 5245 metres we went back through some familiar checkpoints and were back in Xigatse by 5. I did drag the guys off on one very silly rocky adventure which they weren't best pleased about but we did make friends with a nice shephard and his flock.

We hit the beer tents in Xigatse, ate some great bbq and discussed the merits of filling up first thing in the morning versus filling up after an hour's ride,

6105 total.