Day 3: 31st January 2013
3800m – 3900
Struggle city….
With many, many people in a tiny tiny area, there is one thing bound to get passed around quicker than gossip…. Bacteria.

Day three was my day for it. In hindsight I was blessed as just about everyone contracted some sort of bacterial bug along the way but mine came through on the shortest and easiest of all the days. Some people went down quite hard with it, weak and ill with really bad diarrhaea, one girl, poor Sydney, actually needed a drip. Mine was more annoying than anything else and coupled with another night of poor sleep I had a day of feeling pretty average. The doctors gave me hydralite and cipro (antibiotic) and some immodium and I was good to get on with the next day. The docs also did the rounds of the mess tents warning people that nasty germs were on the prowl for unsuspecting victims, they even gave us a lesson in proper doctor handwashing – who knew I’ve been doing it wrong all these years!

As often is the way when you’re ill your mood flags. My phone hadn’t been working so I wasn’t able to get a message out to or in from Simon and was feeling a little alone and sorry for yourself. I was already starting to get very worried about how my gear would cope with the cold as it just didn’t seem to be cutting the mustard.

On the up side as we got to camp quite early and the sun was shining, I was able to get undressed and warm in my tent while I had my baby wipe bath. It was bliss and allowed me a bit of time to have a snooze also.

Some people were feeling very energetic and as this camp was surrounded by some large hills, a few people took the opportunity to unroll their gliders and go for a test run which was fun to watch. There was a lot of skill amongst the pilots in this group. There was another group of people along who are making a movie of the entire production and are using a helicopter drone to get some aerial shots – this caused the porters heads to crank upwards! It’s pretty fun technology and hard not to look at, but they specifically didn’t want us looking at the drone as it would ruin the ‘natural’ aerial view they were after.

Into bed early to nurse the upset body and get ready for the coming huge day. There was a quick self-lecture in staying positive despite feeling poorly and I actually slept pretty well that night.