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Namche Bazaar

• Ben
• 27 Mar 07, 01:52 PM

We¡¯ve now been in Namche Bazaar for a couple of days. We¡¯ve been doing a bit of filming, getting some shots of the incredible scenery. We¡¯ve also been hacking (hiking?) up and down various hillsides in an effort to acclimatise to the altitude.

In between, we¡¯ve had a chance to wander around Namche. It¡¯s a Sherpa trading village, and the last place before Base Camp where we can stock up on vitals such as sun cream and, in Rob¡¯s case, a cowboy hat to protect against the sun.

Every now and then we come across a Stupa, which is a Buddhist shrine. You have to go round these clockwise, which unfortunately in some cases means going quite a long way round.

Yesterday, through the middle of this, a line of about 20 porters came up the hill. In pairs they were carrying huge metal boxes on poles. Inside was Xtreme Everest¡¯s consignment of liquid nitrogen, which will be used to freeze blood samples on Everest. It is too dangerous to fly it into Lukla, so it was carried on foot from a place called Jiri, seven day¡¯s walk away.

Today, we did some time-lapse filming of the surroundings. Both days so far, cloud has rolled in and engulfed the village at about 4pm. We set up a camera to try to capture it. In the event, this meant standing outside in the middle of a cloud trying to persuade local children not to pull faces into the lens.

Incidentally, I saw a sign on the wall of a police hut the other day, which read: ¡°Lost the time, cannot be resigned.¡± I¡¯ve no idea what it means, but it sounds good so it has now become our production motto.