Everest. It has fascinated mankind for years and I am no exception. Ever since I had seen a picture of the North Face and heard that the Chinese had built a road allowing you to get up close and personal with the mountain I had dreamed of taking the truck up there and getting the photo: the truck, the family and Everest. The ultimate photo to encapsulate our overlanding adventure? Why is it that mountains, especially really big ones, fascinate us so much? And what is the pull and the draw? It was George Mallory back in the 1920's when asked why he wanted to climb Everest famously quipped "Because its there". We would be timing our arrival at base camp during climbing season so would potentially be getting to see much more adventurous people than us. But first we had to reach Everest from Lhasa. Whilst the roads were fantastic the altitude was still going to be a challenge. We left Lhasa set at a relatively low altitude of 3,660m and headed up. Along the way we crossed numerous passes but to be honest at this point any less than 5,000m were hardly worth mentioning. Crossing one pass we were given a view of beautiful Yamdrok-tso, one of the holiest lakes in Tibet. It wasn't a perfectly clear day but the water was a fabulous shade of deep turquoise. From there it was a short drive to Gyantse a historic town that had been a crucial link for traders and pilgrims journeying across the Himalayan plateau. The main attraction here was the Gyantse Kumbum which is a five floor 32m high chorten set in the grounds of a monastery. We explored each floor of the chorten with its many chapels and then also toured the monastery grounds admiring the views to the Gyantse Dzong which the British occupied in the early 20th Century. We were lucky in that we did not have to take a hotel and could instead camp in the monastery car park. However our luck was not to hold, as during a walk around the charming old town a dog ran out and bit Lucy. The bite was not that bad and fortunately she was wearing thick trousers but there was a graze and it was border line whether it had broken the skin. With rabies been a real possibility in Tibet we were in a bit of a quandary. Lucy had had a course of rabies vaccinations before we set off but if properly bitten needed two boosters to be truly effective. However we were in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately the next day we were headed to Shigatse the second largest town in Tibet (population 80,000) so we headed straight to the hospital. They sent us down the road to another hospital who had a large supply of rabies boosters and within 15 minutes we were done. We had to persuade the doctor to let us take the second booster with us as normally they do not allow this but after assuring her we could store it correctly in our fridge she agreed. Another interesting aside on the price of drugs. In the US I understand a rabies injection costs at least $150, in Tibet it was $9. Go figure. The second booster was administered at a clinic in a small town 3 days later at a cost of £1. I don't think we will be making a claim on our travel insurance! With that worry out of the way we then had time to explore the fantastically impressive Tashilhunpo Monastery, traditionally home to the Panchen Lama. After the 10th Panchen Lama died the current Dalia Lama identified his reincarnation the 11th Panchen Lama who was subsequently detained by the Chinese ("the youngest political prisoner at the age of 5") and has not been seen since. Instead the Chinese identified an alternative Panchen Lama and it was his photo we saw around the monastery. The monastery was one of the few in Tibet not damaged during the cultural revolution and therefore we could enjoy its full glory. We spent a couple of hours exploring the chapels including one containing the largest gold guilded Buddha in the world as well as the chapels containing the ornate tombs of the Panchen Lamas. The main assembly hall was set around a lovely courtyard with views over the whole complex including up to a large wall from which tankas were unfolded during special festivals. On leaving the monastery we joined the throng of Tibetans doing their daily kora around the walls of the monastery before meeting back up with our guide for a Tibetan lunch. Leaving Shigatse we were heading for Everest. Crossing our highest pass to date the Gyatso-la at 5,248m we were given a fleeting glimpse of Everest way off in the distance but the main event was to be the next day when we would drive to Base Camp. We all awoke eagerly the next day, a combination of excitement and the altitude still making sleeping difficult. First we had to cross the Pang-la pass at 5,100m. From here on a clear day there are fantastic panoramic views of the Himalayas. Unfortunately it wasn't totally clear and whilst we could see the peaks of the mountains jutting up from the clouds and the hairpin bends twisting down the pass the full mountain range eluded us. Would our hopes of fantastic views of Everest be dashed or was that just a layer of cloud sitting between the pass and the mountains themselves? Eager to find out we descended the pass and entered the valley floor dotted with traditional Tibetan villages and farmers ploughing their fields for the short summer season before starting to gently climb again. It was looking positive, the clouds were above us and not in front of us and as we climbed and climbed our expectations rose accordingly. The mountains around us were stunning but the tops of the Himalayas still eluded us and then as we wound our way around a corner, bang, it was there! Everest sitting right in front of us and not a cloud in the sky. What a sight! We continued a short distance to Rongbuk Monastery (the highest Monastery in the world at 5,000m) and where we were going to be parking for the night. The views from here were just stunning but as we could drive a little further nothing was stopping us now so we drove a further 4kms up to what is known as tented camp at 5100m. From here you could either walk a further 4kms to "Base Camp" or take the Eco Bus. With a strong head wind Lucy was not walking, so Gilly and I then had a difference of opinion on who was taking the bus and who was walking. Base camp at 5,200m afforded yet more stunning views with the real Base Camp (you are not allowed to visit) with the serious climbers camped just a short distance away. Looking up the North Face of Everest was less than 20kms away. It literally took your breath away in more ways than one. It had certainly been worth the effort getting here. Gilly and I both walked back down, leaving the children with the guide to take the bus. As we descended we kept turning around as we just could not believe the view and the fantastic weather with hardly a cloud in the sky. It was just stunning. We returned to the truck feeling pretty good about ourselves and whilst we had not climbed Everest we had certainly reached our own Everest summit. Just as we were congratulating ourselves there was a knock on the truck door. Two fit, suntanned young guys asked "Are you driving back down to the monastery?" "Yes." We replied." "Any chance you could give us a lift?" "No problem," we said. Chatting with the guys as we drove back to the monastery we learnt that the reason they were there was that they were at the real base camp and were heading back to the tiny village at the monastery to go to the restaurant to get some chips. They were very modest and were asking us so many questions about our trip that it took us a while to realise that not only were they at base camp but that one of them, Kilian Jornet, had actually reached the summit of Everest only 2 days before. As if that was not a big enough achievement he had done it without ropes or oxygen and had climbed up and down in one go. Arriving at the monastery gave us time to talk a little more, show them around the truck and snap a photo. We would have loved to have talked to them further but it didn't seem fair to get between a person who had just summited Everest and his chips so we exchanged blog details, said goodbye and wished them luck for later in the week. Sensing that Kilian had achieved something special we decided to google him and learnt that he had just broken the world record for summiting Everest from the North Face base camp in an incredible 26 hours. Thats climbing from 5,200m to 8,848m in 26 hours without ropes or oxygen, amazing. We hadn't realised we had had such a superstar in the truck! Both Kilian and his friend Seb Montaz were hoping to summit again later that week so I hoped they had a good fill of chips before they started. We later heard that Kilian summited again less than a week after his first summit. This time he set off from Advance Base Camp at 6,500m and it only took him 17 hours to reach the summit. Some achievement. Suddenly our achievement did not feel quite so significant. We went for a wander around the monastery but it was the views of Everest that we kept coming back too, even when yaks occupied the car park and tried to get into the temple. We kept looking up to see the summit and watched as the sun set over its wonderful awe inspiring peak. Now we had to face some practical issues, how would we and the truck fare spending the night at 5,000m. The good news is that we all faired pretty well. I struggled to sleep but the compensating factor was that when I couldn't sleep I could look out of the back window of the truck and still see Everest. Now, would the truck start at that altitude and with the temperature just below freezing? Well, with a little help from some Easy Start it coughed and spluttered but finally fired up in a cloud of smoke. It was a clear day so we were eager to return to the pass and see the panoramic view of the Himalayas. Our luck held and as we reached the pass the stunning panorama was laid out in front of us. Everest may now have been more distant but we could see the magnificence of the whole range of the mountains. There are 14 mountains in the world over 8,000m and from where we stood we could see 5 of them; Everest 8848m, Lhotse 8511m, Makulu 8481m, Cho Oyu 8,153m and Shishapangma 8012m. It was a fantastic end to an unbelievable few days. We may not have summited but we had reached our own Everest and that felt pretty good.

I had to pinch myself, we were actually driving past the Potala Palace! We were all bouncing up and down in our seats with excitement. We have wanted to come here for so long and so many times it looked like we would never make it to Tibet and now we were actually here, we couldn't quite believe it. Our journey hadn't been plain sailing: our much hoped for route to Tibet has been closed since the earthquake 2 years ago; our planned drive through Myanmar to China was closed due to internal conflict and we had all the stress of separating while Steve went by himself through Pakistan. It was then "just" a 2500km through the Taklimakan Desert before we got to Golmud, the last Chinese town, before we hit the mountains. Overlanding isn't meant to be easy. But it was totally worth it! Lhasa was absolutely amazing, everything we had hoped for. Even after Golmud, it was a long 3 days drive to Lhasa. Leaving town we could see the peaks shimmering away in the distance across the desert plains, "Not long now till we are in the mountains," we told ourselves. Unfortunately that turned out not to be true, a weigh bridge at a police post at the foot of the incline was causing a 15km tailback of trucks. We had been told that this route was filled with huge lorries taking Chinese goods into Tibet but hadn't expected to spend a whole day and a half queueing behind them to start our journey. It was going to be especially painful for Steve as he had picked up a stomach bug. The road was good straight tar but mostly up on a bank with steep sides down to the sand. The few cars there were were trying to make their way cross country on sandy tracks were often getting stuck, when we eventually found a track down we followed them. Skirting back onto the road when the tracks ran out and then flitting to the other side when the sand got too thick. The lorry drivers kindly made space out of nowhere, when they saw we were not a goods truck. Eventually at the end, while they got weighed, we were pulled over at another office while the police checked and stamped our special Tibetan Autonomous Region permits. This pattern went on all day, with regular police checks and permit stamping. The volume of trucks on the road was breathtaking with many kilometre long queues whenever there was any sort of hold up. Bizarrely for a road up into the mountains there were no hairpin bends, just a steady incline up. Driving ourselves across Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) has taken a Himalayan mountain of paperwork and our progress was very much monitored. The distances involved also meant we were on a strict schedule. Whereas we would have usually stopped way before nightfall, our permit said we must spend the night in the small town of Taggulazhen. After 14 hours of driving, we got stuck behind a queue due to another nasty accident (the delays mean the drivers push themselves and often fall asleep at the wheel). Our guide called ahead to the police chief and asked if we could sleep in the truck as it was late to find a hotel and then eat. He agreed but only if we passed through town and stopped outside its limits, I guess then, we wouldn't be his problem. Finally just before 11 we found a lay-by, made fried egg sandwiches and fell into bed. We might have been dog tired but there was no way we could sleep, we had ascended to 4625m. We had taken this route into Tibet because compared with the other far western route it was less steep but it's a hell of an ascent. From our time in the Andes, we knew we were all good at altitude and we had slept quite high in Golmud but we were all feeling the affects. Lying down doesn't help, in fact it makes it worse, rapid breathing with our heart racing and our heads aching. When we eventually drifted into a light sleep but Steve and I kept on waking up to check on the girls. Lucy vomited at 2am making us even more worried. However, we tried not to freak out. Alisha did the same in the Andes then wolfed down a huge breakfast a few hours later and skipped around the truck, while we staggered around after a sleepless night worrying. The next morning no one was feeling fabulous but we were all ok and ready for another long day of driving. The scenery almost made up for our aching heads, snow topped peaks surrounded us as we drove steadily higher through barren wide valleys. Wild yaks, blue sheep and Tibetan antelope shared the spare grasslands with small herds of domesticated yaks. Hardly anyone lives in this part of Tibet just a few hardy nomads. Like the day before we were mostly parallel with the highest rail track in the world, an amazing piece of engineering with much of the track laid across permafrost and a huge amount of tunnels and bridges. Tanggula Pass at 5230m was the highest point of the day. At 6pm we were almost at Nagqu, where we were to spend the night. The local police phoned and told the guide we must be at their office before they closed at 6.30, the only problem was there was a big queue at the police checkpoint outside town. Few foreigners come by road this way, so the police seemed very worried about filling in the paperwork correctly. The guide was great speeding up the usual laborious process by telling them their bosses were waiting for us in town. Eventually we made it to the police station just a few minutes late, Although quite a large town, with a big population of recently arrived Chinese, and many hotels the police told us we were only allowed to stay at one hotel in town but we could sleep in the parking lot in the truck. At the Chinese owned hotel we had to register again, the hotel insisting we must take a basic room for $80, it was so frustrating that we were only allowed to stay in one place. Steve and the guide used their persuasive powers for over an hour until the hotel agreed that we could park round the back next to the bins for $16. The hotel then informed us that we might be woken up in the middle of the night by the local (as in a few blocks) police, so they could check our passports. You can imagine Steve's response to that! The guide must have translated it well enough, as we were left alone. It has been more than 60 years since China invaded Tibet. The facts are well documented about how the country and its people have faired since then. Tibet's much loved spiritual and political leader, the Dalai Lama and many of his people, have lived in exile in India for nearly 50 years. Having spent quite a lot of time in Dharmsala in the past, I have quite strong opinions on this. Tibet is very much a tightly controlled state. Han Chinese have been encouraged to migrate to Tibet, with the aim of diluting the local Tibetan culture and population. This has been so successful that more than 50% of Lhasa's population is now said to be non-Tibetan. There is a massive building boom in the whole country, hence the huge numbers of trucks. To be fair to the Chinese, it isn't just for recent immigrants they are also building lots of new houses for Tibetans. Many nomads have been persuaded to move into permanent houses, a complete change of lifestyle for them. We felt our approach to Lhasa had been arduous but it is nothing compared with Tibetan pilgrims. We saw our first few 500km from the city, if walking through the elements wasn't hard enough they also do a full body prostration every third step. They walk and prostate for many months before they reach the holy city but still have enough energy for a smile and wave. Our hotel was a perfect location just on the edge of Barkhor, the traditional Tibetan part of town, it was very smart with a big parking area. Our enthusiasm wained on the night that a couple of rats fell through the bathroom ceiling and woke us up at 6am running around the room. Poor Steve had been unwell all night and was just drifting back to sleep. I know we are supposed to be hardened travellers but there was a lot of screaming when they tried to climb up onto the beds, I knew there was a reason we prefer to sleep in the truck. Being in the old part of Lhasa was everything we had hoped for. We walked the Barkhor kora, the pilgrimage circuit around Jokhang monastery, the holiest of temples many times during our stay. We mingled with the pilgrims and locals circulating with their spinning prayer wheels and prayer beads muttering mantras. The Tibetans are such amazingly spiritual people that Buddhism seems to permeate every part of their lives. The people were all welcoming smiles as we walked the circuit with them, they were particularly delighted to see the girls, especially Lucy. We often had a small crowd walking with us, exclaiming in Tibetan at how cute they were. The girls got lots of granny-loving, as old ladies couldn't stop themselves from giving them an affectionate squeeze. The girls were very good, smiling and saying "Tashi Delek" to everyone they met. As well as being a holy area, it is also a busy shopping area for Tibetans, it was a fascinating mix. Lhasa seems to have a booming economy and I was surprised at how prosperous the areas we saw were. Tibetan Buddhism is far more complicated than the type we have become familiar with in the rest of Asia as it was heavily influenced by the existing local Bon religion. It has a whole pantheon of Protector Deities, Bodhisattvas; Buddhas and historical figures often in different manifestations. Although not usually ones for guided tours, since we had to have a guide it was really good to have him explain the different parts. We were free to wander around town without him but had to be with him for some of the major sites. At all times of the day Jokhang temple has believers prostrating outside, many for hour after hour. Yak butter lamps burned smokily inside shedding flickering light on the golden statues behind them. Around the main prayer hall were many different chapels dedicated to different deities, every corner had a different statue or sacred mural each more spectacular that the last. It was hard to take it all in, the heady smell of the burning yak butter and the constant murmuring of mantras from the pilgrims made it seem almost otherworldly. Exiting blinking into the bright sunshine we climbed up onto the flat roof to marvel and try and reflect on what we had seen. Looking over Barkhor Square below and Potala Palace in the distance, we had to pinch ourselves again. Entering the doorway, I wasn't expecting to get a squirt of water right in the face. Looking around to see which kid had got me with a water pistol, I realised it came from a smiling monk with a the type of squirty bottle you use in the garden - I had just been blessed with holy water. We were at the small temple of Tsepak Lhakhang, especially auspicious for pregnant ladies and those in ill-health. The monk was blessing people as they walked the circuit around the main prayer hall. Although you weren't allowed to take pictures inside, the water blessing monk wanted to take a photo with Lucy during his break so I snapped one too. We were very excited to get a chance to go inside Potala Palace after seeing it from afar. The 1000 room palace was the former home of the Dalai Lama as well as being the seat of the Tibetan government; it houses countless chapels; as well as the amazing jewelled stupas containing the remains of most of the previous Dalai Lamas. Entering the main gates you feel very small looking up at its imposing ramparts. The building is now mostly a museum, although still occupied by several monks and visited by many pilgrims. It is still an incredibly spiritual place filled with statues and images that inspired much devotion in those around us who were believers; and fascination in everyone else. As images of the current Dalai Lama, who is currently in exile in India, are illegal in China there were no pictures of His Holiness in his chambers but a monk chanted holy scriptures in the corner of his meditation room. Leaving Lhasa we got another guide, we were sad to say goodbye to the one who brought us up to Lhasa. He had been very professional; fabulous at sorting out the myriad of paperwork; fascinating to talk to, he was also very adaptable, sleeping in the cab the night we slept on the side of the road.