Makalu. At 27,825ft it is the fifth highest mountain in the world. We are at base camp, looking up at this giant.
It towers above us yet we have to remind ourselves that we are standing on ground that, at 15,977ft above sea level, is around the same height as the top of Mont Blanc.
We wanted a trek that was remote, quiet and free from the crowds that you find on the walk to Everest base camp or on the Annapurna Circuit, and that’s what we’ve got.
During the two week trek to Makalu’s base camp and back we saw only about 30 Western tourists. We didn’t see a motor vehicle either.
Not many trekking companies offer trips to Makalu base camp but a company called Jagged Globe listed such an adventure on its website.
When we tried to book, the link led to nowhere, but a phone call to their office in Sheffield was met with the answer: "We do that route. We haven’t done it for at least seven years but if you want to go then we can fix it up for you."
Jagged Globe sent us a comprehensive kit list and thorough instructions on medical matters that included notes on avoiding altitude sickness.
Along with us came friends Nigel and Ellen Cooper who both have a background in climbing and trekking. Not that any climbing would be involved in this trek.
Jagged Globe’s website said we would need to be experienced walkers, that we could expect to spend five to six hours per day on the trail and that we would be carrying a light day pack.
Just to check our fitness levels and to warm us up, the Coopers, my wife Amelia and I spent a week walking in the Dolomites before setting out.
Between the Italian trip and Nepal we spent a weekend in the Peak District with Jagged Globe. This was to enable us to meet our fellow trekkers and to be given more advice on kit and other details.
Our fellow trekkers turned out to be Jagged Globe MD Simon Lowe and Neville “Nev” Taylor. Taylor and Lowe, as we learn later, are old pals who met on a 1988 joint forces expedition to Mount Everest.
Taylor is ex-RAF and Lowe ex-Army. Nev had telephoned Simon and said: "I’m 80 this year, what adventure shall we do to celebrate?" Yes, you did read that correctly.
Nev Taylor was going to be eight weeks off his 80th birthday on a 14 day trek up to more than 16,000ft.
We flew to Kathmandu via Doha and arrived at the Malla Hotel in the busy tourist district of Thamel, where the lobby was already full of kit bags. Lowe and Taylor arrived the next day with the seventh member of our party, experienced walker, Nepal expert and walking Wikipedia Mike McGoay.
The next day we went back to Kathmandu airport to catch a 35-minute domestic flight to Tumlingtar, followed by a five-hour jeep ride to Num, where our trek proper began, on what is the worst road upon which I’ve ever been driven.
At Num we stayed in a lodge or tea house that was typical of our accommodation for the next fortnight. Constructed of wood and thin corrugated iron, they feature a large dining room with wood burning stove and single and double bedrooms.
The toilets were usually in a separate hut and featured "long drop" loos that anyone who travelled in France more than 30 years ago will remember.
Num is at about 3,900ft so there was no need for our thick sleeping bags which, as recommended by Jagged Globe, could keep us warm at temperatures down to -20C.
The monsoon should have finished by the end of August but a night of heavy rain that sounded like it could drill holes in the corrugated roof proved it clearly hadn’t. Fortunately, we were to have one day of drizzle and after that perfect weather.
What I hadn’t expected was the extreme contrasts of the landscape. For the first few days of the trek we were in lush forests full of birdlife and insects. And leeches. These little horrors wriggle their way up your boot, burrow through socks and sink their fangs into your skin for a drink.
They emit an anaesthetic so you can’t feel them and also a chemical that acts as an anti-coagulant so you bleed copiously.
As we climbed higher the land became more barren and our first challenge was the Shipton Col (named after famous British climber and adventurer Eric Shipton) at 13,500ft. The day before was a rest day in a village called Khongma Danda at 11,500ft.
By now, after four days of walking, all of our party is fit and walking strongly. Our rest day is not so much for aching legs but to acclimatise to the altitude before going higher.
This is essential because if you try to short cut this there’s a strong chance you will suffer from acute mountain sickness, your holiday will be ruined or you will have to be evacuated by helicopter.
By the time we reach the lodge each evening our porters have been there for hours. These guys are unbelievable.
After the first day one of their number (a newcomer to the job) decided it wasn’t for him. The remaining three said that they’d split his load and his money between them.
This meant carrying around 45kg each. No walking boots, they wore wellies and even sliders. No complaining, nothing but smiles and laughter.
In charge is Mingma Sherpa, our sirdar or head Sherpa. A veteran of 19 years of leading treks, his knowledge is prodigious. He helps us over bridges that have collapsed and across landslips and narrow muddy paths.
Every day the scenery changes. After Shipton, there is peaty terrain with small lakes that could well be North Wales. A day later there are forests that could be in Switzerland. And all the time huge mountains rising up from the valley.
Finally, after nine days of walking, we are at Makalu base camp. During the day, under bright sun, it has either been T-shirt temperature or at most a fleece.
Now, in the thin-walled lodges there is ice on our toothbrushes and the water in our drinking bottles is frozen by morning. Those hardcore sleeping bags are now worth the considerable outlay.
Nev Taylor, by now acknowledged to be almost a superman (oh, by the way, he has a pacemaker), recommends wearing little other than underwear at night because if you wear loads of layers your body doesn’t heat the air space in the sleeping bag and therefore defeats the object.
Unlike many treks, the one to Makalu isn’t a circuit: you come back the way you came. This has the advantage of giving you a view that has been behind your head for nine days. We saw the rolling hills that continue on to India to the south. To the west the Kangchenjunga range and the world’s third highest mountain.
Two weeks of clean air and utter peace. No mobile phone, no traffic and not even the sound of an airliner above.
The only intrusive mechanical noise a helicopter removing a trekker who had not followed advice on acclimatising.
Jagged Globe, founded in 1987, organises trekking, mountaineering and skiing all around the world. It’s even taken people to the top of Everest.
I, however, am content to look at the world’s highest mountains from below.
Book the holiday
Get there: Connecting trips from Heathrow and Manchester to Kathmandu, Nepal, are available with carriers including Etihad Airways, Air India, Turkish Airlines, Qatar Airways, Emirates and Kuwait Airways.
Book it: Jagged Globe offers a 21-day trekking trip in Nepal from £2,745 per person. Flights extra. jagged-globe.co.uk
You can also find more information at ntb.gov.np.
