Hey this is TA calling in from Day 49. We are here in Dingboche at an elevation of about 4410m and for me its a little bit like coming home. I have been to Dingboche on the way to Everest several times, on the way to my Pomori expedition so being here feels very familiar except that I am acclimitized which is kind of a bit unfamiliar.

We are camped in the yard of a teahouse and what was kind of fun was the yaks just came home. It is too bad I didn’t have the phone a little bit ealier because you could’ve heard the yak bells. They also had little earrings. They make wool little castles that they put in their yaks ears hanging from their yaks ears so they can tell their yaks. So they just came home and went by the tents and the good news is they didn’t run over any tents and out the vestibule door we have a beautiful view of (inaudible) when it is not covered in clouds which was true for most of the day and also if we look up to the valley that we walked down from today, we can see Island peak. Or imjatse so it is a beautiful part of Nepal that we’ve been in. A little bit funny for ourselves to be back in civilization and to be surrounded by many many tourists. They all look much cleaner than us.

Wanted to say a big happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, happy, birthday to Alex. I hope you’re having fun celebrating. We’re thinking about you and sending love and the yaks send happy birthday greetings as well as do the yetties.

It is find your fit Friday here in Nepal and we hope you’re finding your fit. As I walked down from our camp I was thinking about do me a favour, this week sometime, there is hopefully a child in your life. Find them and take them for a walk. Give them a gift of walking. I was thinking that one of the easiest ways to find your fit is walking. It is simple. Requires only your feet, in some cases, in some cultures, your feet and some shoes and others and there is so much to be gained from a walk. So find a child that you care about, your grandchild, your daughter, your son, your niece, your nephew, your just significant young person in your life and go out for a walk together. Another thought we had today and this came to us from Sylvia, hey Sylvia. Cam says hi and she’s glad that you and Joshie are going for great big walks everyday and that is one way to get a lot of exercise, is to have a dog because they need to be walked and if you can’t get yourself motivated to walk for yourself, a lot of times people can get themselves motivated to walk their dogs and consistently the research shows that dog owners get more physical activity than non dog owners. So find a kid, find a dog and if you don’t want to have a dog in your life because it doesn’t allow it or dogs aren’t your thing, well maybe you can borrow one. We saw a wonderful little puppy today which Cam always calls Malcolm ever since we met our first Tibetan Masset in Ghunsa oh about 6 weeks ago. Can’t believe today, Day 49 actually marks our 7th week here together here on the great big walk.

Speaking of great big walk we had some great numbers today after the 10 days of being in the high country where we didn’t make a whole lot of steps. Today Marian made 18 284 for 12.7 km. I made 19 093 for 12.5 km and Cam clocked in at 18 595. 12.3. So that is all pretty exciting and so that is how we found our fit today as we went for a lovely, mostly almost entirely downhill walk from our camp beside Island peak. Kind of a pseudo rest day for us and guess what we’re going to do tomorrow? It is what we do most days. We’re going to walk uphill on the great big walk. So happy find your fit Friday, go out there, find your fit in whichever way you can and tune in tomorrow because there’s going to be some new numbers and we did have some filtering of perhaps sad news here today. We haven’t had any real details but it sounds like there was a huge tragedy on Everest and knowing that there maybe people that I know that lost their lives, my thoughts and condolences go out to anyone affected by this tragedy. So that is it from here today and we will catch you tomorrow from further along on the great big walk. Take care! Bye!

Total Steps for TA: 19 093  steps

Total Steps for Marian: 18 284 steps

Total Distance for TA: 12.5 km

Total Distance for Marian: 12.7 km

Great Big Walk acknowledges the support of the Memorial University of Newfoundland Quick Start Fund for Public Engagement in making these updates from the field possible.