Hiking to Everest Base Camp can be the adventure of a lifetime (and you don't have to be in top shape)

On Top of the World (well, almost!): You don't have to be in great shape to make it to Everest Base Camp. Take your time, soak up the scenery and this might just be the adventure of your life. Jane Slade spent three weeks traveling the Himalayas to celebrate her 60th birthday. "Our guides set a moderate pace and we had porters to carry our luggage," she explains. Along the way, she visited clifftop monasteries and spent time with a legendary Sherpa

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November 2022 | Updated: 09:02 GMT, 2 November 2022 These are mostly young people with the goal of getting there as soon as possible. We did it differently, spending a wonderful three weeks exploring the area, soaking up the spectacular scenery and taking days to acclimatise.

Our guides set a moderate pace and we had porters to carry our luggage. There were even times when it seemed like we were taking a leisurely stroll, like a rhythmic moving meditation.

Sitting in a French bakery sipping a hot Americano and eating a cinnamon roll was not what I expected at 14,400ft (4,400m) in a Himalayan mountain village.

Deserted but so A few yaks and waving prayer flags, Dingboche is like many of the villages we passed through on our hike.

It was calm and cold, with swirling snow stuck to the windows. A few shops were selling woolen hats, toilet paper and...