Dingboche reached OK!

Hey!
We reached Dingboche yesterday after a 6 or so hour trek from Tengboche. It was a fairly decent walk, although I think we are all now benefitting from the extra days at altitude.
It's still tough going, especially as the air is so dry. As we're now above 4000m which is roughly the treeline, the landscape is so much different to what we have seen so far. There are no trees... just boulders with the odd shrubby bush. In parts it's possitively desert-like with a lot of sand. In fact it doesn't look that dissimilar to the moon!
The majority of the group are now back up to speed following various bouts of S+D and the like. A couple of us last night (myself included) started suffering tremendous headaches. It was almost to the point where I thought my head was about to implode. Apparently it's just another sign of altitude sickness setting in. I'm glad to say though that following our "rest day" trek this morning up another 400m up the ridge, the headache has subsided. Let's hope it stays away this time.
If it wasn't for the fantastically-rewarding views on the way, no one in their right mind would willingly choose to trek these parts. With the sun beating down, the air so dry, the dust constantly choking and often blinding you, the cold winds and the almost vertical climbs (and descents) at times it really is hard going. We often stop for a breather, only to turn around and notice that way way way back further down the valley, was the place we stopped the day before for lunch, or where we started that morning. The distances we've covered and the altitudes we've gained are astounding.
We head up to Lobuche tomorrow, which is in the next valley. It's from there that we launch our assault on Everest Base Camp on Tuesday. We can no longer see Everest from our current location as we are too close and there's another mountain in the way. However, the panoramic views we encountered this morning at 15,200ft were astounding. Doing a 360 degree turn gave views of Island Peak, Ama Dablam, Lohtse and a whole host of others we keep losing track of. Half the problem is that we learned to recognise the various mountains from so far away, we're now right in the middle of them all and they all look so different!
Anyways, it's time to sign off. Internet access is becoming more and more difficult to obtain and more costly each village we reach.
Main thing is we are both fine - coping well with the elements and the physical demands of hiking in such a location!
Ste & Jen