3 days in the fresh air....
We have decided to go for a trek in the Kathmandu valley instead of Pokhara as it is less far and it would be good to discover the beauty of the surrounding environment. So we decided to go for 3 days from Saturday to Monday and also we took porters in case the kids got tired.
The first day the company came to pick us up at 8.30 as they went to the other GEMS school so we had to wait a little longer. Then we drove for 1 hour to the beginning of the trek.
We arrived at about 11 at the start and decided to have some lunch before as they was no other place until we arrived at 4 at the hotel. We all had noodles and some drinks… and then we headed off to the national park.
The day was very tiring as we had not been used to do anything and the majority of the trail was with steps up and down.. Very tiring and Hayden was winging a lot so we though he would have to be carried during the 3 days.
The sceneries were beautiful as we went through some farming villages perched on the flank of the mountain… They were all very much like the Masviel, small, fragrant and beautiful… All the scents from the animals, and the corn and the nature reminded me of our house in the Tarn. It was wonderful to be in the nature with no pollution and Hayden stopped coughing ….
We slept in a hotel in an area which is renowned for its wet weather and humidity … and that was true, we slept in a hotel which was very humid. All the beddings smelled like dampness and there was no hot water…. But we woke up at 5.30 to see the sunrise and it was awesome. Teo woke up too and Hayden stayed in bed.
The second day we went through a much nicer path, wide and rugged but no steps so the kids walked from 8.30 till 5.30… they did very well.. Again we saw some great nature, we saw leeches and we all had one jumping on us, we saw snakes and eagles and a lot of beautiful wild sceneries, a lot less villages than the first day.
At lunch we stopped in a little village in the mountain where we met a French pilot working in Dubai… I thought we would have rain so I bought a large plastic bag to wear as I had no waterproof jacket. I did well as we got rain from about 3 so we arrived in the hotel absolutely drenched….
The hotel in Nagarkot was good so we managed to get the shoes and socks dried overnight… The rooms were warm and pleasant and we slept like logs…
The third day we went back to Dhulikhel where the van was due to pick us up to bring us back to our house.
We set off on a similar trail than the day before but the sky was quite cloudy for most of the morning… We had a nice lunch at about 11 in a little house in the hills, with little goats and the ladies were so sweet with the kids that she brought a whole box of little chicks for them to touch and have a look at… The area grows a lot of potatoes and sweetcorn so the scenary was amazing with various shades of green in the terraced fields of either potatoes or rice. There were a lot of people working the rich earth by hand, men and women all equal and it was very beautiful.
We stopped at a hindu temple and went in to have a look at Raj our guide gave us a talk about the hindu and Buddhist religions…
Meanwhile heavens broke off and again rain poured out of the skies… we waited a while but decided to head off… So we changed into our wet clothes from the day before in order to keep some dry clothes … and headed off in the rain.
It was kind of fun… the ground was red as it is an area where they get the earth to make bricks so the rivers were swollen and red, the paths like streams and again we were with wet feet within 10 minutes of walking out in the rain.
That day we saw amazing butterflies and millions of worms that fall from the side of the mountain with the rain and then dry up in the path.
The kids were starting to show signs of being tired so Anne starting telling them stories and they walked all the way … thanks to Touching the void, 126 hours and another story….
We saw some interesting grasshoppers or locust like creatures and heard a few cigales. All was very refreshing and we were sad in many ways to see the city and be hit once again by the dust and pollution.
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