I had a phone on Thursday lunch time asking if I could go to Nepal on the following Monday. Yes, yes I could go to Nepal on the following Monday.
17 days in my favorite country in the world.
A leader who I knew had dropped out due to family reasons and Alan Ward suggested to Global Action I would be a good replacement.
It all happened very quickly but by Tuesday morning I found myself back in Kathmandu. The group were from Bradfield College and had 18 students and 3 teachers. The group were very strong, independent and supported each other well. The 3 teachers were close but made me feel welcome and part of the team immediately.
There was a lot of travel experience in the group, many had done Dof E gold and CCF or played sport to a high level.
We decided very quickly that we had to be careful not to over brief the group for fear of making them feel untrusted. Danny, the lead teacher did the Pastoral/admin briefs each night and Goutam, the trekking guide did his briefs directly to the group and I kept my comments brief if I had anything to add. It seemed to work and was a good learning experience.
We did 5 days trekking through the wonderful foot hills of the Himalaya. We started in Naya Pul going up to Gohrapani via a sunrise ascent of Poon hill with views of Annapurna South and Machapuchare across to Tadapani and back to Naya Pul. aAfantastic trek, made more interesting by the leeches... After a days R and R we left for the Tibetan refugee camp in Pokhara. They we spent 3 days digging, always digging, before the hole became to deep to allow the group in, Anything in the UK over 5 ft deep needs a trench protection system in place. We were 6.5 ft deep and after a chat with Global Action the dig was halted and the engineers who were going to fit the water tank completed the dig. We finished our project early, as due to the heat the schools were shut and there was no opportunity for interaction for the students and with the hole on stop we decided to visit the local monastery to teach English and visit the World peace Stumpa which amused the group as the local who led us couldn't keep up so we left him sat in the shade and went on our own. We rounded off our trip with WWF,Ghurka welfare and Annapurna region developement site visits before the flight home. Great trip with a great group.
