The Road to Annapurna
We left early on a Wednesday morning nearly three weeks ago now. We had to make it up to Ghandruk from Pokhara with enough time to trek onwards up to Tadapani before evening or bad weather set in. The land…
Where Mongooses Play
I often see them running along the edges of the paddy fields here and have spent sometime trying to identify them properly, but whether they’re the Indian Gray Mongoose, or the Small Asian Mongoose, they wreak the same havoc amongst…
Head in the Clouds
I’m up in the clouds now. Literally. Yesterday I moved from the family guesthouse where I’ve been holed up these last three weeks in Lakeside Pokhara, up to the heights of Sarankgot, which, during these months of heavy monsoon, spends…
The Lotus Eaters
It’s now three days since I returned from Sarankgot and life has predictably settled back down into much the same rhythm it had before I left. But I’m hopeful I can manage the challenges of commune living with a little…
To Be a Pilgrim
It’s pouring with rain again, harder than ever. After the brief respite of a day, one sunset and a few stars we’re back to full on monsoon. It’s hard to imagine where all this water comes from. Fortunately most of…
Shiva’s Land
At last I think the weather has changed, or certainly is changing. Following days of intense rains and nightly electric storms wreaking widespread havoc and destruction, building to a crescendo with a night long thunder storm like an overhead bombardment,…
Green hills and wet fields
The hillsides echo now to shouts from men ploughing the rice paddies, navigating the teams of oxen along the narrow field lines flooding with water. Women crouch plucking the young rice plants from the nursery plots ready for replanting in…
And now Nepal
Phewa lake, Pokhara Day dawns to the sound of the continued heavy rain of the night and the cheerful croaking of a legion of frogs from the drenched rice paddies below. Clouds cling smokelike to the hillsides, enveloping the forest…
