Descending from the bleak desert of Dolpa the snowy mountains ahead enthralled us. Later, as we climbed up from Jomsom to the Mesokanto La North we were still feeling the effects of the previous fortnight and neither of us was…
Chilling in Dolpa
The 1970s Dolpa of Peter Matthiessen’s ‘The Snow Leopard‘ intrigued us. Though his writing style and long religious ramblings were hard to plough through, the descriptions of this wild land, its Tibetan people, yaks and God-awful cold were fascinating. In…
Swapping bikes for boots: beginning a trek across Nepal
Reinvigorated by a week in Pokhara, blending in with the throngs of other gringos and refuelling at ‘Hungry Feel Bakery’, we returned to West Nepal. 30 hours on rickety Nepali buses which were built in the 1950s and probably haven’t…
Struggling through West Nepal
On previous backpacking trips Nepal had been a haven. A place we could flee to and escape the stresses of travel in India. Once, our patience having snapped in rural Maharashtra, we’d jumped on a 40 hour train ride just…
It’s a long way to Munsyari
For a month debate raged in the Pike camp as to which route we should take from Kinnaur to Nepal. Haz favoured continuing with our original plan of cycling and hiking the whole way from the Pakistan-India border to east Nepal. Neil…