The Indian Cast

It seems like we’ve done so much since our last blog! After the Everest trek we took a few days to travel to Pokhara, stopping at the beautiful, out of the way village, of Bandipur where we were pummelled by two whopping big storms. We know it’s a cliché but the hailstones really were the size if golf balls, we got caught in an open field and they hurt like hell. 2 hours later, when we finally made it back to the village the locals had swept up the hailstones from the street and the kids were building little snowmen.

We continued on to Pokhara, a pleasant town on the banks of the Phewa Lake and in the shadow of the Himalayas. We chilled out for a while, met up with our guide from Everest then trekked to Annapurna Base Camp. We didn’t have a porter this time and Nick carried the backpack (he’s quite proud of that). We were already acclimatised from our Everest trek and so we were able to walk further each day and did the whole thing in 8 days. There wasn’t much flat ground and the constant up or down made it quite difficult, certainly more tiring than the Everest trek. The weather was a bit hit and miss but we were fortunate enough to have good views of the amazingly spectacular Annapurna Sanctuary! We stayed the night at Base Camp then had to hot foot it back to Pokhara. We had to buy a motorbike…

We’d been thinking about it for some time and decided to buy an old Royal Enfield motorbike. 2 Slovakian tourists were selling one and they’d spent months driving around India and through Nepal to Phokara. We planned on driving it back to and around India so we bought their bike. It needed a few repairs and we got it at a knockdown price. However we were really pushed for time and Nick had to leave for a pre-booked 3 day white water rafting trip. Jen was feeling a little unwell after the exertions of the trek and she stayed behind to organise the bike repairs. Mechanics are not like they are back home, they don’t telephone when they find things wrong to ask if it’s OK to replace them. Instead Jen stayed at the garage for 2 whole days, hanging out with the other bikers and up to her elbows in petrol while Raju the mechanic had her cleaning the cylinder block and other engine parts. Meanwhile Nick was paddling the rapids and camping on the river banks under the stars - it was fantastic.

Fully laden with both of us and all worldly possessions, we left Pokhara and rode the Himalayan foothills to India. With landslides, potholes, wondering cows, no real driving etiquette and lunatic truck drivers the roads were treacherous. It was a tough nerve-racking journey. We made it to the Indian-Nepal border but the was a problem with the documentation for the bike. It’s a long story but basically the Slovakian tourists who sold us the bike didn’t declare it when the entered Nepal and we were liable for the duty plus a fine. We tried everything - ignorance, sympathy, humour, persistence, honesty, even offers of payments for their ‘special fund’ - but nothing worked. They seized the bike and threatened to seize Nick! We may have been able to work something out but we really needed to get to India and to a decent hospital.

So, to the title of the blog… We had an accident on the treacherous roads, the motorbike fell and Jen has chipped a bone in her foot. It took a days ride, a mornings haggle with customs officers, a 3 hour bus ride and an overnight train journey to get to the nearest decent hospital in Varanasi, India. They sorted her out, treated her well and she’ll be in a fibreglass cast for 3 weeks. The first photo is Jen’s funky pink cast with the holy river Ganges in the background (Nick finds this ironic)

India is our last country and the final phase of our journey. Varanasi is surprisingly nice but we’re leaving on Sunday and heading north where we hope it will we cooler. Jen’s obviously not very mobile but it’s not that painful and Nick is looking after her.


Love,

N&J
X X


PS. The chip is on the right side of Jen’s big toe

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