Nepal Blog
Written by Luke Gamble
Off we go again: 16th November 2009
Still scarred from the time I was late for the Waterbabies family photo shoot and jumped into the water with someone else’s wife and child (took a bit of explaining) I approached a packed Salisbury leisure Centre with a slight sense of trepidation. The queue for the pool was virtually out the door and considering people have been doing swimming as an organised activity since about 2500BC, I was vaguely hopeful that Salisbury District Council would get through the queue before Noah had time to introduce himself to absolutely everyone in the Centre and try all the emergency exit doors. Needless to say, they didn’t quite manage it.
Getting ready for swimming with a manic 22month year old is no easy challenge, and the big edge that the ancient Greeks, Egyptians or Romans had was that they didn’t have to wrestle with Winnie the Pooh swimming nappies. That in itself is equivalent to a gladiatorial contest of epic proportions. Having nailed that, Noah then promptly opened the changing room door just as Daddy had slipped out of boxer shorts -not ideal in a communal mixed sexed changing area.
Distaste etched on several Mums faces, it was 50:50 whether we were going to be escorted from the pool before we’d even had an opportunity to get in it. If Noah and I had been in togas, then none of this would have happened and it all would have been a lot quicker. Thankfully, we didn’t and once garbed in the appropriate attire we headed through to the pool itself. Try as I might, I couldn’t imagine the delights of a Roman bath even closely resembling the churning chaos that awaited us. Suffice to say Noah loved it, the lifeguard only told us off once and only two parents made comments to me about my charge. One when Noah had hidden inside locker 227 – took some finding – and the other when Noah hurled himself into the deep end of the teaching pool. Tricky moment as he hasn’t quite managed swimming aspect of such a feat, but he was okay and it was an action packed afternoon.
Heading to Nepal now. Eighth trip for the series – if it offers half as much enjoyment or excitement as a swimming trip with Noah then it’s bound to be a winner…
Keeping it short: 18th november 2009
I’ve been told to keep these blog entries short – so here goes: Breakfast was a drawn out affair, the fruit was particularly succulent but the coffee a little strong for my taste. I worked myself into a frenzy with the indecision of whether to have a white bread roll or a brown bread roll but finally opted for both – carbs are king.
I forgot…: 18th november 2009
I can’t do it; there is simply too much gripping information to report. For example, the boiled eggs I had were cooked to perfection. We also finally made it to Pokhara today. It has been an epic journey, broken up by a night in the midst of the hustle and bustle of Kathmandu, but after a relatively quick light aircraft flight between the mountain peaks of the Himalayas, we have touched down in the enchanting town of Pokhara, home to the newly formed charity Himalayan Animal Rescue Team (HART).
HART are simply great and although we have only just met Juliette (Co Founder with Jim and Barbara) and her local team, I have the feeling it will be a brilliant trip. HART was founded eight months ago in response to a rabies outbreak in the town. It is the only animal charity in the region and being a relatively remote place (Everest is just down the road (ish) the charity is poised to have a big impact, helping hundreds of animals in the region. The scenery is stunning and for once I am somewhere cool – the temperature is perfect – and I am geared up to get stuck in. In fact I can’t wait until tomorrow morning when work starts properly (only treated one animal today) and we can really get involved. The shelter itself is half way up a snow peaked mountain and looks down on the idyllic town which laces the edge of a beautiful blue lake.
I need to get hold of some vincristine – lot of TVT cases (Transmissible Veneral Tumours) and they have no means to treat them, so that will be a big mission first thing. It is treatable and I want to help them with it. Fingers crossed I can find some. It’s a drug used for treating human cancer so hopefully the private hospital might be able to relinquish a bit.
The team are in good spirits. Simon is standing in for Adam on this one again and it’s good to have him back; Marc and Nathan are both in peak form. Simon is still feeling very extreme post Peru but has a slightly sore eye. He has also only brought three pair shoes for this trip though so definitely cutting back the more ‘extreme’ we get!
Jimmy: 19th November 2009
Great day – attempted some hardcore healing on a dog we named Jimmy. Not a very Nepalese name but I had an urge and one of the key founders of HART is called Jim. It’s a good name and that’s reason enough. Jimmy underwent epic surgery – about three hours – whilst I tried to reconstruct his neck. Lots of maggots and a horrific wound, I also castrated him so all things considered Jimmy has had rather a lot to cope with today – but either that or he would have had a lingering demise. He is currently sleeping off the anaesthetic and he now has to make it through the night. Fingers crossed. Whatever had caused the wound – he was probably savaged by another dog (although there are attacks on dogs by leopards in the town) he was lucky to be alive when we found him.
Community day this afternoon – vaccinating dogs, and then managed to track down some vincristine so that was a fantastic end to the day. Currently in Pokhara Lakeside Cyber Station courtesy of a few computer issues, so no e-mail access. If anyone happens to be reading this and needs to contact me – best to phone. I’m sure it’ll be cheap.
The other great news is that we are driving around in a truck loaned to us by the head monk from a Buddhist temple up the mountain. We’ve been told that this is great karma so considering the fairly relaxed driving rules in Nepal, we’re all hoping that this means our car might be untouchable and we’ll survive the mean roundabouts of free-for-all Pokhara unscathed…
Hike of power: 20th November 2009
Great day – totally action packed. Hardcore healing at the shelter – few cases and then a two hour drive to an area where pack horses are used to hike up and down the mountain side laden with massive packs. It was an amazing setting – huge suspension bridge hanging over a raging river. The pack horses fearless in their crossing of it as we set up a base for treatments. I say horses but they were actually mules – offspring of male donkeys crossed with female horses (hinnys are female donkeys with male horses). Felt very sorry for some of them and we tried to get a bit of education in the mix as well as treatments. It’s a drop in the ocean but hopefully the story of one mule in particular will tell the story of thousands and I hope it makes the programme.
The drive back was terrifying – Marc was behind the wheel (Simon and Nathan were in the truck in front) and our headlights were of questionable use. Sadly we found a calf collapsed by the side of a road half way up a remote mountain. Treated as best we could and the plan is to get up at the crack of dawn and check on it before the action starts. Will keep you posted. As for Jimmy – I’d hate to spoil an advert break for you…
Loving the driving: 21st November 2009
Nathan and I got up early and hit the road in search of the calf we had found on the way home last night. Thankfully the treatment we gave must have worked because where the calf had been lying was a lot of dung and it had clearly got up and walked away. The best bit of the morning though, was that on the way back to the shelter, our driver pulled over and indicated he wanted me to drive.
I’ve been driving the other truck so we thought he simply wanted a break as it was a long day yesterday, but it soon turned out it was because he wasn’t sure of the way. So with our driver in the back and me and Nathan in the front – we headed back to Pokhara and the shelter on instinct. Needless to say that with the driver not speaking a word of English, us not having a map and despite our innate knowledge of the street layouts of Pokhara and surrounding Nepali communities, we were a bit late meeting up with Marc and Simon!
A few cases later at the shelter, the rest of the guys headed off to a Tibetan Settlement full of Tibetan refugees who had fled into Nepal from neighbouring Tibet. I stayed behind a bit to sort out a couple of animals and was planning to catch up with them for an afternoon of treatments. Once again, I was with the driver from earlier, and once again, he pulled over and gestured for me to hop into the driving seat. We’ve actually got a driver who simply doesn’t like driving, so although he knew the way to the camp, he proceeded to instruct me to go left at each roundabout and then shout right at the last minute from the back seat. Brilliant! Horns blaring, kids, motorbikes and cows everywhere – it couldn’t have been much more chaotic until we drove up a narrow road which was lined by Buddhist monks who fanned out in front of us. I stopped and suddenly they all started to get into the vehicle! Unknown to me, we were picking them up – about ten of them in a four seater truck – and taking them to the settlement!
As the only one who couldn’t speak Nepali, it was a great plan for me to still be driving at this point. Luckily, I had lots of help finding the way and was suddenly receiving directions from everyone – left right meant right and left meant left. Took a bit of working out. Of course when you are in a truck crammed full of Buddhist monks, normal highway rules don’t apply so without any hesitation I was directed the wrong way up a one way street, told to cut across several lanes of traffic and pretty much told to drive through buildings that obstructed our path.
I have never had such a bizarre journey and have to say it was the highlight of the day by a long way!
The community work was brilliant – lots of dogs (Tibetan Terriers unsurprisingly), goats and horses. Buddhist monks are into dogs – or so it seemed as they all had them and brought them for treatment! There was an animal blessing and a general manic air to the session – great stuff.
Simon was on fire after his heroics yesterday with all the filming in the gorge, Marc seems pretty happy with the shoot and Nathan is very pleased to be alive after my driving!
Simon’s EXTREME Birthday: 22nd November 2009
Simon’s birthday today so we’re all in great spirits and hopefully he’s had a good day filming cattle and some rescued birds of prey. The sun also came out so we got a great view of the mountains – gave us a taste of what to expect for the next few days because we have a flight up into the Himalayas crack of dawn tomorrow to a remote place in the lower mustang – near the Tibet border. Of course we have the birthday meal to deal with before that… Internet may be a bit hard to come by so will catch up in a few days.
Deep in the Himalayas: 23rd November 20009:
A nerve wracking plane ride ascending 4000metres and landing on the edge of a mountain got us in the mood for a hardcore section of the trip. Amazingly there is an old computer with internet in the hostel we’re staying in. I say amazingly because there is also very little hot water – no soap, toilet paper and the room temperature is sub zero, but it does have brilliant food, a great family running it and is soaked in character.
It has also been a great day – I’ve done the first cat spay in a remote mountain village ever which was great – on the roof of a house with the backdrop of snowcapped mountains, the people are super friendly and the scenery spectacular.
Gearing up for the helicopter arriving tomorrow – it can only fly until 11am or the winds get too strong so it promises to be an action packed start to the day.
I saw Nathan run!: 24th November 2009
Big, big, big news – Nathan ran. The rest of us were astounded but I can confirm that witnessing this was up there with being on a remote mountain top in the Himalayas treating yaks. I rate Nathan hugely but he has acquired yet another nickname this trip – ‘sloth’ – due to the fact he has been moving at the speed of a lame snail and has been feeling a little ‘tired’. Poor chap. But he was in the zone and actually ran about twenty metres. It was like watching a baby bird take its first flight – or so I would imagine – but without the feathers – almost miraculous.
The day has been hardcore – the helicopter was with us which always adds a bit of edge to things. Once again the radios didn’t work so we had to wing it and the added extra was that due to high winds, aerial filming after 11am wasn’t going to happen. With a one and a half hour off-road drive up a mountain side to conquer before we were even close to the yaks I was going to treat (the bit the guys wanted to film), it was an early start to say the least.
It was also a bit stressful as the yaks weren’t having any of it to start with and Marc and I exchanged a few choice words as I explained we needed to herd them into a makeshift stone coral and running up a mountain, carrying a 35kg bag at 4,500m was leaving me a little short of breath. Marc had sweated blood and guts into making this happen so wasn’t best pleased that things weren’t going all too smoothly to start with. We did manage to get it nailed though and it turned out to be a brilliant day. Marc and I are still talking – now I have my breath back – and all is sweet. The yaks are also fine and are awesome animals – incredibly well adapted to surviving in such a harsh environment. They actually have an extra pair of ribs than cows which allows for bigger lungs, a massive heart and greater oxygen capacity at such a high altitude (50% less oxygen up here than at sea level apparently).
Joy of joys is that we have to do it all again tomorrow as the helicopter is going to have another crack in Pokhara where it’s a lot lower and things are a bit safer. Rock on.
Back to Pokhara: 25th November 2009
Day two of the helicopter shooting and as predicted it was a bit of stress due to complete lack of communication with the aerial camera. However, despite the glitches, I don’t think the aerial shots can disappoint – the landscape is simply stunning and it was a beautiful day so it’s going to be a winner.
The flight back to Pokhara was fairly good – considering the plane takes off the side of a mountain and it literally flies off the end of the runway. One lady (sitting behind Simon thankfully) was throwing up a fair bit, but it wasn’t as turbulent as the flight out and with such dramatic scenery (we flew back over the mountains to get to Pokhara) there wasn’t a dull moment. Once the helicopter was all done and dusted it was back up to the shelter to check on a few animals and one small drama in that a wheel fell off one of the trucks as the front axel snapped. Quite exciting as neither truck has working handbrakes and we were up the top of a very steep hill. All is fine though (lots of boulders handy to act as brakes) and hopefully the truck will be back in action for the final big day tomorrow.
Probably won’t have a chance to update the blog before I am back in the UK as the next few days are action packed – bits to get done tomorrow in the day then flying to Kathmandu tomorrow night, overnight there then on to Doha and then finally back home.
I think the whole team have really enjoyed the trip but with so much travelling it’s been very full on! Will be brilliant to get back and see our respective families and I’m sure we’ll all remember HART with great fondness. I’ve made some more great friends on this trip and am heading back with lots of plans to set up some follow up teams and get these community outreach programmes working really well. If anyone fancies an action packed adventure in Nepal I have the perfect itinerary!
All photo’s courtesy of Red Earth Studio, Sky and WVS
