My dear friend Dayasagar and I visited back in 1976, when we were twenty year olds travelling through Asia. It was Christmas time, very cold and we stayed in a small lodge with a number of other backpackers and celebrated with a shared bottle of Johnny Walker. Ah memories!

Yesterday, after a very chaotic time at Kathmandu airport, we headed to Tashi Delek Guesthouse, Bhattedande Village, Dhulikel and settled in for a couple of quiet days before heading to Bhutan.

The views this morning were spectacular, as the mist rose from the valley and the mountain peaks peeped out above the clouds.

Today we walked along the road for a while, until we met a group of people who invited us to celebrate the Hindu Festival Dashain. “Come with us!” they called, and we followed them along a shortcut through the hills. Well for a while anyway, until both Barb and I thought it was probably not the wisest thing for us to do as the track was slippery, steep and very uneven! So we thanked them and wandered back up the road…much easier.

We stopped to watch some children playing on the swings which had been built just for the festival, it looked like a lot of fun, but I thought I might break it!

This afternoon we clambered down another track which led through the village, but once again turned back as the way became impassable. The villagers were shy as we wandered through, but happy to chat as we puffed and panted our way back up the mountainside!