Nepal 2007
Trip Start
Jan 01, 2008
1
9
10
Trip End
Dec 31, 2008
Kathmandu,
Nepal
Saturday, April 12, 2008
In March 2007, we invited a group of Mountain Fund Volunteers to trek the Tamang Heritage Trail with us. The trail is new and part of the governments program to improve poverty in rural areas through tourism. We wanted to check it out in preparation for our future treks.
There are few facilities on the trail, which meant that the four volunteers and I had to stay in tents instead of trekking lodges. Since we had all these great Mountain Hardwear tents, we were delighted to put them to work on this fact-finding trip. The 7 day trek was to explore the area for the October Medical Camps and help the Medical Trek Board better understand and appreciate the conditions they will be working under in this part of Nepal
Chilime Camp
. Volunteers Anna P., Mary C., Susan A. and Germaine B. took this trip with us and I think we had more than a little bit of fun along the way. A couple of these girls love to dance. We'd brought along a few ipods and some portable speakers. The music and dancing eventually spilled over to include our cook (who makes awesome meals) and members of our porter crew, especially Kumar who loves dance.
There were some moments that were serious. In the village of Timure and again in Briddam we were called upon to render first aid to two women who had suffered some nasty burns. The young woman in Timure had dropped a pot of scalding water on her bare foot. Most of the foot was covered in blisters and the top of the foot at the arch was a mass of open, red and quite sore flesh. We treated this girl and then had the opportunity to follow up on the treatment, when we met her on the trail a few days later.
The food was great and our cook staff even baked us a cake the last night. The company was great, our porters were awesome and the trek through the Tamang Villages was breathtaking.
