Walking around Panauti

During our visit to Nepal in April 2019 we were keen to meet and spend time with local people. So when we came across the Community Homestay initiative in Panauti – a small rural town a two-hour bus ride east of Kathmandu – this sounded like an ideal opportunity to stay with a family. Our Community Homestay hosts were Biju and her two daughters Aayusha and Nirusha, who made us most welcome.

In the late afternoon Aayusha showed us some of the village monuments – Panauti is a historic town with some beautiful temples. She then took us up a nearby hill to look at the Buddhist temple and we decided to follow this path the following day.

So the following morning we set off on the path running north through the nearby hills towards Dhulikel. We retraced our steps up the Buddhist temple and enjoyed the views over the town and the valley where the fields were green with the potato crop.

The track wended its way through the hamlets scattered across the hillsides. It was the Nepali new year holiday and children regularly came up to us and asked for chocolate! Rain was forecast for the afternoon, and the clouds started to build up over the nearby mountains.

We claimed higher onto the ridge and the fields started to give way to woodlands.

We eventually made it to the Shree Sharada Devi Temple, the highest point of the path, where a local man put flower petals in our hair and took us to a viewpoint from where we could see Dhulikel, Banepa, Panauti and Namobuddha.

We then retraced our steps back to Panauti just before the rain. In the late afternoon Nirusha took us to a local café where they had found a guitar, and asked me to sing a few songs. When we returned home, Nirusha dressed Isabelle in a Nepali sari. We ended the day with a fabulous Newari dinner with 9 different dishes and a glass of home-made rice wine.

Haystacks at last

On September 11th 2017 we finally made it to the top of Haystacks, close to Buttermere in Cumbria.  It was Wainwright's favourite Lake District peak, and I had long wanted to climb it - but we had never before stayed in a nearby area.

We started out close to Buttermere, and already the clouds were gathering:

As we crossed the valley floor, Haystacks rose to meet us:

We walked up through the wood and emerged to get our first closer view of Haystacks.

At this point the rain began, and we sought what shelter we could behind a dry stone wall. The rain relented, and we pressed on up the slope.

The final approach to the summit involves some scrambling, but the clouds lifted enough to give glorious views over the lakes and the neighbouring fells.

Wainwright's ashes were scattered close to the summit tarn:

The rain had thankfully abated for the day as we began our descent, but the clouds were down over Dale Head and it was increasingly cold. We could make out Thirlmere in the distance. The heavy rainfall over previous days had swelled the becks, and we unwisely chose a crossing that had become a raging waterfall. We just made it across without falling in, but finished the walk with wet feet.