WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE: BEYOND – hmm, tricky…!

It’s all go at Tyangboche Monastery, Nepal. But wait, what’s that I see through the break in the cloud?

I didn’t find this an easy Weekly Photo Challenge. Usually I’m trying to focus my camera on the main subject, consciously avoiding distractions in the background.

Then I thought of this…

After a solid day’s walking we were pleased to emerge at Nepal’s Tyangboche Monastery, just under 4000 metres high.

It was Trekker Town, crowded with yaks and mules, Sherpas and Germans. The gongs and vuvuzela-like horns from the monks provided the soundtrack. The bakery provided real coffee. Tenzing Norgay, Sir Edmund Hillary’s fellow climber, was born in the Kumjung region and studied at this monastery.

All very interesting. Then suddenly the clouds parted, and there was Mount Everest beyond.

Need I say that the trek itself was one of the best I’ve ever done. To read more about it, CLICK HERE.

TREKKING NEPAL – simply the best

It’s pretty simple really. Lots of places have great hiking, but Nepal has the greatest treks of them all. I was privileged to be invited on this trip, and ‘voluntourism’ was an excellent way to start. I can’t gush about this enough!

As we gasp for breath in the thin air above his village, Ang Tshering Sherpa tells us a story. When he was a little boy, his mother sent him up this mountain to tend the family yak. It was cold, so Ang sneaked some matches and lit a fire to keep warm. But the wind sent the blaze racing out of control, burning the whole hillside and bringing all the neighbours running to save their livestock.

Thirty years later, Ang has more than repaid his village for the trouble he caused them. At thirteen he became a mountain guide. Then when a grateful Australian client asked what his village most needed, Ang explained that the nearest medical help for many Sherpas was a gruelling 2-day walk away. Not only are there no roads here, there are no wheels. Sick or injured patients have to be carried on the back of man or beast.

Kushudebu Medical Centre. Photo - Rebecca Thornton

So funds were raised, and in 2006 the Kushudebu Medical Centre opened, with Ang Tshering as its president, and support from organisations including Australian schools, travel company World Expeditions and many individuals. It now treats over 10,000 patients a year, and pays for the medical training of young Nepalis who will be its future staff. We’ve just visited it, and we’re starting to realise we’re in an extraordinary place with a remarkable man.

Ten Australians and three Britons have come to Nepal to work on Ang Tshering’s next initiative, building incinerators to dispose of the garbage polluting land and waterways. Then he’s taking us on a nine-day trek.

AMAZING YETI PHOTO? – my confirmed sighting in Khumjung, Nepal

The yeti scalp in its place of honour.

I’ve been sorting out photos of my recent expedition to Nepal, for publication with an article I wrote for the Sun-Herald newspaper – coming soon, don’t miss it.

I found some curious photos I’d almost forgotten in the excitement.

…about as exciting as watching yak dung drying.

The air is thin in Khumjung village, altitude 3790 metres, just off the main ‘Everest Highway’ which leads trekkers like us towards the top of the world. There’s little between the Khumjung houses but stone walls and little fields, with juniper berries and yak dung drying on sheets of plastic.

Khumjung Village, Nepal

But the Khumjung Gomba buddhist monastery has one irresistible tourist attraction – a yeti scalp, which they acquired in a curious way…

GEOCACHING – what am I doing wrong?

We are loo-king for your ge-o-cache.

A few weeks ago, my friends found a geocache. It was hidden in a tree, in a forest near the buddhist monastery at Thyangbochhe, Nepal, nearly 4000metres above sea level, with Mt Everest in the background. It seemed an impossible task, but they found it anyway. I was there and I was most impressed.

But yesterday I failed to find the geocache reputed to lurk at plain old Petersham Oval, Sydney. What am I doing wrong? Somebody help me, please! I want to find a geocache!! Everybody else is finding geocaches – why can’t I???

CHILDREN OF NEPAL

I’ve taken hundred of shots of Nepalese children working, playing, framed by windows or being carried on someone’s back. The scruffier and snottier they are, the better. Poverty is so photogenic…unfortunately. I suppose we like to see people cheerfully or stoically getting on with life, whatever their circumstances.

CYCLING NEPAL – can it be done?

Nepal is the ‘number one MTB destination of the world’ according to a website I came across. There are companies that offer cycle touring in the Kathmandu valley, but I can’t claim to have tested them.

Our trek is in the Everest region, where they haven’t yet invented the wheel. No wonder, with tracks like this: