Travelling from Kathmandu to Humla

The area that RIDS-Nepal do their work is in Humla, which is in the remote North West of Nepal, bordering with Tibet. On most occasions I have travelled up to Humla by plane. This can be a challenge as last time I was waiting for 2 weeks for a flight to Simikot in Humla. That delay was mainly due to weather, and the airstrip in Simikot is dirt.

On this occasion, I travelled in Alex's Van from Kathmandu to Nepalgunj, took a taxi from Nepalgunj to Surkhet, then an aircraft from Surkhet to Simikot in Humla.

The first photo is of Alex driving through the chaotic traffic of Kathmandu.



















While driving along the main highway, you will often see huts where they sell snacks, and often make the typical sweet tea, called Chhia. I managed to take a photo of a truck next to such a house.






















The next image is of Alex deep in discussion while we were stopped in traffic.





















Now often we would make some stops, to have some Chhia (sweet tea). The next photo is of the shop that made the Chhia where we first stopped.




















The following image is of Bodhraj and Paras, walking around the tea house.



















Now a main reason we stopped there is the view was fantastic, which is not unusual in some parts of Nepal.




















There were also opportunities to stop at other locations, simply for the views, as shown by the next image.






















We stayed overnight where they were testing a smokeless metal stove that RIDS-Nepal had made over 10 years ago. It was cold, scenic, and they were very accommodating. However, some places of Nepal you have to be careful of insects that can greet you with a few bites overnight, which I discovered.

The next photo is of the van getting ready to go the morning after.




















Now the roads in Nepal, often curl around mountains, and are a little dangerous. So the next photo is an attempt to capture that.




















A reason why my blogs have taken a while, is that I have been playing around with Google Maps. So I have captured some of our travels through the mountains on Google Maps. This shows how much the roads twist and turn due to the mountains through the country. Click on the link, then view the Satellite and Terrain options on the map.

Driving through the mountains.


Along these roads, there was often well cultivated land. As you can see with the next photo.


















Overall the trip was quite enjoyable, with Paras and I sitting in the back.


















In Nepal you will find many hazards on the roads. There are no foot paths, so people walk on the roads, cycle carring large loads, or you can have a herd of cattle walk in front of the vehicle. As Hindu is a majority religion in Nepal, the cow is considered sacred. So you want to avoid hitting a cow.




















So after spending a brief night in Nepalgunj, we left Nepalgunj at 5am to get to Surkhet. There is often more success getting flights from Surkhet.

There are also regular helicopter flights for the world food program, and sometimes take passengers.



I also managed to do a map of the approximate flight path.
Approximate Flight Path


We were incredibly lucky on this trip to Humla, as the day after we had snow in Simikot, which stopped flights.