Central Region

We were sad to say goodbye to cheerful Shivalaya, and even sadder to say goodbye to our teahouse host, Badar, who took the time to explain the religious and social changes Nepal has been going through over the past 20 years. Most interestingly, Badar explained how he himself was a Buddhist while his wife was a Hindu; something that would've been strictly forbidden under the caste system only two decades ago, as well as touching on other issues such as the impact of the internet on rural life, and the increasing shift to gender balance in Nepal.

After tipping freely in thanks for his hospitality, we were back on the trail again, and suddenly faced with an unrelenting 1 km ascent up to the village of Deurali, at an altitude of 2705 m. Here's the problem though, my illness had set in even worse today, with periodic sneezing, a sore throat, feverous chills, stomach cramps, and a complete decimation of energy levels to name but a few symptoms. But why has it been so hard to avoid illness so far? We don't know frankly, is it the food, the water, the foreign strains of sickly bacteria you simply can't avoid? Up until now, we've been double purifying our water supply, first using an ultraviolet steripen to disinfect it, followed by a treatment of Chlorine Dioxide solution to be extra sure of its cleanliness. Every time I'd been taking a gulp of our processed water though, it had only been adding to my thirst and further irritating my inflamed throat. I don't know if my body just doesn't agree with Chlorine Dioxide (Thomas has been fine after all), or if I inhaled one gulp of chlorine gas too many in its preparation, but I decided to switch over from chemical treatment to using my water filter with the steripen, which has been much better since.

Anyhow, the result of all this has been a painfully slow day without much significant progress. Still, Thomas (who enjoyed his healthiest day yet himself) punctuated the uphill heaves of footsteps by immersing himself in the Himalayan biology once again, even spotting a venomous Orange Collared Keelback snake under foot. Calling the day short at Deurali, it's been a quiet evening (again as the only guests here at all!) while I try to sniffle myself back to something resembling a healthy person.Read more