We Got To Get Out Of This Place – Part 3

The digger dug and did the biz. Three hours and we can pass over the rubble in our jeep. And drop down to the swollen rivers. The first bridge we arrived at had been under water yesterday. We were lucky that it was still standing.

On the south side of the river was another police roadblock. At this point in time we were still aiming for Ranechap. The driver spoke to the coppers and there seemed to be some activity. Yep!

Some people were saying that if we cut over the mountains, continuing southwards towards the Indian border, we could possibly find a way to Kathmandu. The driver saw his opportunity. If we all paid a supplement he would take us all the way to Kathmandu. Hands in pockets, let’s hit the road! Well, it’s mud really. Let’s hit the mud!

Good news. The road is blocked by a very big landslide. Booo! But we’ve got a maggot farmer of a JCB up ahead and he’s going to clear it all away. Hooray!

After a couple of hours it was going dark and we hit the blockage.

Three hours later and we were ready to rock.

Talking to different groups it seemed like we had very little chance, if any, of getting to Kathmandu. All roads were still blocked. However we could make it to Janakpur, down on the Indian border, and take a plane or helicopter to Kathmandu.

Let’s see. After two hours we dropped down into the town of Katari. The driver was talking to himself, staring into the darkness, like Gollum. Was he leading us to Shelob?

But he picked up a good, well surfaced road signed to Kathmandu. Soon we had just 55 miles to go. We headed up into the hills and copped for another police roadblock. They turned us round. It’s going to take weeks to dig this road out. And damningly the policemen said that there is no road open to Kathmandu.

After four jeep rides, bouncing over boulders and rolling over rocks, eighteen hours of rattling around in a tin can. To get a setback after such hope was very saddening. Particularly as we knew that those trapped in Lukla had probably all escaped by air.

We persuaded the driver to take us down to Janakpur. It took us an hour of driving around the most horrific, post-apocalyptic, rubbish strewn, wild dog riddled shithole to find a hotel with someone asleep in reception. It was way after midnight. We knocked him up, bought beers all round and got to bed.

Our jeep pushed off for Kathmandu with just two passengers left. I couldn’t face getting up to 9,000 feet altitude again and being turned round by the scuffers. Nice as they are, they’ve got safety to enforce.

Mad dogs and Englishmen. The best way to see Janakpur. Blurred.

Night night.