As I write we are in the bus on our way to Tansen.  Our driver is Raju, who we’re sure we’ll get to know quite well over these 10 days as he takes us where we need to be.

We have learnt very quickly that nothing happens fast in Kathmandu. We now know by experience, that we need to start planning payments well in advance of departure.  At dinner last night when we were all tired and ready to pay and leave, we didn’t realise that it would take nearly another half hour for our bills to be organised.  A similar thing happened at breakfast this morning. So we didn’t end up leaving Tibet Guest House till 7:45am, when we were hoping for much earlier.

We have now left the precincts of Kathmandu and are winding through the hills, seeing terraces, and have just passed a guesthouse called ‘Highway Heaven’.

Even though it’s monsoon, we have blue skies today and are seeing much of the valleys and some of the surrounding hills.

We are following the Trisuli River with many bends, lots of rapids, plenty of suspension bridges and houses, shanties, shops and walkers all along the way. There is so much traffic – cars, vans, buses, trucks and bikes. The weather continues to be good, no rain as yet. We are all saying ‘thank you Lord’.

For both our morning tea stop and lunch stop the humidity hit us as we left our air-conditioned van, but the vistas were very pretty. Our lunch stop was at the Cable Car to the Manakamana Temple. We didn’t have time to go of course, but across two ranges of hills is the temple where newly weds go to sacrifice a goat in the hope that they will have male children. It certainly made us thankful that we have no need of sacrifices as our Saviour Christ has paid the price fully for our sin, and we are made new in Him. What a gift it is, that we have peace with our heavenly Father.

Passing through the town on the outskirts of Chitwan National Park we had the joy of sharing the road with an elephant and riders. An unexpected but very welcome delight. The other regular animals sighted on the sides of the road are goats and cows of course, as Nepal is a Hindu country.

Our afternoon tea stop was a true Nepali roadside village experience. Squat toilet, authentic stalls, multiple bikes, shanty shops, cows and goats wandering, and all on the side of steep gorge. On approaching this village there was a sign on the side of the road which said “Accidental Zone 17 miles”. Just to prove it, in a short space of a few kilometres we say two trucks off the side of the road fallen down the gorge, and one truck whose driver obviously miscalculated a corner and was straight into the side rocks on the other side. Raju is a great driver and we are very thankful.

It was an amazing and beautiful thing this afternoon to turn a corner and see the town of Tansen cascading down a magnificent hillside. We all gasped as one at how pretty it was. The last few kilometres driving up that hill was another story. The road declined into a dangerous and extremely bumpy track, and Raju skilfully got us to the Mission Hospital Guesthouse. Every couple of hundred metres and two to three sharp turns he would ask someone again for directions just to be sure we were heading in the right direction. We were warmly greeted by Garesh, the Guesthouse manager, whose gift of hospitality is obvious. There was a lovely warm meal all ready for us, our rooms were comfortable, and we even get a laundry service tomorrow. After a long but thoroughly enjoyable drive, and a great dinner, we had our first serious evening group reflection time, shared around the Word and prayer, and headed for bed.