Saying farewell to Ganesh, Raju picked us up at 8am for the four hour very winding drive to Pokhara. What beautiful vistas. We wound our way through glorious valleys, with rock-filled streams lined with steep terraced rice paddies. Monkeys along the road cheekily looked at us inside our van and then scrambled up the hillside. One of them was carrying the sweetest little baby, obviously very new. After a short toilet stop at a little village we continued on to the lake city of Pokhara. Settling in to the Sacred Valley Inn was very easy as we were welcomed by an English lady, who along with her Nepali husband runs this guesthouse. Ailsa used to work at KISC [Kathmandu International Study Centry] with Libby Hayes, Chris’ sister, and she has a great love for the Hayes family and told us how wonderful it was to have Libby as her boss, and the Home Teacher for their daughter, Lilly, now at university in Canada.

We had lunch at a great little restaurant, before spending some time wandering the shops along lakeside. Good places to bargain!

Following a rest for the remainder of the afternoon, Ruth & Gordon Russell and Kirstin Hawkshaw, CMS Missionaries here in Pokhara, came to our guesthouse, and walked us to a magnificent lakeside restaurant where Kate Dalitz [another CMS missionary] joined us. Ruth is a doctor and Gordon an engineer, Kirstin an OT and Kate is Integral Mission Officer with INF [International Nepal Fellowship. The 14 of us had a wonderful evening with Gordon sharing the latest plan for what we will be doing here. Things have changed a little, but we are very much looking forward to our time here.