Our travels in Nepal end early tomorrow morning when we fly to Paro to commence our visit to Bhutan. With this in mind, today’s primary objective was to undertake the arduous six hour return journey to Kathmandu.
The facilities we had at Chitwan were perfect and the resort’s riverside location together with the jungle garden setting created an ideal atmosphere for relaxation and contentment.
Our departure time was not until 10:00 and so, as often we’re in a hurry at breakfast time today we didn’t have to rush and were able to enjoy the incredible range of food offerings including the freshly squeezed orange juice.
With our bags loaded into the bus, we offered our gratitude to the staff at Chitwan Resort and headed north-eastwards towards Kathmandu.
The first part of the journey was through the rural areas north of the Rapti River where agriculture is the preoccupation. Extensive areas of maize and rice dominate the scene and one presumes that irrigation waters from the Rapti explain why the farms all appear to be so healthy and productive.
Locals going to a Buddhist festival, near Chitwan
Local market, en route from Chitwan to Kathmandu
We by-passed Bharatpur and followed the road towards Mugling and it was at this point that we encountered the major roadworks that extend between Kathmandu and Pokhara.
Roadside buildings on mountain pass
Pedestrian bridge across Trishali River
Corinne on bridge
For most of the travel from now on we were spending at least half of our time bumping our way across rocky and undulating ‘new’ sections of road that we assume will ultimately become sealed.
Traffic & dust, en route from Chitwan to Kathmandu
Our driver Om did an incredible job coping not just with the appalling road surface conditions but also with the number of drivers who’d attempt passing moves in the most ridiculous places. These drivers created danger by forcing others to undertake quick stops or swerving to avoid collisions. Amongst the worst offenders were other large tourist buses whose drivers seemed oblivious to the chaos their manoeuvring was creating. At one point, near a blind corner a bus commenced overtaking us at the same time as a motorcyclist. As a large truck appeared from around the corner, the bus pushed across to force a gap between us and the vehicle in front. The motorcyclist and us somehow survived this potential disaster.
It would be no exaggeration to say that we had about three hours of unsafe driving conditions in the roadworks areas and the only saving grace was that the road conditions were so awful that vehicle speeds were seldom more than 20 km/h so at least high-speed collisions were less likely.
Another factor to add to the difficult conditions was that being Saturday (the only non-working day of the week) there were no water trucks on the road to wet the surface and reduce the dust. There were some sections climbing into the mountainous region where the amount of dust made visibility very limited.
After three hour’s of travel we stopped at a hillside café at Malekhu and had coffees and ice creams.
Lunch at coffee stop, Malekhu
Mankhutar, en route from Chitwan to Kathmandu
Our journey continued and eventually we surmounted the mountain range we’d been climbing and we commenced our descent into Kathmandu city.
Arriving in Kathmandu
We wound our way through the chaotic streets of Kathmandu and with a sense of relief arrived at the Hilton Hotel where we stayed last week. We all expressed unbounded appreciation to Om for his efforts in coping with today’s most demanding driving conditions imaginable.
Our plan for the evening is to meet for drinks at the roof-top bar, have a light meal and get an early night as we’re due at the airport tomorrow at 06:30.