As a treat for my many readers, today we will have something a little different. Instead of an article about somewhere I’ve travelled to, I want to share some photos of my favourite places.

Enjoy.

If you’d like to leave a birthday message in the comments section, that would also be great.

Australian Pelican, Mallacoota, Victoria

Ama Dablam, Nepal

Circular Quay, Sydney Harbour

Giant Panda, Adelaide Zoo, South Australia

Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens

Tiger, Taronga Zoo, Sydney

During our visit to Taronga Zoo in Sydney last year we had good views of the tiger shown in the photo above. I was carrying my 19 month old grandson at the time and he delighted in growling like a tiger while pointing at the animal – much to the amusement of the many people nearby. I was amazed at how low his growl was, considering his age. We had a good laugh about it. Fortunately the tiger slept on.

On my trip to Nepal in 2006 I went on an elephant safari ride through the jungle in Chitwan National Park in the south of the country. Although there are tigers in this area, sightings are quite rare. By way of compensation for not seeing one, we had excellent views of several rhinos, as well as many other animals and birds.

Further reading:

• Travels in Nepal - an archive of articles about my time in Nepal
• Tigers in Nepal

Himalayan Black Bear

The Himalayan Black Bear is also known as the Asiatic Black Bear, the Tibetan Black Bear or the Moon Bear. It is a medium sized sharp clawed black coloured bear. It has a distinctive white or cream V marking on its chest. It is closely related to the American Black Bear.

The Asiatic Black Bear has a wide distribution range spanning from the east to west of the Asian continent. This bear can be found in the forests of hilly and mountainous areas in East Asia and South Asia, including South Korea, North Korea, Afghanistan, Pakistan, northern India, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, Burma, southern Siberia in Russia, northeastern China, Taiwan and Japan.

I found it very sad to observe the bear shown in the photo above on display in the Central Zoo in Kathmandu. Its cage was rather small and very uninteresting to the bear who was constantly on the move, obviously very bored with its enclosure. At least Australian zoos try to display this species in large airy enclosures that try to simulate its normal habitat. The keepers here also go to great lengths to keep the animals stimulated in many ways.

In today’s more enlightened world there is no excuse for displaying animals in the way shown in Kathmandu.

I thought I’d share with you my five favourite photos of scenery.

1. Ama Dablam, Nepal

Without doubt my favourite photo so far would have to be this shot of the mountain Ama Dablam taken while on a trek towards Mt. Everest. This magnificent mountain dominates the path taken up through this amazing part of Nepal. I love this photo so much I have used it as the wallpaper photo on my computer.

Ama Dablam, Nepal

2. Scene near Monjo, Everest region, Nepal

This amazing mountain was the backdrop from our lodge in Monjo, a small village we stayed in on our trek towards Mt. Everest. I don’t know its name and I haven’t the time to do the research to find out.

Scene from our lodge in Monjo, Nepal

3. Yak and Yeti Lodge, Everest region, Nepal

This beautiful scene was photographed on our trek through the Himalayas last year. We didn’t stay in this beautiful lodge.

Yak and Yeti Lodge

4. Mt. Lofty Botanic Gardens, near Adelaide, South Australia

This beautiful scene is typical of many such photos one could take in the Adelaide Hills and the Mt. Lofty Ranges near Adelaide in South Australia. I feel privileged to live just a half hour drive from numerous scenes like this. Readers of my blog Trevor’s Writing will recognise this photo because it has been used in the banner on the home page.

Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens

5. Waitpinga Beach, South Australia

South Australia, my home state, has a long coastline. Scenes like this one can be seen in many different locations.

Waitpinga Beach, Newland Head CP

Click on any photo to enlarge the image.

To view more of my photos go to my photo gallery.

Special note: This article was inspired by the Group Writing Project being run by Darren Rowse on his blog ProBlogger. This article is NOT an entry in the project; my entry can be found here on Trevor’s Birding.

UPDATE: I have also written an article called Top 5 Writing Hints on my blog called Trevor’s Writing.

Himalayas from a street in Kathmandu

One of the downsides of visiting Kathmandu is coping with the pollution. Because the Kathmandu Valley is like a natural amphitheatre, pollution from the city tends to sit over the city for long periods of time. I found the atmosphere to be somewhat distressing at times, and a dry throat is one’s constant companion.

Sometimes a breeze comes along and clears the air. It is then that one can fully appreciate the stunningly amazing setting of this city. With a backdrop of the snow-capped Himalayas in the distance, this has to be one of the more beautiful settings for a capital city anywhere. It’s just a pity that the view is restricted to a smoky haze for most of the year.

Against a Peacock Sky written by Monica Connell. Published by Penguin Books (Viking) in 1991.

Monica Connell grew up in Northern Ireland and is an anthropologist who went to live in a rural village in Nepal. She lived and worked for two years with a Nepali family, sharing their celebrations, their hardships, their food and their hard labour in the fields to provide a subsistence living. One family took her in, sharing their everyday lives on a very personal level with her, allowing her to virtually become one of the family.

Monica witnessed first hand the villagers’ way of life. She learned how to care for the animals, how to plant and harvest rice and the best way to hunt a boar. She relates the significance of their many religious ceremonies, beliefs and festivals. She relates – without any hint of being judgmental – the importance of various customs employed to appease the local gods in order to have a successful crop or produce healthy animals.

This is a fascinating account of life in rural Nepal as it has been for many centuries and had remained largely untouched by outside influences. Here and there in her narrative, however, there are hints of change in their somewhat cloistered existence. Outside pressures were beginning to show. For example, one young man finds work building roads in nearby India, and he leaves permanently. The old ways were beginning to change, and I suspect if the author returned to that village today there would be many more changes apparent.

I would suspect that this book is now out of print. I bought mine via the internet as a used copy after I had experienced a touch of Nepali life when I went to visit there in 2006. To read more of my impressions of life in Nepal, go to the Contents on the sidebar, or click on several of the Categories, also on the sidebar.

We woke early, well before dawn. We had a light breakfast before leaving. For the first hour or so the journey was slow. Not only was the road very pot holed, but the fog was extremely thick. There was no doubt that we would not have been able to fly back to Kathmandu, even if we had been able to get tickets.

At first the traffic was relatively light, but after dawn this increased markedly. Our driver was very skilled at avoiding pot holes, pedestrians, cyclists, animals, children, larger buses and overtaking ponderous trucks labouring through the hills.

As we began the climb up to Kathmandu the scenery along the road became truly spectacular. The highway follow a river valley so the road was rarely straight. I had no opportunity to take photos: I needed to hang on to the rail on the back of the seat in front of me to prevent myself from being thrown from one side of the bus to the other.

The river far below the road was boulder strewn and would have been an excellent white water rafting location. What worried me was the drop of over a hundred metres from the road to the river. There was little in the way of barriers between the road and the river. The few barriers that were there seemed very inadequate in my mind.

Added to that concern were the frequent – perhaps every hundred metres or so – road signs warning about falling rocks from the mountains above the road. Both of these concerns made me forget about the hazards of the road itself. The driver was very skillful at overtaking on crests, blind corners and at avoiding collisions in the face of oncoming traffic.

It was truly a “white-knuckle” ride.

Related article:

• Chitwan to Kathmandu  – extracts from my travel journal

The return trip is just as adventurous as the flight in to Lukla, except this time the plane heads down the slope and is hopefully airborne by the time it reaches the end of the runway. The alternative is a plummet several hundred metres to the river below, not the preferred outcome.

This time I had a single seat two back from the pilots and was therefore not as squeezed in and I had a window seat. The flight back to Kathmandu was rough for the first twenty minutes but smoothed out as we approached our destination. On arrival we were soon back in the relative peacefulness of the Shangri La Hotel.

It was great to have a decent shower again, not to mention a comfortable bed for a change. Interestingly, on this day I only took the photo below. It shows the garden of the hotel from our bedroom window.

Related article:

• The flight from Lukla to Kathmandu – excerpts from my travel diary written while in Nepal.

Shangri La Hotel Kathmandu

Troubled Nepal

A town under siege
As we entered Lukla on our return from the trek, we were aware of the many soldiers and police in this small town. There had been many incidents throughout the country over the previous few months and the authorities were very much on edge. The airport at Lukla is a strategic importance, not only for the local economy but for the protection of the tourist industry which relies heavily on the income derived from trekking and mountaineering.

Army barracks
The army barracks were quite close to the airstrip which was next to our lodge, so we were able to watch them training and on guard. There were a number of bunkers with heavily armed soldiers only a few metres from where we sat eating our lunch. I was careful not to aim my camera in their direction.

Troubled Nepal

While several of the trekking group were playing cricket in the lodge garden, the little boy featured in the photo above came to our rescue and threw the ball back over the fence. I was able to take this photo as a poignant illustration of the troubles in this emerging nation. Framed by the barbed wire he so much wanted to join in our game, but was prevented by the barricade. The troubled nation of Nepal is desperately wanting to join the twenty-first century world, but the internal political turmoil is an effective barrier to progress.

Hope for the future
After we had left Nepal the situation came to a head and the king handed back power to the elected government. While the unrest is still evident some ten months later, it is a far more settled nation now than earlier in the year. There is hope for the future.

Building near Lukla

The final day of our trek in Nepal was rather shorter in walking terms than many other days. The walking was relatively easy going for the first hour or so after we left the village of Phakding. Closer to Lukla we passed some beautiful buildings, many of them trekking lodges.

This little part of Nepal relies heavily on tourism, especially the trekking and mountaineering pursuits. In Lukla itself there are many lodges and hotels, as well as many shops, trekking supply shops and a multitude of internet cafes. I didn’t bother to investigate any of these so I don’t what they were charging. My guess is that they were quite a deal more expensive than Kathmandu.

As we approached Lukla the steep climb up to the town really sapped my energy and I fell quite a way behind the other trekkers. It didn’t matter; I had plenty of time to complete that leg before lunch. As I slowed down I was able to observe the buildings, the people and environment more closely anyway.

I was also in a little pain due to the blisters on my toes and the sore on the left heel. After showering and taking off the blister pack I realised that it had developed a rather nasty open wound. I should have treated it sooner. Our trek leader was very good at applying a new bandage. This helped considerably but it was to cause me walking problems for the next few days.

The photo below shows the garden of the lodge where we stayed in Lukla. We had a relaxing lunch in the lovely sunshine with a wonderful mountain view as the backdrop. The photo features my daughter Rose who first inspired me to undertake this trek. To the right of her is the control tower of Lukla airport. The runway is behind the stone wall surrounding the lodge garden.

Related Article:

• Trek from Phakding to Lukla – extracts from my travel journal written during the trek.

Lukla, Nepal