A trek up the mountain

Written by Steph Payne - GapBreak 09, Nepal

After school I time myself hitting up the mountain, eye on the minute hand, eye on the road, eye on forests and all around me it morphs. Nepal is one of the richest places in terms of diversity – diversity of culture, religions, beliefs, attitudes – but definitely a place of biodiversity. Every 500 metres up a mountain there is a climate change and a new family of creatures and plants.

We walk through pine forests, glades of moss and birch and then we hit the more tropics trees. We’ve so far spotted deer and one mammoth of a boar, I’m keeping an eye out for the tigers, monkeys and leopard cats – will report back when I’ve got them spotted. By the way I’m getting gun at mountain climbing, with a bit more grunt I’ve turned an hour walk home to a 35 minute climb – ooh yeah. Sorry for the boasting my friends, I’m a vain imp. Thing is I end up collapsing at home shining sweat and having my bizarre conflict with the bucket shower (we don’t get on too well). About two days ago I climbed the mountain in 39 minutes and was congratulating myself when Prem and Rita climbed in with bags of feed on their backs (roughly 50kg each), I got put in my place that day.