The seventies Hippy Trail 10

Now for more travellers tales. From Katmandu we caught a bus through the most incredible mountains, on sides of cliffs, round mountains, and down into lush valleys with terraced hillsides. They have terraces right up the mountainsides and use every bit of land they can. We eventually got to Pokhara about 150 miles away. From Pokhara you can see the snow-capped mountains of the Himalayas which are sixty miles away and they look like they are in your back yard. They are so huge and majestic - really an incredible sight.

It is such a beautiful place. We stayed right near a lake and there were fields all round us and cows mooing pleasantly and friendly Nepalese people. We went swimming a lot and it was so good - we just dove off the bank which is about six foot high and pretty deep water and swam across the lake. We do not go swimming much as there are not so many places you can do it. And being a water-loving, red-blooded bronzed anzac I thoroughly enjoyed myself. We even had a tree right next to the lake which we dived off a branch. yeeeooww! Woooppee ! What a thrill.

India

We left a few days later for India and passed through many beautiful mountains. The road was cut in places by landslides but were dug out so the bus could get through but when we crossed the bus swayed and everyone was really scared as they looked down this one thousand foot cliff a few feet away. It was really spine chilling. H reckons he saw the earth move under one of the wheels and reckons he started praying. But it was a really beautiful ride.

We got to the Indian Border in the Lumbini region, where Buddha was born and crossed into India at Nautanwa. The border is really slack there. India is a land of extremes. You have your slack and corrupt but there are a lot of really nice intelligent people and we have met quite a few of these too. WE met this retired professor on a bus in Delhi.

So from Nautanwa, we caught a bus to Gorakhpur and then a train to Lucknow and a bus to Kanpur which put us on the main line from Calcutta and the South. We had to wait a day for a train to Delhi which was very crowded. And that completes the circle.

Hippy Trail Resources

Next Stage on the overland trail to Europe

Bombay is on the west coast of India and is now called Mumbai. Mumbai has a magnificent harbor and dock facilities and raw cotton is its chief export.
Calcutta is the chief port of India and is located on the Hooghly River in the delta of the Ganges.
Delhi is the capital of the republic of India and is located in central north India.
The Ganges is the sacred river of India. The source of the Ganges is located on the Southern side of the Himalaya Mountains in northern India. It flows south-east into the Bay of Bengal and is 1557 miles in length.
The Himalayas are a large mountain chain stretching for a thousand miles dividing India from Tibet. The largest mountain in the world is located in the himalayas - mount everest , the world's loftiest peak is 29,141 feet high.
Hyderabad is the largest native state in India and its main produce is cotton, oil, seeds, sugar cane and rice.

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