“On a Mish” #421 2023 Changing Lives – Mine Most of All. Ganesh Himal Charity Trek (Part Three). Salme School (Nuwakot). 2.11.2024. Pretty much everyone in the camp was kept awake by a barking dog. I have never heard one dog bark so loudly and for so long. Apart from Dan throwing a couple of rocks no one did anything. Apparently, this is because local belief is that the barking keeps evil spirits away. I had worried that lack of sleep might exacerbate Mark’s extra injury, but he was up before sunrise as usual and seemed in good spirits…
The first part of the walk was beautiful with a few challenging bits including across a slip. But things all changed when we got into cellphone coverage for the first time in a couple of days to get the terrible news that Mark’s awesome little dog Ernie had been hit by a truck and killed. How could such a shitty thing happen to someone who has already had so much crap in the last few years?!
My heart is breaking – for Ernie, one of the coolest dogs ever, but even more so for Mark. To be in such a remote part of the world and get a call like that was just so unfair, especially when it was just starting to feel like the walk was pushing him to a new level of recovery. Everyone was very supportive and gave us space but there was nothing to do but keep going.
Our walk ended in Bhutang where there was a festival in progress to open their new prayer wheel. Again, we were treated like royalty. Parked up on chairs and given a juice box, closely followed by a glass of lemonade then slices of the largest cucumber I had ever seen, cut with a sharp rice knife. All the locals then lined up to take photos of us – smiling for a photo was the last thing any of us Wilsons felt like doing.
We camped for the night in monastery grounds and played ball games with the local kids. Great fun but a bit upsetting to be visited by one of the locals who was in handcuffs and very dirty and unkempt. The local kids tormented him at one stage until Jeremy stopped them. We tried to find out what was wrong but apparently it could have been an Intellectual disability or maybe alcoholism. The downside of this sort of life unfortunately. Dinner tonight was dhal bhat but none of us had much of an appetite…
