We left for Kathmandu, and the road was very rough and steep-to. It was quite misty so we didn't see the panoramic views that we hoped but we managed to drive the whole way in one day and parked in a hotel grounds for the night. Nepal was much less populated than India and the buildings were entirely different. They looked like pagodas and The wooden beams were carved with lots of intricate animals. We visited the monkey temple which was at the top at a steep hill and had a gold roof and two big eyes painted on it. It was surrounded by prayer wheels which were rotated by the Buddhist monks as they circled it. One day we went for a drive to a village called Badgaon, it was incredible, the streets were just mud tracks full of holes and got narrower and narrower the further in we drove, we parked in Durbar Square, to explore some of the temples, they were great, one was a Pagoda with a 5 storied roof. When we returned to the Square there was a crowd around a Hindu shrine and when we went to look we saw a sacrifice of a calf, they cut its jugular vein and sprayed the blood over the shrine, then cut off its head and held it aloft, the crowd seemed to enjoy the ceremony, but we were a bit squeamish. We found out that we were allowed to drive along the road through the Himalayas to the Tibetan border. So we decided to leave the next morning. The road was just a dirt track and after 50 miles it started to wind through steep sided gorges and the scenery was fantastic as we drove slowly clinging on the edges of the road with sheer drops at the side, and we passed through villages and was people making rice paper and drying it on frames in the sun. Another 20 miles on and we came upon a check post which had a sign saying Nepal custom stop. The guard lifted the barrier and waved us through, we wondered if we had strayed into China by mistake. Another 2 miles on we came to a bridge and there were 2 black lines painted in the middle of it. A frontier guard stopped us and told us that the other side was in China and we could not go further. The mountains were spectacular and we were very pleased that we had driven along this road. We drove back to the Nepal customs and they gave us a stamp in our passport for a souvenir. As we drove back a young boy stopped us and told us that there were some natural hot springs in the next village where we could have a communal shower. It was really refreshing and the local people were pleased for us to join them. We parked just off the road for the night and the next morning drove back towards Kathmandu and stopped at Nagarkot, which is supposed to have the best view of Everest from the road. The French van was there and we camped beside them for the night. We were very disappointed as dawn broke to find that it was very misty and we could not see the mountains, we drove back to Kathmandu and decided to book a flight in a small plane to see Everest from the air. It was fantastic and we were invited into the cockpit to get a better view. We did some final shopping in the Bazaar in Kathmandu before setting off back to Pokhara, where we spent a couple of days before setting off towards Delhi via Benares. We stopped at the temples at Khajaraho, there were hundreds of them, and spent a day exploring some of the larger ones. The largest had a lot of erotic carvings all around it, apparently they were based on the Kama Sutra. Our next stop was at Gwalior, where we explored the enormous fort and looked at some Large Jain sculptures carved out of the rock walls, and temples to the Hindu god Vishnu . We headed for Agra arriving on the evening of a full moon and heading straight for the Taj Mahal. It looked even more beautiful by moonlight and we sat looking at it as the moon rose. We slept in the car park for the night. At the Delhi campsite we prepared the van for the long journey home, and obtained our visas for Afghanistan. Friday 21st April exactly 4 months since we arrived in India we were back at Amritsar near the border with Pakistan. Our return journey through Pakistan was completed in one day and we arrived at the Afghan customs where we had no problems an proceeded to Kabul for the night. Through Kandahar, and Herat, and on to the Border. We were told to drive over an inspection pit and they really had a good look inside the van and out looking for drugs. We had to unload everything from the van onto tables where they were inspected. Then we loaded up and drove to the Iranian border where we again had to empty the van for an inspection. We were there for a whole day and finally allowed to go at 7.00pm,when we drove to a garage that we had stopped at for the night on our first journey. We had an uneventful journey back to Turkey and over the mountains to Erzerum,and it was a lot warmer than our journey out. We decided to take a detour South and visited Goreme , and some early Christian temple caves, and Urgup in Cappadocia, where there were some conical towers formed by the soft Tuff-stone being eroded by the wind and rain. Some had been hollowed out to form homes for the local people, they were very spectacular. From here we went to Kaymakali, where there is an underground city carved down into the ground by the early settlers to escape persecution. Eight floors each offering accommodation for 200 people have been carved into the bowels of the earth, and they were only discovered in the 1950's. The central airshaft assures perfect ventilation all the 250 feet down to the bottom; cooking arrangements existed on every second storey and the smoke was not allowed to escape for fear of betraying the hideout. An underground tunnel connected this city with another 6 miles South at Derinkuyu. It was all amazing. Friday 14th May saw us arrive at the Greek border, we had decided to by-pass Bulgaria on the return journey, as we did not enjoy it on our way out. We cleared customs and drove to a lay by near a beach where we camped for the night. Sarah paddled before breakfast and then we drove to the Greek theatre at Phillipi. It was in a stunning location and we spent 3 hours exploring it. We headed along the motorway to Yugoslavia and stopped just before Belgrade for the night. We completed our journey through Yugoslavia in a day and passed into Italy for the night. The next day we travelled through the St. Bernard tunnel once more and into Switzerland. We enjoyed the rest of our journey to Calais, and boarded the ferry for Dover. It was really great to arrive back on English soil on May 21st exactly 6 months from leaving home. We drove through the "Nothing to Declare " channel and a customs officer asked us where we had been, and then disappeared into his office, we thought that we would be searched but he just returned and waved us through. It was great. We parked beneath the white cliffs for the night and in the morning telephoned home to arrange insurance once more for England. The sun was shining as we drove home up the A1 and we arrived back in Hull and drove to Dave's parents house for a home cooked meal and a great welcome home, after 20,000 miles. We had seen so much on our journey, and experienced so many different cultures and adventures. It took several months to get used to living in one place and not continuing on our explorations but it was not long until we started making plans for our next adventure. ( HOME )


There is a past that has gone forever, but there is a future which is still our own.