Blog 110

Rested up, we jumped back onto our bikes for our final uphill of our trip. A 1 hour steep assent to the Buddhist pilgrimage site of Namo Buddha monastery revisited the sore bottom situation. Finally arriving at the top, a coke and a bag of crisps staved off the hunger while we explored the hilltop. The monastery and stupas at the top adorned with prayer flags overlooking the mountains made for a nice little bit of camera action.

I found my largest spider of travels so far on the mountain. Body the size of a ping pong ball and legs the length of my middle finger! Not too bad when you see if from a distance, but when walking through the forest on the way back from the hill top, it was pretty disconcerting walking through a silken web strand.

The peace of the hilltop was followed by an itchy arm making 300m descent down to Panulti, a beautifully sleepy ancient Newari town with a mainly self sufficient existence. The final part of our trip back to Kathmandu was a fumy and dusty bikeride along the main highway. After almost sitting down for a late 3pm lunch, Bryn went to check out the bus timetable. The last bus to arrive in Kathmandu before 5pm (when the bikes had to be back for) was about to leave. It took us the whole of about 5 seconds to decide to jump on the bus. Bikes went on the roof and we took our seats.

We arrived back in Kathmandu with 10 minutes to spare before the bike shop shut and we survived mountain biking unscathed...success I'd say.

Love Jo x