Monday, April 4

I was thinking about our friend, Rhonda, who died the other day and it brought up memories of when we first met her, on our trip to Nepal in the first year of our retirement.  Nepal, for a long time had been in our minds.  Marilyn and I had both worked at the Outdoor Education Centre, Chakola for many years and had come in contact with people I regarded as intrepid travellers, who had been to places I could only dream about: Nepal, of course, but also India, South America, and even Antarctica.  We had dinner once with Sir Edmund Hillary and his wife and spent a great evening at a party where the guest of honour was Lincoln Hall who had almost died on his successful attempt to climb Everest.

One time, the Chakola people organised a trip to climb Mulkila, a lesser peak in Nepal and I was invited to join them.  I thanked them for the offer but proposed that it might be better if I ran Chakola in their absence.  However, getting to Nepal was always on the bucket list.  In the early 1980's, I booked Jamie and myself on a trek which would follow a trail around the foothills of Annapurna.  There was one high-pass which could be a bit difficult in bad weather but porters would carry all the gear and we would be well looked after.  It was not to be.  A friend who had just completed the same trip told some horror stories and we decided to cancel.

So, when Marilyn and I retired in 2010 and, by chance, received a flyer from National Seniors offering a trip to Nepal which would include staying in Kathmandu, having some time in Pokhara and flying in to Jomson on the Annapurna Circuit, we were hooked.  The fact that it was organised by National Seniors reassured us that it wouldn't be too onerous.  Rhonda and her friend, Diane, from Canberra were part of that trip.  It was brilliant.

I often see things on Facebook asking me to tick off, from a list, places we've been in the world.  They rarely list our favorite places, like Jomsom or Pokhara in Nepal, or Palawan in the Philipines.  Quality, not quantity, is our motto.

Here's a picture of our group.  Rhonda is in the centre of the front row.