A Magical Day on Our Walking Tour in the Himalayas

It’s was one of those clear sparkling Himalayan days with the huge mountains close enough to touch. We are up at 3500 meters at the Sir Edmond Hillary-built Thame School in Nepal where the children are lined up in front of the stone school house with a blue roof.

We are honoured guests as was explained we are from New Zealand and were given the honour of receiving a sacred scarf (a Karta ) which were put around our necks by the pupils. We also had taken gifts of pens, pencils and books and had the opportunity to present these to the children.

The children were shy and excitable and ‘marched’ off to their classrooms in formal lines. It was great to see these children having the opportunity to attend a school through the vision of Sir Ed Hillary many decades ago. Thame had been a special overnight stop for us as the evening before we had climbed up to the cliff top monastery and seen the monks chanting their mantras in the fading evening light. It was one of many special experiences on our Calder and Lawson walking tour to Nepal.