Hozza's Horizons

Tigers and Tamangs

Off the beaten track in Nepal. May/June 2007.

"We're going to spend a few weeks exploring some remote parts of Nepal," said my friend Tina when I met her at a restaurant in Kathmandu. "Why don't you join us?"

I'd just finished my job the previous week and didn't have anything better to do with my time, so when Tina invited me to join her and partner Siling as they went on a reconnaissance to obscure parts of Nepal gathering data for her trekking company The Responsible Travellers, I didn't need very long to think about it.

When I returned to Kathmandu after a month in Tibet, we set out for the west of Nepal to look for wildlife in Bardia National Park, and a slightly bizarre set of escapades involving the Nepalese army, a tame rhino, and a surreal rafting trip ensued, all the while carrying out a desperate crusade to see a tiger.

After returning to Kathmandu via Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha, I set off trekking with Siling and his friend Maila in the Langtang and Helambu regions north of Kathmandu. The mountain boys set off at a brisk pace, determined to test my fitness after my expedition to Everest. But could I keep up with them? Read on to find out ...