Driving Round the World: Nepal - Pokhra to Bardia and home.

Bandipur centre

Climbing from the plains round Chitwan we soon felt the relief of the cooler temperatures as we headed towards Pokhara. The main road follows a large river valley then joins the busy Kathmandu to Pokhara road. Bandipur high above this road offered an elevated location where we could camp, as well as the potential for views of Annapurna. Climbing up the steep road we had to stop for some major roadworks where they are widening the road. A digger was pushing spoil down onto the road, where it was being scooped into lorries. Every 20 minutes or so they stopped, roughly levelled the spoil on the road and let vehicles pass.

Sunset on Pokhara Lake

Bandipur village is being developed as a tourist destination and has a beautiful high street with stunning views in all directions and plenty of walks. Despite an overnight thunderstorm the morning broke cloudy with only brief glimpses of Annapurna and Manaslu. After a short drive to Pokhara we drove to the marked campsite right in the centre alongside the lake. Here a large field offers free camping and easy access to the shops as well as the beautiful lakeside walk where many bars have set up to enjoy the sunset.

Sunrise on Annapurna Range

Campsite with a view

We were up early to drive to the Sarangkot viewpoint for sunrise, but after winding up the narrow road found it was blocked, so joined several other visitors to watch sunrise from somewhat lower down. Still an awesome sight as the sun briefly caught the snow capped peaks around Annapurna. To get to Sarangkot viewpoint required a 30km detour along a road under construction with some serious muddy sections to be traversed. Not a problem for us, but some of the local cars and buses struggled. The mountains were still pretty clear with stunning panoramas from the peaks round to the plains.

Pokhara World Peace Stupa

Road south through the Himalaya foothills

Riverside campsite

Lumbini - the birthplace of Buddah

Pokhara offers a lot to see and do but we needed to be heading west so after visiting the World Peace stupa (one of 80 or so around the world) we headed south through the mountains, stopping at a beautiful camping location by a river before reaching Lumbini - the birthplace of Buddah. A huge tourist and spiritual site is being developed round the remains of the birthplace with a large canal and Buddhist temples and monasteries being constructed by Buddhist communities from countries all round the world including France and Austria as well as the expected South East Asian countries.

West of Lumbini the main road becomes pretty empty as it passes through hundreds of kms of the beautiful open Terai forest, dotted with small poor farming communities.

Terai Forest in Bardia NP

A few hours from the western border of Nepal lies the relatively undeveloped Bardia national park, home to 60 tigers as well as Rhino deer and numerous birds. We had been recommended to stay at Wild Trax Adventures a small "lodge" near the park entrance run by Johnny - a native of Yorkshire.
Over a couple of days we went on a full day walking safari, followed by a full day jeep safari and saw rhino, 5 species of deer and many birds including the rare grey woodpecker, but sadly no tiger. While on safari our promised storage of the van in Delhi did not materialise and Johnny kindly offered to let the van stay there while we returned to the UK for 5 weeks.

Local Bus

So instead of driving to Delhi we had to make our way by public transport. First Johnny drove us to the main road where we caught a local bus for the 4 hour drive to the border. A tuk-tuk took us to the Nepalese border and on to the Indian side where we caught another tuk tuk into Banbasa, where we hoped to catch the aircon night bus, but it was not running. Instead we stayed overnight and caught the express train for the 12 hour (385km) journey to Delhi.

Train to Delhi

We had booked a flight with a 23 hour stopover in Dubai, where we stayed in the oldest hotel in the city and spent the afternoon exploring the spice and gold souk, and heading to see the Burj al Khalifa tower, before catching our "connecting" flight to London the next day.