In the morning we split up. Antoine and I decide to walk straight down the valley, while the others plan to visit the temple first. We wander down the Sangawa river, following the occasional arrows that the sherpas leave behind them. The path crosses some impressive suspension bridges as it weaves its way up the valley.

Lunch today is at a village which seems to have a disproportionately high number of irritating children. We realise that this is because it is Saturday, so there is no school. While all the Nepali adults we have met have been friendly, undemanding and polite, the children are the total opposite. We soon get bored of explaining that we don’t have any pens, and get moving again.

Admiring the scenery at Chilanka Photo © Alan Geer 1998

We camp on some abandoned field terraces above the village of Chilanka. Here, we catch up a Dutch trekking group that are taking the same route as us all the way to Na, at the top of the Rolwaling valley.

It is calming to be camping away from civilisation for once, but this doesn’t stop the children from finding us. They spring up out of the ferns as if they have been waiting for us, and start selling us cigarettes. They are attracted to a game of backgammon that Sue and Tom are playing like filings to a magnet, which is fine for the rest of us.

After dinner, a school teacher from Chilanka comes to visit us, and the kids disappear as if by magic. We have a rather stilted chat with him using Pasang as an interpreter, and discover that he is building more classrooms in the local school. Almost all children seem to attend school, even in this remote valley. We give the teacher a donation towards his extension and exchange addresses. It soon starts raining, and continues all night while we hide in the tents.