Tracking with children

We are just average Dutch parents with average children. Of course we think ourselves quite special and adventurous, but in the holidays we don’t usually go beyond standard campsites or ordinary hotels. This year however, we did something quite special, even in the opinion of others. The children have friends whose mother is from Nepal and we took advantage of their family visit planned for October to see a bit of that country with its famous mountains. Not only would we visit the royal cities, we would also walk a trail, together with the friends and their father.

Normally our children, an eight-year old boy and a girl aged six, only take a five-minute walk to school every day. They do the ordinary things that all kids that age do, and consequently they have the same condition of most children that age. And we, the parents, have the matching condition that goes with hard-working, and therefore tired, parents of those two kids.

Walking is no hobby of ours so we decided to exercise a little in our flat Holland before departure. The first walk ended within the hour with: "Is it still far?" and "Aren’t we there yet?". In order not to create more aversion against walking we made the wise decision to leave it at the one trial walk. We would just see in Nepal and build up more condition as we went along.

We chose the Langtang trail for, in hindsight, invalid reasons. Like, for instance, that it is close to Kathmandu. If something went wrong, we could return to the civilized world rapidly, we thought. Dhunche, the starting point is indeed closer to Kathmandu than Pokhara, but the road there is mainly a cart track, so that the bus takes well over ten hours to travel the 110 kilometers. Another reason was that you don’t have to go ‘round’ on this trail. The trail starts at Dhunche at 1950 meters and goes to Kyangjin Gompa (3800 meters). The way back is the same as the way up, so we could decide to stop or return at any moment we wanted. Only I know now, that that is no reason, because you don’t want to do anything like that.

Our walking company consisted of three adults, four children in the ages of six to nine, a sixteen year old Nepalese boy (cousin of the two friends) and two carriers (Balaram and Bikesh of Himalayan Ecological Tracking). Although we limited the luggage as much as possible, we only took one pair of trousers, one pair of shorts, one clean T-shirt and one jumper each, the men all carried quite a heavy rucksack. The children didn’t carry any weight, they only carried their own flask, and the only woman in the company was in charge of the video, the photo camera and the days provisions.

Awkward as the one-hour walk was at home, pleasant, souple and easy it was on the actual trail with the children. And that during the entire journey: the long, hot bus trip (twice) included. We got up at six in the morning and we usually set off at eight. Before we even noticed we had been going for two or three hours. The children went ahead or were on their way to the one who walked in front at the time. During breaks they played near the water with sticks, leaves or other things they came across like wood curls or stones. People were friendly and local children were curious. Especially our blonde six year old daughter Eva attracted a great deal of attention, much to her annoyance, but to our (the parents) amusement. We usually walked on till four, five o’clock in the afternoon.

Of course we had a dip at times, but the fact that the children were just playing happily at the time, or seemed to enjoy themselves walking, kept us, being adults, quiet. If the children could handle it, why shouldn’t we?! We usually walked a bit longer than was indicated in most of the schedules, but because one of the carriers had then already gone ahead to arrange the sleeping arrangements, we didn’t need to hurry.

Another advantage of the Nepalese carriers was that they didn’t understand any Dutch. At the moment that we as a parent were having a dip (at those moments Balaram always said: "Only two more hours and no climbing" as a comfort) and one of the children was asking for attention, we could happily leave them to the boys. The kids’ complaints didn’t get understood, but was given all the attention of the caring carrier. Something we weren’t capable of at that particular moment. At the rare moments that Eva felt very sorry for herself, or could at least convince Balaram and Bikesh that she was, those two didn’t find it a problem to pick her up and carry her on top of the rucksack.

We walked from Dhunche to Kyangjin Gompa in four days and back to Syabru Bensi in two days. Especially the final day went so smoothly because the two youngest children went in front. And that while they assured us that you cannot descend fast with children.