Update

It's almost six weeks since my accident and I am rather bored. The damage detected so far is a right arm and shoulder broken in five places. Torn rotator cuff and some other muscles ripped from my shoulder. My left wrist broken in three places and still in plaster and both my knees with damaged ligaments.
I have to go back to see the medics on Thursday and they have to decide on what surgery to perform when.
The current forecast is for a six month rehabilitation period and the likelihood that I will have a stiff left wrist and limited movement in my right arm for the rest of my life.
Not really an optimal outcome but as long as I can still walk I am quite OK with it.

Kindness

I have been extremely impressed with the level of concern and kindness everyone in Nepal has displayed since my accident. The doctor that came in from his day off to attend to my case, the speedy treatment at the Himalayan eye hospital to get me new glasses and the young guide who has come with me from bhulebhule to help me negotiate the hospitals and helps me with everything including getting me dressed in the mornings.
Nepal has once again shown it has some of the nicest people on the planet.

Accident

My travels are finished for now. On Saturday while traversing on a narrow cliff face above the Marsyandi river I lost my footing and fell between seven and ten meters into the river and onto the submerged rocks below. I broke my right arm and shoulder sprained severely my left wrist and busted both knee caps.
Although I hit my head on the rocks as well I luckily didn't loose consciousness and managed to get out of the river where I was found by an old women tending her fields. A little later a young man going the other way took my pack and helped me walk back to the village of Bhulebhule where there is a very rough jeep track leading out. I negotiated for a jeep to take me to Pokhara hospital six hours away where they tended to my wounds and where I am now trying to organise travel back to New Zealand.

Ready to walk.

All being well I will be starting my hike of the Annapurna Circuit tomorrow. The first part is the day long bus ride to the start of the trek though. First I have a tourist bus from Kathmandu to Dumre then a Local bus to Besisahar and from there a four wheel drive to BhuleBhule. From Bhulebhule to Manang should be about a weeks walk and I hope to be able to post an update from there. No guarantees though so don't panic if it takes a bit longer then that before I am back updating the blog.

A day in the city.

I managed to obtain my trekking permits from the Tourist bureau in a relatively quick and painless manner the only hiccup being that I had only three passport photos on me and needed four. Luckily we managed to solve this by making a photo copy of one and attaching that to one of the forms instead. Why you need four photos for the just the one trekking permit is unclear but it does keep a few people employed filling out forms.

As the Tourist bureau is handily located at the other end of the city I used the opportunity to make some photos on the way. The first one is of one of the many street vendors in Asan Tole.

This is a small temple in the same market.


And finally this is the hotel I am staying at.