On Sunday we flew back to Dharan to start the third phase of our trip.  Here we needed to meet up with our porters, purchase some rations for the trek and get ourselves organised ready to leave in a hired jeep at 0400 the following morning.  The eleven hour drive to Rumjetar was at times a terrifying mixture of the good, the bad and the ugly.  The good being the east west highway and the network of new dirt roads being pushed north from Katari in to the hills.  The bad being the way that the lack of any maintenance has destroyed the metalled road from Lahan to Katari, the way the heavy trucks using the dirt roads are destroying them before any culverts, surfacing or reinforcing has been put in place, plus the thick dust covering everything, including us.  The ugly being the vast quantities of rubbish and the squalor that comes with the concentration of heavy plant, vehicles and people along the narrow road corridors.

We were met at AWC Rumjetar by the AWO Hon Lt Thakursing Gurung 10GR who looked after us extremely well during our short stay.

Unfortunately we arrived the day after the payment of service pensions so many of the 7GR ex-servicemen had already left to return home.  That evening we met 21160091 Cpl Thamansing Gurung who also showed us around Rumjetar the next day, Tuesday 21 May.  Thamansing, later a WO2 in GRU after retiring, is a Village Development Committee member and running for Chairman when the elections are eventually held.  He is very involved in running the High School and has sponsored numerous local projects for GWS.  He also organised the party in their Ex-Servicemen’s club building which he had organised the funding for and then got built.  The party that afternoon was attended by 21145467 Cpl Tekbahadur Gurung, 21133819 Rfn Bhimbahadur Rai, 21141784 Rfn Chandrasekhar Gurung and 21158660 Rfn Prembahadur Rai, as well as several family members of 7GR ex-servicemen who have passed away.  We were touched that some had walked for several hours in the rain to be there.

We set off next morning at 0600 and walked for 11 hours to camp above Rambughat.  The monsoon had clearly arrived early and although the fields were already planted with maize we were able to persuade a family to let us pitch our tent in a corner of their field while they gave our porters cover under a cattle shelter for the night. 

The next day we arrived at AWC Diktel at 7pm after 13 hours walking to find several 7GR pensioners and wives, with garlands and katars, who had been waiting for us since early afternoon. After their very humbling welcome we were able to meet the impressive AWO, Inspector Shyamkumar Rai ex-GCSPF and his equally impressive AAWOs Sgt Harkaraj Rai ex-QGE and Insp 2 Meghraj Limbu, also from GCSPF. 

The Regimental birthday party was held the next day on Friday 24 May and had been organised by 21153878 Rfn Mejarman Rai and his team who had agreed to combine it with the 10GRRA celebration.  This ensured a good turnout of ex-servicemen but meant I had to quickly re-craft my speech, the Chairman’s message and my jokes to include 10GR.  I hope I made sense. For me the highlight of the party was meeting Sgt Akilman Rai, Rfn Sirilal Rai and Rfn Tikaram Rai all of whom had been junior soldiers in 6 Platoon B Company when I was a brand new 2Lt and the OC.

At 0600 on Saturday 25 May we were off again, this time for the two days walk to Bhojpur.  However, for this leg Insp Shyamkumar sensibly suggested that we take his peon Panuri Sherpa as a guide.  The route finding was extremely difficult due the fields having been planted, the new dirt road having in places obliterated the track and for the last four hours of the day we were in thick dark cloud with no visible landmarks.  Without Panuri’s knowledge of the route and his unfailing assistance to the porters we would not have reached our night stop, 9,000 feet up on Chiyan Danda.  Even then we arrived just as it was getting dark and almost as soon as our tent was up the heavens opened and it rained for most of the night.  The thunder and lightning that raged for about two hours at midnight was most impressive, mainly because due to our altitude the tent was literally in the middle of it.  Luckily the night stop was beside a small hotel and we were able to get our porters a dry place to cook and to sleep.  Panuri stayed with us the next day and escorted us all the way to the AWC at Bhojpur, another 12 hour day.

The AWO WO2 Barhajit Rai ex-7GR and the AAWO Insp 11 Govinda Kandagwa welcomed us to the AWC where they had arranged with ex -7GR WO2 Siriprasad Rai and 21134677 Cpl Rambahadur Rai for the 7GR party to be held the next day Monday 27 May.  Although it rained the next morning the sun broke though after tipan-tapan and some unexpected tongba and we were able to have a very good lunch outside on the grass, followed by some excellent dancing with the elderly ladies on the badminton court.  Amongst those attending it was a delight to meet again the extremely fit Major Baliman Rai who I had not seen for many years.  Major Baliman has remained in his village since retiring and has worked tirelessly for the ex-servicemen and the local community.  About thirty ex-servicemen, widows and families attended a really memorable party.

On Tuesday 28 May we left Bhojpur for the last leg of our journey and the 2 days walk to Khandbari.  The first day, in rain and thick cloud, was only 10 hours but provided some close association with leeches and sand flies, the latter giving Carol considerable attention.  That night we camped in the GWS sponsored Sampang High School. and, once again, had a superb bhat. The food throughout had been incredibly good and the culinary skills of our porters a real highlight. The porridge was the best we have had, anywhere and, after a short tutorial, the pancakes spot on. I should add that our trekking diet had been supplemented by a large quantity of avocado's from Maj Bhuwansing's garden and a bag of lychees from the tree in AWC Dharan.

The next morning the thick cloud and drizzle made route finding very difficult as again the porters had no landmarks to guide them.  The descent to the Arun River proved longer than we expected and it was extremely hot and airless by the time we reached the bridge.  The climb up to Khandbari past Tumlingtar airfield and criss-crossing the main road was both long and frustrating.  Khandbari has grown considerably and the last few miles around the town following a very muddy rutted road seemed to go on forever.  Eventually around 1800 we arrived at the AWC to be welcomed by the AWO WO2 Mangalsing Tamang and his Medical Assistant Mr Bhagat Gurung.  They, together with two peons live a fairly remote existence as the post has been downgraded since the number of welfare pensioners in the area has fallen below 150. 

It rained all night and the next day which turned the roads and tracks to mud and deterred many of the older ex-servicemen from making the trip to the AWC.  Despite the rain it was a good gathering well organised by 211393114 Sgt Prembahadur Rai with about 20 ex-servicemen, widows and families present.

Some general views of our trek………….

On Friday 31 May we set of at 0600 in a locally hired ex-BGN landrover for the drive back to Dharan.  Because of the rain we were uncertain if we would be able to cross the Piluwa Khola river on the lower and shorter road along the Arun river valley to Leguaghat.  The road can only just be called that as it was little more than a dirt and rock cutting between the cliffs and the edge of the Arun river. In the event we met a vehicle that had crossed the Piluwa river that morning and so we drove on to give it a try.  We crossed, although it was somewhat marginal and we were relieved to find that the four wheel drive still worked on the landrover. 

Back in Dharan we were able to finally relax.  The next day we visited the BGN compound in the old Dharan camp to pay our porters and thank them for looking after us so well. 

We drove round the camp visiting the officers mess where Carol used to live and Mikes house……..   Both looking less well maintained than these photographs suggest.

We were ambushed by the BGN recruiting team and were invited to join them for breakfast (full English so no problem there) and the chance to hear how recruiting is conducted using the internet.  Quite a few ex-7GR NCOs were amongst the gallawallahs so it was a morning very well spent and the sausages were good too. 

We had been invited to lunch in a smart new restaurant in the centre of Dharan by Maj Dalbahadur Rai and several ex-7GR officers who had been at the regimental birthday party but who kindly wanted to spend more time chatting with us.  It was an excellent lunch and great to be able to have the time and quiet to talk about old times and the current situation in Nepal.

We flew back to Kathmandu the next day, our duty almost done.  We had an official appointment with the new Ambassador HE Andrew Sparkes, plus a visit to BGN to be brought up to date by the COS BGN Lt Col Elton Davis.  We also had a chance to meet the Field Director of GWS Lt Col Garry Blewitt, who was on his way back to Pokhara from UK, and to thank him and his staff for looking after us so well during the visit. 

We calculated that during the five weeks of our journey in India and Nepal we had met some 675 ex-7GR servicemen, wives, widows and family members.

On our last night Major Bhuwansing invited Carol and I to dinner with his Regimental Association Committee and several other old 7GR friends.  We were treated to the most excellent evening in the Bakery Café where sitting down to dinner with so many retired officers and their wives was just as if we were in the QGOs Mess in Burma Lines once again. My final rather poor speech on that night did not go anywhere close to expressing our sincere thanks to Maj Bhuwansing, his committee members and the numerous other ex-7GR servicemen who had assisted him to make our visit to Nepal such a success and such a pleasure.