Tuesday, 1 June 2010
Reports added to the Glacier Trust Webpage
The summary report of the field work in Nepal and an Illustrated report of various interesting features of the rural areas in Nawalparasi have been uploaded to the Glacier Trust webpage:
Wednesday, 26 May 2010
Mentioned on the website:
Hi All
I know it has been a while and i dont know if anyone will get this, but just in case i thought i would provide the weblink to the Glacier Trust (http://theglaciertrust.org/projectscope-education/) they part funded the nepal trip and have provided a write up of the work that we did and the relevance.
There should also be a couple of reports appearing there that were written by Dr. Biggs and I. One of the reports is just about the feasbility of running the collaboration in the future. But the other is an Illustrated guide to some of things we found on our travels, written like a travel blog so it shouldn't bore all those none geographers to tears!
Tuesday, 13 April 2010
where we have been
Dr Bigg's expertly made a map of the villages that we visited during the field work in Nepal. the distances between the villages are to scale (of course they are we are geographers dont you know!) although the lines representing mountains dont quite do the trek justice. Jhalbas is 200 metres above sea level and Jagadev is 1200 metres. Ok so its not the biggest climb in Nepal but its a fairly admirable effort for work purposes i think!
anyways, to make up for it we will be going upto 4610 metres next week in Langtang! - i hope anyway...
the one that got away
this one vanished from the blog earlier. this is me showing the students how to map their villages in Google Earth, the internet is very slow so it took a long time to load! about 2 hours per research site!we are finishing our work this week now. have one more meeting with an NGO that supports the students before we leave for the trek in Langtang. so this might be the last post before we get back to sunny southampton. it is Nepali new year's eve tonight so we are off out on the town with Rajesh who works at ICIMOD. So happy new year all and we will see you soon!
GIS and mapping of the villages.
ellie introducing the students to GIS.
working by candle light... ok, its a story book, but it shows dedication.
receiving a traditional nepali hat from the students. ellie received a traditional nepali purse too.
the final evening we took the students to the cafe we frequented far too much during our stay. we exhausted the menu...
working at ICIMOD... how the international NGOS work!
working by candle light... ok, its a story book, but it shows dedication.
receiving a traditional nepali hat from the students. ellie received a traditional nepali purse too.
the final evening we took the students to the cafe we frequented far too much during our stay. we exhausted the menu...
working at ICIMOD... how the international NGOS work!
Friday, 2 April 2010
other villages.
the intrepid exploring team at the end of the 23km journey. sorry these come out in a different oder to how i load them up but i aint got the patience to go back and do it again!
a community discussion in Namjakot village.
Mohan (foreground) leading the community discussion.
after being garlanded in Jagadev village. Gary is knackered as Nepalis dont have breakfast before climbing from 805 metres to 1200 metres at 7 am in the morning! 
after leaving Bhandare we travelled to the top of the mountain to Jagadev village at 1200 metres. luckily it wasnt quite as hot since we set off at 7am. Bhandare village
after a bus along the highway and then an hours jeep trip to the end of the road... Bhandare village was the first stop on the trip. We set off from 265 metres above sea level and in 35 degree heat we scrambled up to 805 metres. here we stayed for tuesday night with a local leader and his family who were kind enough to organise a community discussion as well as giving us food and lodgings.
the view of the terraced fields from up the mountain.
the house we stayed in on tuesday in Bhandare. We had an electric light as the family had solar panels. but no toilets were seen until we left the mountains on thursday. trying to go to the toilet in a village full of inquisitive children is very difficult by the way...
local lady carrying water from the spring back home.
the local spring. used for drinking at the front of the image as the water inlet is here. cleaning clothes in the middle and children at the end... if this spring dries up it is another 5km to the next one.
the view of the terraced fields from up the mountain.
the house we stayed in on tuesday in Bhandare. We had an electric light as the family had solar panels. but no toilets were seen until we left the mountains on thursday. trying to go to the toilet in a village full of inquisitive children is very difficult by the way...
local lady carrying water from the spring back home. 
the local spring. used for drinking at the front of the image as the water inlet is here. cleaning clothes in the middle and children at the end... if this spring dries up it is another 5km to the next one.more village photos
ladies in the rice field nursery uprooting the rice to be planted in the fields - this is called transplanting. they thought we were hilarious for some unknown reason!
a local method of moving irrigation water across a gap in the rock.
TOLD you all i would get some geography pictures in somewhere. terraced farming with the fields flooded in preparation for the rice crops. 
there is a dam in the picture somewhere. see if you can spot it. when we were told there was a dam in this valley we though concrete monstrosity not the local variation! but still very interesting, especially when the road ended 3 km earlier so how would they get concrete here? Village visits
one of the less attractive bridges to cross.
sharing the highway with the local traffic
one of the new metal bridges installed after floods destroyed the old wooden ones. 
the path to the hills. and an interesting irrigation channel to the right. there are lots of NGO activity in the valley to varying degrees of success.Hi all,
we are back from our trek to some of the most remote community in the Nawalparasi district of Nepal (thats where we are based...). it was a brilliant but tiring trek up the mountain before conducting community discussions (with translators as our Nepali isnt much cop!). We stayed with some very friendly villagers, and even shared a room on the second night with a chicken laying eggs! the food was interesting... i chewed on a chickens foot before ellie kindly pointed out that there would be no meat found (it was a cooked chicken i didnt just pick up a random passing chicken and start chewing)!. I also had a cockerals head in my lunch with a nice eyeball staring right back at me whilst eating! I think ellie found out some useful information for her research, its difficult to tell until you return to the UK and properly look at what you found out. anyways, enough of the chatter, ill add some photos now!
Saturday, 27 March 2010
Day off in Chitwan
monkeys
the three rhinos that we saw on the elephant trek. 
side view of the armored tank
a crocodiles bottom. we got off the canoe about 30 feet away. the guide: "dont worry, he is cold blooded so until he gets warm he wil not attack us". everyone else: "how long does it take to get warm?" guide: "i am not sure". worried face's!
us on the canoe. sorry ladies, Dr. Biggs chose the photo's so i may not look my best!We decided we had earned a day off or two after the first two weeks working so we came to Chitwan national park, its near the Indian border so its bloody hot (too hot for us northern folk who think the sun is the local pub!). we had a very adventurous day on a canoe, then a walk through the forest where the guides pretended that we were near to some sloth bears, which seemed to scare the Israeli woman who was with us as she quickly picked up a stick to defend herself and didnt let it go for the rest of the trip! we didnt see any bengal tigers but we did meet a rhino sleeping in the forest, no pictures im afraid as batteries ran out. but i did get a photo of a tiger footprint on my phone! you will just have to beleive me until april!
in the afternoon we went on an elephant safari into the forest again, there we saw three rhino, two different types of deer, some wild boar and some monkeys. the elephant driver (or mahout if you like) didnt seem impressed with your favourite yorkshire trekker as i managed to spot a great deal more wildlife in the undergrowth than he did! it was a great trip, very peaceful until the Nepali Dom Jolly (spelling?) turned up on the back of another elephant! - i dont know you pay 600 rupees for a safari thats just 30minutes from the internet cafe and some fella's phone rings... he answered the flamin thing as well! so we are not quite as intrepid explorers as we would like to portray, but it was only one day off!
we are back off to the working world today. will not be in touch with the world wide web of knowledge until saturday as we are visiting some more remote villages. subject to my ankle not exploding!
bye for now
Thursday, 25 March 2010
ok ok, i misjudged your eagerness to see geography in action so due to popular demand see the photos
an irrigation channel! it means the village are much better off than many!
a typical farming landscape with a mountain in the background. i could tell you what it is called, but i wasnt listening properly to the students at this time! i could ask Dr. Biggs, but it appears her abilities to pronounce nepali names and words is worse than mine!i get the impression from being reading over peoples shoulders (sorry mum i know i shouldnt do it, but its very tempting!) Dr. Biggs is writing an essay on Nepal so i have kept it short and sweet!
Ellie is in Nepal as well...
Hi all (gary's boss here!)
Yes, we are still getting along fine., he doesn't smell that bad yet either! Life is heating up in Nepal - currently in Chitwan National Park (waiting to meeting an NGO again) and it's well over 30 degrees! Went for a walk this morning and saw a massive (2 tonne) rhino dosing in the jungle shade and a couple of crocs sunbathing on the Rapti river banks.
Work is going well with the masters students. We are learning a lot about the environment from them and we're helping them with their research methods and field data collection. This week, after meeting with a NGO to do some field research with them we are hopefully going to concentrate on my field data collection. Life in the Nepali rural communities is even more laid back than in the city - things happen when they happen. We waited 2 hours under a tree the other day for a jeep to arrive. Gary has re-drafted our time plan every day since we've arrived [someone has to make sure things happen - gary - yes ellie i have editing POWERS!!!!!!!]!!
*yes gary likes to make himself feel better by making sure we have an updated plan. while this is very useful it is me that has to make all the phone calls to make things happen, despite him requesting to be communications director!
Campus life is peaceful and we are getting a lot of work done (in our guesthouse.. a late-20th century American-constructed ruin.. ok, it's not that bad - at least we have lots of rooms and the water/electric just about works) even though every other day seems to be a national holiday. Electricity is randomly available. We are now regulars at the only local restaurant where we've exhausted the menu, purely to avoid dal bhat in the uni canteen every evening.
I'm really enjoying seeing lots of different parts of Nepal which is such a diverse country in both culture and landscape. Good job we still have plenty of time left as things here take such a long time happen!!
Gary seems to be writing frantically on the computer next to me so I'll stop waffling on as he'll have more to say...
Yes, we are still getting along fine., he doesn't smell that bad yet either! Life is heating up in Nepal - currently in Chitwan National Park (waiting to meeting an NGO again) and it's well over 30 degrees! Went for a walk this morning and saw a massive (2 tonne) rhino dosing in the jungle shade and a couple of crocs sunbathing on the Rapti river banks.
Work is going well with the masters students. We are learning a lot about the environment from them and we're helping them with their research methods and field data collection. This week, after meeting with a NGO to do some field research with them we are hopefully going to concentrate on my field data collection. Life in the Nepali rural communities is even more laid back than in the city - things happen when they happen. We waited 2 hours under a tree the other day for a jeep to arrive. Gary has re-drafted our time plan every day since we've arrived [someone has to make sure things happen - gary - yes ellie i have editing POWERS!!!!!!!]!!
*yes gary likes to make himself feel better by making sure we have an updated plan. while this is very useful it is me that has to make all the phone calls to make things happen, despite him requesting to be communications director!
Campus life is peaceful and we are getting a lot of work done (in our guesthouse.. a late-20th century American-constructed ruin.. ok, it's not that bad - at least we have lots of rooms and the water/electric just about works) even though every other day seems to be a national holiday. Electricity is randomly available. We are now regulars at the only local restaurant where we've exhausted the menu, purely to avoid dal bhat in the uni canteen every evening.
I'm really enjoying seeing lots of different parts of Nepal which is such a diverse country in both culture and landscape. Good job we still have plenty of time left as things here take such a long time happen!!
Gary seems to be writing frantically on the computer next to me so I'll stop waffling on as he'll have more to say...
Gudibari Village visit
the legendary bengal tiger waiting for its lunch. 
conducting a group survey in the village. most of the men here are ex Gorkhas for the British or Indian Army. The guy in the stripy t-shirt is M0han one of the masters students, who acted as our interpreter for this method.
our new friends. 
introducing the students to GPS. Dr. BIggs in her element...
this is the house of the head villager that kindly let us stay the night while we visited his village. it was very peaceful.
Kathmandu
The view from Kiritpur on the outskirts of Kathmandu. Our guide Dharma lives in this region and he gave us some local "wine", he didnt drink any which is never a good sign!
Dharma teaching me about the Thai airways temple. Dharma has since abandoned us for Europe!We didnt see much of Kathmandu as we had to meet several contacts before moving onto the district we were to work in, so i will have more photos to upload when we return to Kathmandu on the 10th April.
Hello
Hello all - who ever you may be.
After a great many trials and plenty of errors, i have managed to track down an internet connection that can cope with a few of gary's random babblings and plenty of photo's. it was a truly difficult task, traversing mountains, rivers, wetlands and international borders.... ok ok.... it was a short taxi ride from the university to the tourist village of Sauraha near Chitwan National Park! but its bloody hot and im a yorkshire man so i am allowed to stretch the truth slightly! :-)
i am in Nepal for 6 weeks doing voluntary work with the Glacier Trust and am accompanied by DR Ellie Biggs - she is kind of in charge and i do as i am told (haha) but it means she has to organise everything i can just complain so its perfect for me!!!!. So far we have introduced some masters students to GPS and how it can help with data collection and trialed a new survey method that i have seen used before in india.
i will come back tomorrow with some resized photos ready for publication and some short witty statements to accompany them.
After a great many trials and plenty of errors, i have managed to track down an internet connection that can cope with a few of gary's random babblings and plenty of photo's. it was a truly difficult task, traversing mountains, rivers, wetlands and international borders.... ok ok.... it was a short taxi ride from the university to the tourist village of Sauraha near Chitwan National Park! but its bloody hot and im a yorkshire man so i am allowed to stretch the truth slightly! :-)
i am in Nepal for 6 weeks doing voluntary work with the Glacier Trust and am accompanied by DR Ellie Biggs - she is kind of in charge and i do as i am told (haha) but it means she has to organise everything i can just complain so its perfect for me!!!!. So far we have introduced some masters students to GPS and how it can help with data collection and trialed a new survey method that i have seen used before in india.
i will come back tomorrow with some resized photos ready for publication and some short witty statements to accompany them.
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