Kilgraston Nepal Expedition
On the morning after Speech Day, Sunday the 26th of June, eleven sixth form girls departed for a three-week expedition to Nepal; Catherine McInnes, Ellen Eastwood, Erin Rennie, Isobel Campbell, Jade Courtney, Rachel Black, Rebecca Bruce, Zoe He, Susie Dougall, Lucinda Turquand-Young and Sophie Jacobs were the challengers. And accompanied by two School staff, Miss Patton and Mr Johnston along with our World Challenge leader, Mr Ian Ridley.
On arrival to Katmandu there was an instant culture shock, with cows wandering freely down the busy moped and car filled city streets of the Nepal’s capital! In our first few days we visited many sights, Swayambhunath often known as the monkey temple, a steep climb up to the Stupa allowed us to see the full panorama of the city, while carefully fending off the cheeky monkeys keen to steal food from visitors. While spending a few days in the capital we noticed the affects from the earthquake, which happened the previous year. However, many Nepali’s we encountered said it was an important time for us to embark on an expedition, as more than ever, Nepal needed tourists to help in the rebuilding of their country.
The expedition was made up of three elements, a trek, volunteer project and sightseeing. The trek itself was a tough six-day hike along part of the challenging Annapurna circuit. We stayed in some homey tea houses along the way and saw the majestic mountain range with several peaks over 8000metres, a truly astonishing sight. The girls on the whole very much enjoyed the trek, despite its tests, namely the monsoon rain and dreaded leeches. All challengers made it to the top of Poon Hill standing respectively at 3210metres, despite what t-shirts purchased in Katmandu claim! Our local team of guides, porters and cooks were excellent throughout and were always there to help motivate the group.
On finishing the trek, the girls enjoyed a well-earned rest in Pokhara, a beautiful popular tourist city beside the grand Phewa Lake. The team did not stop on their adventure seeking, while in Pokhara they each flew down the longest zip wire in the world and then took on the mighty rapids with an excellent day of white water rafting.
The trip was not all about adrenaline seeking; the girls had planned and raised several thousand pounds for a week-long volunteer project at the Hillside School, an hour from Katmandu. The newly opened school provided an English language education to local children. On the project the team laboured hard building a path leading to the school, they carried many bricks and wheelbarrow loads of gravel to achieve a finished path. The girls also used their artistic skills to create a beautiful English alphabet mural in one of the junior years’ classrooms. It was fantastic to see what had been completed in a week by the Kilgraston team.
A full packed trip, the girls were outstanding and showed great maturity in their organisation and budgeting skills. As staff we were privileged to have spent such a great trip with all the girls. We all look forward to the girls sharing many of the great experiences and memories with an assembly and school magazine article this year.
Back to News
