That is how Harka, who drove me from Hetauda back to Kathmandu described the road we were on. It was a succinct and fitting description.

When I first started looking into how to get from Kathmandu to Hetauda and back to visit my sponsor child and the community, the Dakshinkhali Road came up and came accompanied with pictures that made me say “Hell no!”. Considering the alternatives and bearing in mind the advice from the locals that became “Hell yes!”.

Fortunately I’m not that jumpy at crazy traffic anymore after living in Brazil for four years and I had great faith in the drivers both ways. But the journey was interesting and in particular the way back amply demonstrated what could go wrong on a road like that.

Most of the time the road is single lane, it has many hairpin bends and traverses steep terrain with gasp inducing drops. Part of it was also badly affected by landslides during the recent flooding event. Throw in a few big buses and trucks and some mud for good measure and you have a neat scenario. Did I mention cows?

But the scenery was glorious and the trip was totally worth it and it was terrific to see my sponsor child and her family, the community and all the good work that Plan is doing there. It’s very impressive and inspiring and is the perfect start to my trip.

Tomorrow, if all goes well, I fly to Lukla to commence the trek. But this afternoon the rains have returned, so I’m not too sure what that will do to the flights to Lukla. The weather has not been good there. I have just ducked back to the hotel after lunch. Better to spend this time organizing my bag than getting wet out there.