![School boy from the East](http://johnnyfenn.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/20171115-photoJourney-47-241.jpg)
PhotoJourney-Nepal 2017
November saw the team and participants head to East Nepal – it’s always a little trickier travelling in the East, so a little more Land Rover time; but BOY was it worth it! We headed pretty much straight away to Rumjatar after a recovery night in Kathmandu. Rumjatar is a remote Hill Village roughly half way between Kathmandu and the Indian border at the Eastern point of Nepal….and directly below the Everest region of the High Himalayas.
![The team on arrival](http://johnnyfenn.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/20171113-PJNepal-46-4-410x272.jpg)
The workshop was again looking to help photographers with little knowledge, and improve the photography of those with some decent experience – and it was a cracking team (we always seem to get on; must be the calming effects of the mountains and people of Nepal.
So – one of the first projects was to head where we could reasonably easily access to photograph Everest itself. We were not disappointed because the weather was perfect, and as clear a view of the mother of mountains as you could hope for.
![Everest is the second triangle from the left!](http://johnnyfenn.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/20171114-PJNepal-45-410x274.jpg)
![Mariangela heading up for the view](http://johnnyfenn.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/20171114-PJNepal-45-31-410x274.jpg)
![The faces in this region were very "Sherpa"](http://johnnyfenn.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/20171114-PJNepal-45-52-Edit-410x274.jpg)
![...and inquisitive too](http://johnnyfenn.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/20171114-PJNepal-45-10-410x274.jpg)
From there we headed to the Gurkha Welfare Trust Area Welfare Centre (AWC) on the edge of Rumjatar so we could spend 3 days in the village, really getting to know the place and the people. Most people in Nepal are terrifically friendly – but in Rumjatar they seemed especially so – it was such a privilege to live in amongst these people for a while and try to imagine what life is like here permanently. The structures were good and people genuinely seemed content in this tricky to reach part of the world.
![School kids in Rumjatar](http://johnnyfenn.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/20171114-PJNepal-45-100-410x614.jpg)
![Hiding from the class?](http://johnnyfenn.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/20171114-PJNepal-45-120-410x274.jpg)
![The Rumjatar Staff and the team at the AWC](http://johnnyfenn.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/20171113-PJNepal-46-28-410x272.jpg)
![A girl on the road East](http://johnnyfenn.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/20171115-photoJourney-47-196-410x274.jpg)
When the time came to leave, we bade farewell to the ever-attentive staff at the AWC and headed even further east to one of the largest towns in Nepal; Dharan. On the northern edge of Dharan (and thankfully with added altitude, as it can get oppressively hot in Dharan) lies one of the most impressive AWCs – a Key AWC with amazing medical facilities for those ex-Gurkhas or their widows who live in the region. There is also the second Residential Home for the very elderly ex-Gurkhas who have fallen on hard times, or had been living in distress – an incredible facility and such an amazing thing for those who really need help.
![One of the ex-Gurkhas with his original Service Record](http://johnnyfenn.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/20171115-photoJourney-47-175-Edit-Edit-410x614.jpg)
![Pete near the AWC in the hills over-looking Dharan](http://johnnyfenn.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/20171116-photoJourney-49-65-Edit-410x274.jpg)
![The simply incredibel AWC staff at Dharan](http://johnnyfenn.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/20171117-photoJourney-12-410x272.jpg)
![Back in Kathmandu](http://johnnyfenn.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/20171207-Kathmandu-56-122-410x273.jpg)
![Kathmandu - City of Wooden Temples](http://johnnyfenn.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/20171207-Kathmandu-56-91-Edit-410x273.jpg)
![.... and Sadhus!](http://johnnyfenn.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/20171119-photoJourney-56-410x274.jpg)
In all, travelling East was very special. The people and houses are slightly different to those from the West – but Nepal is Nepal. Fabulous!
Comments are closed.