On 11 October 2018, 30 students and 4 teachers left Catmose, heading to Heathrow to embark on a trip to remember to Nepal.

After fundraising for 2 years, each one of us was amazed at how fast the day of departure had come. I think it is fair to say that everyone was extremely excited and at the same time nervous for what we were going to experience when we reached Nepal. After a long journey, we finally landed in Delhi airport on Friday morning, hopped onto the next plane, and were off on our final leg to reach our destination.

As our flight landed in Kathmandu, the sight from the air was phenomenal. A huge city, filled with colour stretching as far as the eye could see, with stunning mountains, encasing it in a basin of its very own. Stepping out of the plane was the first time that I really understood where we were and what we were about to do. At that moment, I could never have imagined being anywhere more amazing.

Kathmandu is very different from London. That much I realised as I stepped out of the airport into our bus. For starters, seeing dogs, goats, cows just wondering the streets was certainly different from our Oakham high street. The whole city had a dusty and bustling feel to it, with bright houses lining every road in the city. Scooters raced around our bus to dodge through the immense crowds, people just going about their everyday business, the overhead wires were simply tied to the posts in huge bundles. This first sight of the city was certainly a reality check and the extreme differences between London and Kathmandu will always stick with me. Arriving at our youth hostel was a relief in the evening and we all ran straight in, and were relieved to finally be able to sleep after travelling. Our room had a balcony that looked out over the city, which gave us a beautiful view to end our first night in Nepal on.

The next part of the trip was our community project. We spent 5 days here and our aim was to help repaint and re-cement a school in a small village in the foothills north of Kathmandu. Arriving here after 6 hours driving along dusty and bumpy roads was a relief, although it was a slight shock to see out bathroom facilities for the next week! A tap for our shower, a set of outdoor cubicles each coated in cobweb with a squat loo as our toilets. After setting up our tents, we trekked down the hill to reach our dining area. We spent most of our evenings here, enjoying lovely meals but also playing card games. We worked on the community project during the mornings, and then visited local sites in the afternoon, such as a waterfall and river. One afternoon, some of the children from the school came to visit us and we presented them with all the gifts that we had brought them. They taught us some of their cultural dances and dressed us up which was certainly a unique experience in itself!

The second half of the trip involved white water rafting, a visit to Pokhara, where we trekked up to a peace pagoda on the top of a hill and looked out over the city. We visited Chitwan national park, where we saw rhinos, elephants, crocodiles, monkeys and buffaloes. On one the evening we visited a cultural house, where we saw some traditional Nepali dancing. We ended the trip with a few days in Kathmandu, shopping and visiting heritage sites, such as the Monkey Temple and Durbar Square.

Unfortunately, the trip had to end at some point. After 2 weeks of amazing people, memories, food and experiences, we boarded our flight home dressed in our new Nepali-style clothes to return to the UK. An amazing part of our return flight out of Nepal was seeing Mount Everest appear above the clouds. A memorable way to remember a truly unforgettable trip. All in all, I think that everyone absolutely loved the trip, learnt to realise what we are truly grateful for back at home and start to understand more about life outside of our western world. It was something that we will all remember forever.

By Annie Dudin