Went for a quick spin on the bikes this morning with Ian and Marcel from Germany who has come to Nepal for four months to teach German to some of the INF kids. We took in part of the Royal trek route that Prince Charles trekked when he came to Nepal. As you can see, the views were ok....

No blog would be complete without a picture of Evie – happy as ever and getting in some climbing practice.

Strikes are still very much the order of the day here in Nepal as political parties and protest groups all vie for influence (Nepal's interim constitution was modified this week to take one groups concerns into account). However ordinary people have become increasingly disinterested and keen to get on with their lives. Ignoring strikes can be a risky business though and there have been riots in some parts of the country – fortunately not in the Pokhara area. Perhaps sensing that they were losing support for their strikes with ordinary people, one group has now announced a campaign of civil disobediance – locking up government offices and refusing to pay taxes....

Assuming no new strikes are called overnight, we travel to the mid-west of Nepal tomorrow to visit INF's programs in Nepalgunge, Surkhet and Gorahi. We'll be away for a week and are really looking forward to seeing a very different part of the country (where a lot of the political unrest has been) and seeing INF's work there at first hand.