It has been pretty surreal listening to the news on the BBC world service recently, with floods in the north and west of England taking top billing.

Just so you know, we share your pain! Monsoon has arrived here with a vengeance - it has rained almost non-stop for the last week which on the one hand is nice as the temperature drops right down, but everything in the house is now damp and starting to smell a bit...

Pokhara is apparently one of the wettest places on earth with an annual rainfall of over three metres, nearly a metre of which often falls in July. We are lucky here as the rain quickly runs off into the rivers, which are in deep gorges and do not tend to flood. People down stream are often not so lucky, and there have been many deaths from flooding this year in Northern India and Bangladesh. The drains quickly overflow here though and flood the road, adding to the general filth and making cycling a dangerous business as you can't tell how deep the potholes are!


These two pictures show the Seti, the main river running through Pokhara. Most of the year there is a whole industry on the side of the river quarrying and sorting rocks and gravel - all by hand. The first picture shows the Seti in full flood after a big storm, filling its gorge. The second is taken from the same point two days later and shows the banks of the river re-emerging and people getting back to work.



Landslides are a major threat here and the local roads are often blocked. This picture was taken near by, where attempts to build a new road had destabilised the hillside, which came crashing down after a heavy shower, fortunately just missing houses on both sides.