23-Apr-2019 -- This confluence we named “not a repaired bridge to far Confluence Point”. It’s situated in a remote area, around max 25 km from Simikot. This city houses the administrative headquarters of Humla District of Karnali Zone in the mountain region of northwestern Nepal.

Humla is the most remote district in Nepal, and one of the poorest. There are few tourists, and those you meet will most likely be headed to the border town of Hilsa, a stepping-stone to Mount Kailash in Tibet. Some western people visit NGO-projects, like the Swedish people we met in Simikot.

The confluence point can be reached by walking from Simikot along the Chuwa Khola and crossing this river three times. The small trail along the Chuw Khola is used to walk to Tibet.

It was already a challenge to reach the starting point of our expedition, Simikot. You can only reach this city via-Nepalgunj with a small plane - if the weather permits - and then you are already two days away from Kathmandu.

In Simikot, six Nepalese team members and five donkeys waited for us. Binod Lama (guide), Nima Tamang (Cook), Junmune (Kitchen help), Sharpa Sharki (Kitchen help), Amrit Lama (Mule man) and Urgen Lama (Mule man). After arriving in the afternoon, we had a short rest and began to walk to Bargau for our first camp with a great view. During our way we passed small authentic villages and children were asking for chocolate.

Next day we walked to Dojam and stayed in a big house from the Lama family and had a great meal prepared by Nima, even with an enormous cake. In the morning we ate a delicious breakfast on the roof of the house looking at the wild Chuw Khola.

During our walk this day, along the noisy river, we met a few local people and ate walnuts which were lying everywhere at some parts of the trail. At around 13:30 we set up camp 3 in an open field at approximately 3 km from the confluence point.

The bridge near the camp was a bit broken but we could walk over it. There was enough time left to explore the area and see if there was a way to cross the river, near the confluence point. We walked through the forest and we surprisingly saw another bridge. Unfortunately this bridge seemed not usable, but nothing is impossible!

On confluence hunting day the weather was sunny, like all other days. In the early morning our Nepalese team members repaired the bridge in half an hour! This was really amazing! Secured by a rope we walked on the bridge and crossed the river. Then we had to find our way through a dense forest with cedar trees. Amrit Lama was really great to guide us through this forest. Occasionally we had to walk on snow because it had been snowing a lot this year. After crossing a small river with bare feet, we started to climb a steep mountain, encountering big stones and nasty bushes. After a while we successfully found the confluence point at 12:20 P.M.

The last three days we walked back to Simikot and visited Raling Gompa, a Buddhist monastery at an altitude of 4000m, to collect karma points, which was a serious matter for our Nepalese team members. In Katmandu we spent some days sightseeing and on the 3th of may we said “Namasté and Danyebad” to Bharat Thapa (himalecotreks.com), who organized the trip for us, and flew back to the Netherlands.

Link to movie