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Wednesday morning saw the largest solar eclipse of this century; unfortunately although the BBC World Service interviewed people in KTM about it, they only said that it would be 'at dawn' so we weren't sure exactly what time to look out for it. We peeped out a couple of times but it was a little cloudy and the sun does not come up above the hills until later in the morning. Later it was confirmed that it was not possible to see it from here.

People in general here at quite superstitious about that sort of thing. It turned out the some sort of public holiday had been declared, but nobody told us. So when we got to school there was no-one there. We hung around for half an hour with a handful of students who inexplicably turned up in their uniforms, although they told us it was a holiday when we asked them where all the teachers were. We returned to the house and had a relaxing day reading.

On Thursday school was back to normal and the electric was back on after a lengthy outage (we're still not sure if this is related to the eclipse holiday or bus strike). Ram (the English teacher) surprised us in the morning by saying we were to give classes 10A and B computer theory lessons in a couple of hours. Luckily we'd made a start at planning the theory classes already and we managed to put together a passable lesson that seemed to go down quite well. We are still the star attraction in the village, so many students gathered around the windows of the classes to catch a glimpse of the strangers teaching. Full computer training including students and teachers and English teaching is to start next week.

On Friday morning we were up early to make another attempt on Charikot so that we could get all the computer equipment needed to set the school's 3 PCs up well before lessons begin. After a quick cup of tea, we were on our way back down the slippery road by 6.30. Having been smug last time, Heather came a cropper slipping on a steep section and landed squarely on her bum. Despite this, we made it to Busti in good time and didn't have to wait too long before someone told us 'no bus' and indicated that we'd have to walk down to the village by the river. There was a handful of other people in the same predicament, and they encouraged us to join them for the walk. This turned out to be quite a good thing as they knew two short-cuts which – although steep and a little hairy – saved us traipsing along the big zig-zag traverses in the road. The last bit of the short-cut we were warned is 'rock-climbing', and indeed we ended up using hands and feet to ease ourselves down the face of the gorge. Sure enough though, there was a bus waiting in the village, which eventually took us up to Charikot. The lack of buses meant that each one got doubly packed with the roof overflowing, people crammed inside like sardines, and others hanging off the back and sides.

Although Charikot is the district headquarters, there's no real reason for tourists to visit, and indeed it doesn't merit a mention in the Lonely Planet. We found a couple of small computer shops and managed to track down two different ethernet switches (the main bit of kit we were after). Although bigger and more expensive than we would have liked, these would have done the job... however rather frustratingly ethernet cables were 'not available' anywhere in the town – one of the guys in the computer shop shared a giggle with us about how useless the switches would be without the wires to connect the computers together. Slightly irked, we picked up the other minor things from our shopping list and grabbed some lunch (we tried to find somewhere that looked busy as few places seemed obviously hygienic!)

With the uncertainty about the buses, we decided to cut our losses and head back. Down at the bus stop we were not encouraged by the sight of all the buses facing the wrong way and shut up with no drivers. The only bus facing down the hill was in the process of having its wheels removed. When we asked whether the bus was going to Busti we were told, yes, at 3 o'clock; as it was only midday we realised we had a few hours to kick our heels.

Having decided earlier not to go to the cyber (internet cafe), due to time constraints, we now thought we may as well give it a go. This was a less than positive experience (techie details to follow); the connection was so slow as to be utterly useless. And we were such a source of curiosity that we had people staring at what we were doing the whole time.

Increasingly frustrated ,we gave up and went back to find somewhere comfortable to wait for the bus to be ready. We found a small place with a balcony out the back with stunning views down the valley and a very friendly owner.

After a lot of messing around, the bus eventually left about 4pm (complete with a consignment of pedal sewing machines stowed away on the roof) again, the dwindled bus supply meant a very over-crowded bus. Having repeatedly assured us that the bus was going to Busti, we were slightly angered but not entirely surprised when the engine went off at the village on the river that we had climbed down to and we were told “Busti – no”... so began the long climb back up which we knew, even starting at Busti, would be a race against time before it got dark. Having scrambled up the first short cut, we were already out of breath and dripping with sweat. We were getting nervous about how much further we had to go. Thankfully a truck went by. Initially, when we hailed it, it seemed to ignore us, but then stopped further up and the cheery group of people in the back entreated us to join them. So we found ourselves in the back of another truck with a friendly, slightly inebriated, group of people drinking 'cocktails' (something sloshing around in a plastic coke bottle). It was only a brief ride with them but saved us a decent climb that would have taken us well over an hour. We were very grateful that this meant we started on the familiar road from Busti before 5 o'clock so we were quietly confident that we could make it back before it got dark at around 7.30. This time we had made sure we had plenty of water and had our filter with us just in case.

Whilst it was still pretty tiring, it was considerably less of an endurance test this time as we were not in the midday sun and we weren't rationing water. Nonetheless we arrived back tired and sweaty just before 7. There was just enough time for a quick wash before dinner.

On the domestic side we are settling down well into our room, with regular visits from the chicken and goat whenever they get the chance to come in. We have also noticed a mouse which frequently scrabbles around on the plastic sheeting suspended beneath the ceiling. It has been good that our hosts have gradually realised that we are quite fond of chilli and spice and the meals have been getting gradually hotter and more delicious. We suspect they may have been trying to cater for a sensitive western palette and are glad that they are no longer harbouring this illusion. As a result, we are enjoying the tastiest dhal bhat since we arrived in Nepal, and twice a day!

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