World Challenge 2025- Nepal

In July, 12 6th Form students took on the trip of a lifetime- a World Challenge expedition to Nepal!

After planning, training and fundraising for two years it was finally time to leave Sacred Heart for Nepal. We departed Manchester Airport for Kathmandu (Nepal) with a quick stop off in Doha (Qatar). We touched down in Kathmandu and after settling in, went straight out for our first group dinner of Momos (Nepalese dumplings) and Thali Trays.

The next day we had our orientation briefing where we met the World Challenge Ground Team. We planned the next two weeks in great detail and booked in activities such as: yoga, jewellery making, a cooking class, and the World’s steepest zipline! The afternoon was spent seeing the sights of Kathmandu which included the world-famous Durbar Square.

The following day we left the hustle and bustle of Kathmandu and travelled to an extremely remote Himalayan village at an altitude of almost 2000m. For the next three days we stayed at ‘Namaste Homestay’ with the Bimiri Foundation charity. We trekked in the Himalayas to get to even more remote villages and began our clean water initiative. We dug trenches for water pipes, sawed and soldered pipes, dug holes for taps, mixed cement and installed three new water taps for homes in the village. The project was a great opportunity to see how people in other parts of the world live, to take time out and reflect.

We returned to Kathmandu and some of the group had a jewellery making class while the others walked to the Monkey Temple and hiked hundreds of steps to the top. The views over Kathmandu were spectacular!

After a short stay back in Kathmandu we were on the move again, this time to Pokhara. We boarded a short flight to the hiking capital of Nepal. The views of the Himalayan peaks (at over 7,000m) through the tops of clouds was amazing.

We then got our first real taste of a true monsoon storm, with beyond heavy rain, thunder and lightening lasting all evening, all night and long into the next day. Sadly this meant our day trek was too unsafe and had to be cancelled, but we more than made up for it with a long walk to a huge waterfall, where we got even more wet! We dried off at a typical Nepalese restaurant with such great hospitality and the best Thali trays of our trip.

Once the rain had passed, there was some much needed down time the following day with the group choosing to shop for souvenirs to bring home and remind them of their adventure in Nepal.

The final day in Pokhara was adrenaline filled with us taking on the steepest and fastest zipline in the World. This was a definite highlight in Pokhara!

We flew back to Kathmandu and had time to explore the shops there, now that we were all familiar with our local surroundings. Our very last evening in Kathmandu was spent at a cooking class where we prepared our own evening meal under careful guidance and supervision. The cooking class was led by the ‘Sungabha Nepal’ charity which initially supported women with disabilities and grown from strength to strength since it beginnings in 2006. It was a great way to end our trip, eating our final meal together, and one that we had all contributed to making.

After an incredible two weeks, it was time to start the long journey home. We travelled back to Sacred Heart from Kathmandu which took us 24 hours. We returned home safely and with stories to tell long into the future, it was certainly a trip of a lifetime!