A Fife mum has told of the horror of being trapped for more than a week as devastation was wreaked by the Nepalese earthquake.
Ann Hardie, 47, from Kirkcaldy, was on holiday when the 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck, killing more than 8,000 people.
Along with Amanda Ferrie of Carluke, she was part of a group of eight British, four Americans, a Nepalese and a Malaysian visiting a temple in the Nubri valley, a seven-day walk from the nearest road.
She said: “We were the last ones out of the temple when the ground shook.”
The temple escaped almost unscathed, but Ann said: “We could see walls of buildings coming down round about.”
She and her fellow travellers began to realise how lucky they were to escape unhurt.
She said: “Although we saw it all from the skies, villages trampled, we were very, very lucky we didn’t see the scenes that were reported on television.
“There was seemingly a terrible smell of death in Kathmandu and we didn’t experience that.”
She continued: “Over there the weather can be absolutely atrocious, so to not have a roof over your head is unthinkable.”
Nearly 80% of houses in the Nubri valley have collapsed or are badly damaged, and the monks and nuns have begun relief work.
Government aid in the form of food and tents is arriving slowly, but so are the first snowfalls.
She said: “Some of these people just have a roof over their head that is all they have.”
Now she is back home she is planning to walk the West Highland Way to raise £6,000 to send to the monastery that gave her food and shelter until she was rescued.
She will be accompanied on her trek in August by Jean Graham of Cowdenbeath and Amanda, who was with her in Nepal and who is working with her on a meditation programme they hope will be introduced in schools across Scotland.
Donations to the Nubri appeal can be made at www.kyimolung.org/earthquake-relief.html.