Diary 9 November 1950

Breaking camp and packing up, is an unfathomable and complicated ritual. It is nine o´clock. For several hours now a bustling activity which resembles busy bees has been prevalent, but we are getting no further. We are not more than seven kilometres from the capital. If things continue like this, then the orientation expedition alone will take five months. Yet if I wish to expand my geological survey over the whole of Nepal, from the Terai jungle right up to the perpetual ice of the Himalayas, then - the calculation can be made quickly - I will need at least 1,200 weeks with the entire baggage train. That makes 24 years! And behind me a path of destruction...something must be done about it! This has to be totally reorganised! Many changes must be made.