During the first day of our stay in Ulleri we decided on the trapping
web design. Setting up the traps on the 6 lines, 60 degrees apart, with high concentration in the middle - every 2.5 metres, and less concentrated later on - 5 metres apart. We gathered tools - a compass, measuring tape, string and duct tape - and prepared the web sample. Our hosts, other tourists and the villagers were looking very curiously at us while we were preparing the trapping web. They all were interested in our project. After a very short time all the villagers knew about the project and it made them all laugh at us.
One day some kids brought us a tiny mouse that they caught in their house (Nepalese kuku). After the trapping web was prepared we went to look for our sites. The agricultural site was found very easily, we could see the field from our hotel. Looking for a natural habitat site took a bit more effort - scrambling through thick jungle - which gave us a very good warm up before going to the next sites.
We stayed for 4 days in Ulleri, baiting the traps every evening and checking them early each morning. When we caught a mouse we measured and identified it.
For a couple of days we were waiting for 2 more of our collaborators. They were late because of problems with diarrhea. Eventually they joined us in Ulleri. During the time in Ulleri we had our first interview with the villagers asking about their village, crops and of course, the mouse. One of the evenings we celebrated Tula's birthday with Nepalese cake and trying to master some Nepalese dancing. We also started to learn some Nepalese words.
While living at 2100 metres above the sea level we had to aclimatise to that altitude and we well enjoyed the view from up there. After 4 days of trapping we took off to Ghorepani, looking forward new adventures at our next sites.
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