Fall Winter 2016: Nepal

In Nepal, we went on a 4-day trip through the Himalayas. During the trip I wrote some articles for our staff newspaper. This is one of them:

"The craziest thing was when I had to walk all by myself with a horse on a rope across a narrow, 100-metre-long suspension bridge for the film. I was amazed that it was even possible to walk across a hanging bridge with a horse, but in Nepal, it’s quite normal. No problem at all. The bottom of the bridge was made of some kind of wire mesh. I could see right through it, straight down, onto a raging river. The side walls were made of a kind of chicken wire that was about a metre high. The first crossing over the bridge went quite well, with the owner of the horse helping us to get it going. But when I reached the other side of the ravine, we had to go back. Now, I was all alone with the horse. The rest of the crew and the guide were just tiny specks on the other side of the canyon, way out of earshot. But the horse didn't want to go back. "Forget it," it probably thought to itself, "wobbly suspension bridge, deep gorge ahead – count me out." But I had to go back. For the film! Because this film helps us to sell shoes, so we simply had to go back. Suddenly you find yourself as Tilburger in the middle of the Himalayas in your fancy suit on the edge of a 50-metre-deep gorge with a raging white-water river below, pulling with all your weight on the reins of a horse. The animal froze like you only see in cartoons. While I pulled like an idiot, Fury's legs were locked in the sand in the opposite direction. It's not like I panicked or anything, but I was already thinking to myself, "Damn it, I'm going to die on this one.... but I also have to sell… shoes... Shoes!!!" After pulling for another minute, I had an idea. The rope of this stubborn horse was about 2 metres long. I moved as close to the bridge as I could. And then I stood tall, giving off an air of, "You'll have to figure it out yourself, cause I'll go now, you’re on your own." And then, after another little jerk and a 'tssk tssk huu', the horse finally started moving."

Small addendum: It was a very small horse though... really small.... I sat on it for the photo, and my feet were barely off the ground. Today, years later, they still laugh at me for it. It looked pretty funny, though. I put on a serious face for the photo, but I looked like a failed Lucky Luke.

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Nepal

Campaign shoot

Behind the scenes

When we are on the road for our campaigns, we go through a lot. The campaign photos always look amazing, but the reality is somewhat different.... Here are some snapshots we took during our trip. Simply click on them to get more info on what you’re looking at.

Our Nepal trip

BEHIND THE SCENES