Toward Delhi

Now back at Tiger camp before final few miles to Ramnagar railway station, then 5 hrs to Delhi and a decent hotel! Nerves shot to pieces from this mornings mountain road journey - guess whose? Giant TaTa truck was on right side of the road, but we were certainly not! More from Delhi later.

Wednesday 21st November

Remember how we had some comments about the hotel we were going to stay in today, well - we were right, but more about that later!

We ended up eating dinner last night in the chef's tent rather than around the camp fire as it was far to cold for that! Dinner was, wait for it, CHINESE! A very good one too made locally by our fantastic camp chef. Whilst waiting for dinner we had to keep watch on a pack of three jackals that had decided they wanted some of it too - good fun, but only from a distance.

Bed time was again about 9pm, and this time we managed to sleep all the way through to 1130pm - very cold night even in the cosy sleeping bags we were provided with.

Today was again all about travelling on the treacherous mountain roads of Northern India. We got some great views of the Himalayas along the way and ended up at West View Hotel at about 4pm. In summary, the place is frozen in time, time being around 1920! However, for all its bad points, it redeemed itself by the chef preparing a superb bread and butter pudding that our friends from the charity had specially ordered the day before when they stayed here.

Anyway, it's off to bed soon as we have another 0600 start tomorrow for a drive to Ramnagar to get the express train (express = 140 miles in 5 hrs !) back to Delhi where we have a real 20th century hotel waiting for us for the night - yippee!

Tuesday 20th November

We finished the night yesterday with dinner around the camp fire, wearing more layers than Ranulph Fiennes probably has with him in the arctic!  However, the mood was still good and to top it all we had chicken, chips and cauliflower cheese for dinner - "not a curry?" I hear you ask!

A camp fire was lit and a couple of beers opened and before we knew it it was 9pm and too cold to sit out any longer so we retired to tents to freeze in them instead!  Sleep was soon upon us, but then again so was 0200 hrs after which the next few hours to daylight were spent tossing and turning to find warm spots.

This morning, after breakfast, we said goodbye to Ashok and John who were off to visit another of the charity's projects.  We ourselves went to our own school project to paint a "friendship tree" for the children, to brighten up their walls.  This was great fun as it involved every one of the children having one of their hands painted so that they could leave a handprint in the tree - we even managed to get the teachers to join in too.

So we arrived back in camp to discover it being overrun with monkeys - a quick yell from us and they were soon off.  We're now about to collect firewood for tonight's camp fire and we'll probably sit around it for dinner again too!  Tomorrow we're travelling (again!!) on the first day of our two day trek back down to Delhi.  We're staying at a place called West View Hotel in Ranikhet, (google it) which we are told is very colonial in appearance and standards - which actually means it will be pretty rubbish as it is unlikely to have been updated since those times.  Anyway, we'll let you know.  

Monday 19th November

 A day of contrasting emotions. We awoke at 0700 to the fantastic sight of the rising sun shining against a backdrop that included magnificent forests and the dramatic mountains that are the foothills of the Himalayas. Scrambled eggs on toast for breakfast - the first 'non curry' meal for almost three days - was followed by one of the most hair raising journeys across India we have ever taken!

This years monsoon season (now finished, thankfully) was a particularly heavy one and the landscape has paid the price in the form of major landslides that have washed away significant sections of hill roads and bridges.  This meant the 'new' temporary roads are perilously close to the edge of 1500 foot drops into deep ravines, causing Tim to want to move significantly away from the car doors whilst Mhairi giggled and enjoyed the new 'fairground' ride experience.  Finally arrived at our camp site after 2 full days of travelling India, happy but also anticipating the same drive back to civilisation!

Then for the serious matters.  We had a not so light lunch (curry again!) and then set out to visit the site of our work here 2 years ago, a memorial to the 18 children who died here when their school was destroyed by a landslide.  The memorial garden has a plaque commemorating the children, the eldest of whom was 10, the youngest 4.  We then moved on to the site of the new school which was a pleasure to see as its being used now by 100 children.  We watched them finish their classes and sing their end of day songs before they went off back to their villages and families.

So, we are now off to change into thermal clothing as the sun has set behind the hills of the valley and the temperature is dropping rapidly as it turns dark.  Thankfully, we can find our way to our tents due to the diligence of our Indian friends who have managed to "steal" some electricity from a nearby overhead cable - don't ask!!  More soon....