WE CLIMBED A MOUNTAIN

Yes. We did. With much huffing a puffing these travellers marched up Chembra Peak (near) Wayanad Nature Reserve. I don't think the photos truly picked up the tomato-red hue of my face at the top. We were a little bit nervous when setting out from our hotel as the jeep and auto-rick drivers were still on strike (Kerala has been a Communist state on and off for 50 years). Fortunately, there's always someone around doing the sneaky thing and one driver was very happy to drive us to the bottom of the Peak for an inflated price. That took about 15km off our walk.

Eventually we got there and were rewarded with above the cloudline views of the area made up of tea plantations and Wayanad Reserve. We were joined by Noame and Selena, two Swiss girls who are journeying through India, NZ and Australia in their first gap year out of high school. We've given advice on what to do in Oz and hopefully we'll see them in Sydney in a few months.

A LOOOOONG JOURNEY

The next 48 hours were all journeying. From Kalpetta to Mysore by the bumpy local bus - we saw wild elephants next to the road and they gave us a toot. From Mysore to Bangalore also by bus. Then a suspenseful 8 hour stopover in Bangalore trying to get train tickets. We then got ripped off by a travel agent having paid for 4 sleeper berths to Hampi, and instead getting 2 sleeper berths. Anyone who has travelled the trains in India will know how narrow those berths are. Chez and I tried to get positioned top-to-tail and did not sleep a wink for the 10 hour trip. We had some very understanding Indian men in our section who gave us advice on how to bribe the conductor to get more berths (unfortunately the train was full) and put up with us when we started giggling hysterically at the ridiculous positions we were suddenly in - all four of us balance on the top two bunks of a 3 level sleeper.

Then....Hampi!