Only Me

Well arrival at Abu Road was at 8:30pm and was at this point headed out to find the bus to take us up the mountain. Walked about half a mile and saw a group of people wating and they confirmed awating bus too. No bus turned up but a jeep did which appeared to be the local taxi for Abu (jeeps in general that is not this sole one) no rickshaws here due to the steep climbs. Anyway it was a free for all to try and get in this thing and majority of us did although their were some casualties who failed to secure a space (oh well better luck next time suckers). I say that like I had the better end of the deal by being in the jeep however a jeep with space for 7 at a squeeze with 11 of us packed into may have resulted in the remaining passengers at the foot of the hill saying this!!! The ascent up the hill did take about 45 mins up winding roads with some rather precurious driving. I have to say I was feeling a little tom and d*** on way up but I put this down to my Malaria tablets rather then the travel sickness!! Soon forgot about this as the jeep slammed on his brakes and swerved, and there running across the road was a huge bear, and this was no boo boo bear, this thing was a giant. It was at this point that I thought to say to the driver 'Forget the sickness and windy roads sunshine lets get this jeep moving its an open back jeep my friend andyour not the one in the back'!! Anyway not required as the madness of the drive continued.

Being at top of a moutain I did not quite anticipate how cold the nights would get, and at one point in night I considered weeing in the bed, one because it was too cold to remove myself from the bed and two because I knew that wee would be warm, well come on i'm dirty anyway!! Warmth and shower all in one, two birds one stone come to mind. Eventually went back to sleep and just busted my gut until mornng when had to get up anyway.

Went for a trek this morning walking through the wilderness with our tour guide Chimpak. Now this guy is like the Indian Ray Mears, no word of a lie. He was telling us all about the local plants and fruits etc and had us eating some kind of berry which a local picked out of a tree for us and apparently is good for digestion (its an unwashed wild fruit in India I thought to myself is that any wonder it will make you s***!!). Anyway absolute legend this fella was and he had some very amusing stories aobut encounters he had with bears. Really enjoyed the four hour walk and the peace and fantastic hill views of mountains and fresh open green space was a real contrast to the desert and crazy bustle we had arrived from. Oh yeah by the way berry resulted in an afternoon visit or two to the squat pit, nice one Mears you chump, why not just give me a packet of laxo next time and tell me 'yes eat good for digestion!!'

Took Chimpak's card which stated he also did caving and rock climbing, which was tempting me into sticking around for a while to undertake, however the following morning when I asked Local Ray himself about these activities he stated yes one walk involved a walpk through a small cave and a nother over some rocks........ Ok technically I guess his card is correct just not the way I interpreted it! To be fair though this guy does two four hour walks a day and has done this as job all his life (guided tours) and he does a differant route everyday, he has not once taken the same route he was proud to announce. Sounds like a bit of a result of a job to me, walking through that type of scenary everyday cannot get boring!! Fair Play Ray good on yer.

Early night that night as was very tired from walking and was too bloody cold to be hanging about outside!! Bus booked for following morning to Udaipur, no trains from out here go there, so lets see what the old bus experience will be like!

Bonjour for Now.