After a brief stopover in Mumbai where we practised our traffic-dodging skills & made it clear to IDEX that we would not be prepared to spend the next month in separate bedrooms (Howard with the boys & Fiona with the girls!), we set off south for Lonavala/Lonavla in the Sahyadri Hills about 100 kms away. This was our base for a 3 day trek through the awe-inspiring Western Ghats (setting for many a Bollywood spectacular we're told) & for our 2nd Ashram experience.
From a trekking point of view it wasn't the gruelling experience that Fiona had been psyching herself up for but i was hard going, nevertheless, in the baking heat, particularly when faced with 100s of steps up to a hilltop fort. Every effort was rewarded thought with fantastic views & amazing sites.
Our 1st night was spent camped out on an island in an enormous lake where we were able to swim in fresh cool water & where some of the younger members of the group burnt their fresh-from-the-UK/Holland, whiter-shade-of-pale skins to a pulsating tone of crimson. Some of the group were able to experience their 1st dose of Indian tummy fun. Our 2nd night found us in the magnificent setting of the aforementioned hill fort amongst the ruins of centuries of military might. We could see for miles over the countryside - but also had a bird's-eye view of an Indian village in all its tawdriness. As always in this country the contrasts are tangible.
There was a lot of sitting about not knowing what was happening next during the 3 days, something we should be getting used to by now in India but struggle with accepting. The variation on this occasion was that we were left for several hours each night in the pitch black wondering where & when dinner would be served. they were certainly occasions that we'll remember! What could be more memorable than sitting in a howling wind on the flat top of a hill in the middle of India, surrounded by ruins, wrapped up in our sleeping bags, looking up at the stars while around us a bunch of 19 & 20 year olds giggled & chattered & our guides were nowhere to be seen? The dinners were certainly welcomed when they finally made their appearances.
Other bizarre moments:
a safety talk (in the pitch dark too!) which left everybody scared shitless, delivered by a medical student just before he left the expedition to its own devices - he felt that we should know how to deal with snake bites & how to get down a mountain with a broken leg - nothing to worry about though;
being told that there were ten 3-man tents for 14 of us, but then the 2 of us were squeezed into an ancient 1-man tent, where we couldn't turn over or sit up - apparently the tent had been pitched on Mount Everest in the past & our expedition leader thought it would be a romantic experience for us to sleep in it! Romantic wasn't the word that sprang to our minds but certainly a talking point...
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