Well the project has started in earnest and the group are happily painting the walls of the local school, inside and out. In fact they're doing such a great job of tarting the place up that the headteacher of the primary school popped down to visit last night and asked if we'd come and decorate his school as well. It's good to feel in demand!
If you haven't received a text from your son/daughter/friend/cousin/penpal on the trek, it's not because they've become so immersed into the Indian culture that they've forgotten how, but because we're completely out of phone network signally range thing and will be so until at least a week Tuesday. Everyone sends their love though and say they're having an amazing time - yay!
Will post photos of project soon. xx
Friday, 31 July 2009
Wednesday, 29 July 2009
Morning Trek followers, Walford here. Just back from our first trek, a quick post before we leave by jeep for our project in Kibber.
Before some details a quick word about the mountains we have just trekked through. They are massive; jaw-droppingly, hair-curlingly, spine-tinglingly huge. Big. Enormous. You know when you look out at the night sky and see all the stars and wonder at the insignificance of it all? Well, the Himalayas do that without you having to crane your neck. They are both inspiring and terrible.
Some details; Day 1, Manali to Panduropa, 700 vertical metres took us 6 hours through apple orchards and cedar forests, lovely. The last hour was spoiled by walking past the scar of a massive HEP project though. We reached camp where a mess tent, cook tent and pit latrine tents had already been set up by the team of porters. Panchu the chef (and bona fide legend) greeted us with pakora, we pitched our tents, did some yoga then tucked into a three, yes three, course meal......5-star camping indeed!
Day 2 dawned bright and suny, too sunny for some as it turned out as we trekked up to 3500m through glorious mountain scenery and the thinning atmosphere. This was tough going for many, especially above 3000m and a tricky river crossing, but after 7 hours we pitched camp (I won't bore you with the meal details but more of the same basically).
Day 3; climbing the Hampta Pass at 4200m then dropping down to Shea Gatru camp at 3800m. A stern examination of character for all. Late snow on the Hampta Pass means nothing to you but to us it meant climbing an ice gully in freezing fog at 4000m followed by a descent via another ice gully overlooking a healthy drop on the other side of Hampta. After 8 hrs we did it, we may have been breathless, aching and headachy (and a bit jealous of the porters as they skipped past in their flip-flops) but we made it into another stunning valley at the foot of a glacier.
Day 4, a swift descent to 3200m in increasing rain which rather obscured the view down the valley to the main valley separating two Himalayan ranges. Chips for lunch cheered us up as we pitched camp in the rain.
You've noticed that I've not mentioned anyone by name, that's because I can't. All of them have had to dig deep into reserves of fortitude, courage and humour which I suspect they never realised they had. They are not the same trekkers that left CVS on 20th July.
I will however mention the leader of the trek, Steve Ford. Steve is indomitable, standing bare-legged in a river of glacial melt-water for 45 minutes during the river crossing on Day2, making steps to traverse an ice-gully above a raging torrent or being totally sensitive to the health and well-being of each trekker individually, be reassured, your children are in very safe hands.
So, off to Kibber for the project. Not sure about the contact availability there so don't worry if there's no further posts for a while, we'll be off having a good time.
On the right (I don't seem to be able to get it over to the left!) Buying provisions for the trek in Manali General Store for the next 18 days (treks and Kibber)
Day one, up from Manali. Lovely forests and alpine scenery.
First night camp site, pit latrine tent (squatting only!) out of sight and smell! Oh the joys.
My, those mountains look big. climbing to 3500m on Day 2. it looks like we're going down but we went up as well, lots.
Day 2 camp. The mess tent where we have our meals is the bigger olive green one. White fluffy things are clouds.
Late snow on the Hampta Pass indeed! A cheery group due to appropriate clothing purchases in UK. The porters plus mules skipped up this in t-shirts, shorts and flip-flops (nearly!)
Taken on my Canon SureShot, this doesn't do the majesty of the scenery justice but I hope you get the idea.
Next stop Kibber.
See you soon.
Before some details a quick word about the mountains we have just trekked through. They are massive; jaw-droppingly, hair-curlingly, spine-tinglingly huge. Big. Enormous. You know when you look out at the night sky and see all the stars and wonder at the insignificance of it all? Well, the Himalayas do that without you having to crane your neck. They are both inspiring and terrible.
Some details; Day 1, Manali to Panduropa, 700 vertical metres took us 6 hours through apple orchards and cedar forests, lovely. The last hour was spoiled by walking past the scar of a massive HEP project though. We reached camp where a mess tent, cook tent and pit latrine tents had already been set up by the team of porters. Panchu the chef (and bona fide legend) greeted us with pakora, we pitched our tents, did some yoga then tucked into a three, yes three, course meal......5-star camping indeed!
Day 2 dawned bright and suny, too sunny for some as it turned out as we trekked up to 3500m through glorious mountain scenery and the thinning atmosphere. This was tough going for many, especially above 3000m and a tricky river crossing, but after 7 hours we pitched camp (I won't bore you with the meal details but more of the same basically).
Day 3; climbing the Hampta Pass at 4200m then dropping down to Shea Gatru camp at 3800m. A stern examination of character for all. Late snow on the Hampta Pass means nothing to you but to us it meant climbing an ice gully in freezing fog at 4000m followed by a descent via another ice gully overlooking a healthy drop on the other side of Hampta. After 8 hrs we did it, we may have been breathless, aching and headachy (and a bit jealous of the porters as they skipped past in their flip-flops) but we made it into another stunning valley at the foot of a glacier.
Day 4, a swift descent to 3200m in increasing rain which rather obscured the view down the valley to the main valley separating two Himalayan ranges. Chips for lunch cheered us up as we pitched camp in the rain.
You've noticed that I've not mentioned anyone by name, that's because I can't. All of them have had to dig deep into reserves of fortitude, courage and humour which I suspect they never realised they had. They are not the same trekkers that left CVS on 20th July.
I will however mention the leader of the trek, Steve Ford. Steve is indomitable, standing bare-legged in a river of glacial melt-water for 45 minutes during the river crossing on Day2, making steps to traverse an ice-gully above a raging torrent or being totally sensitive to the health and well-being of each trekker individually, be reassured, your children are in very safe hands.
So, off to Kibber for the project. Not sure about the contact availability there so don't worry if there's no further posts for a while, we'll be off having a good time.
On the right (I don't seem to be able to get it over to the left!) Buying provisions for the trek in Manali General Store for the next 18 days (treks and Kibber)Day one, up from Manali. Lovely forests and alpine scenery.First night camp site, pit latrine tent (squatting only!) out of sight and smell! Oh the joys.
My, those mountains look big. climbing to 3500m on Day 2. it looks like we're going down but we went up as well, lots.Day 2 camp. The mess tent where we have our meals is the bigger olive green one. White fluffy things are clouds.Late snow on the Hampta Pass indeed! A cheery group due to appropriate clothing purchases in UK. The porters plus mules skipped up this in t-shirts, shorts and flip-flops (nearly!)Taken on my Canon SureShot, this doesn't do the majesty of the scenery justice but I hope you get the idea.Next stop Kibber.See you soon.
Thursday, 23 July 2009
where we are!
If you want the equivalent of the tracker location, look here:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=manali&ie=UTF8&ll=32.243223,77.191658&spn=0.034918,0.055189&t=h&z=14
That's where we are!
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=manali&ie=UTF8&ll=32.243223,77.191658&spn=0.034918,0.055189&t=h&z=14
That's where we are!
TRACKER ISSUES!
You may have noticed that our tracker isn't actually tracking us at the moment. The link will tell you that we're in Midhurst. We've never even been to Midhurst! and I've posted a few pics this morning to prove that we are in fact in INDIA! We turned the tracker on in Delhi, but the signal didn't seem to be picked up. Figured that was due to the buildings getting in the way of the satellites, but now we're in Manali and it still doesn't seem to want to be tracked. We have turned it off and on again and recharged it, so it should get going now we're in the open.
Please be assured that the emergency signal on it DOES work. It operates on a different system and sends a much stronger more urgent signal than the day to day one, so even if we can't be tracked on a daily basis, should we need to make urgent contact we will be able to do so.
Don't worry - we're all safe and sound and having a wonderful time - the group have really thrown themselves into life here and are getting involved with bartering and haggling, scoffing loads of lovely Indian food and even getting tailor made clothes - awesome!
Please be assured that the emergency signal on it DOES work. It operates on a different system and sends a much stronger more urgent signal than the day to day one, so even if we can't be tracked on a daily basis, should we need to make urgent contact we will be able to do so.
Don't worry - we're all safe and sound and having a wonderful time - the group have really thrown themselves into life here and are getting involved with bartering and haggling, scoffing loads of lovely Indian food and even getting tailor made clothes - awesome!
Namaste!
So, 24 of the past 72 hours have been spent curled into uncomfortable little people balls on various forms of transport into and around India. Our legs are already aching and we haven't even started trekking yet!
Despite Nathan's foiled attempts at hostage taking on the plane, his machete was removed from his backpack and we managed to all arrive in Delhi on Tuesday am...you're right, we didn't need our thermal sleeping bags, or any other sort of sleeping bag for that matter...it was HOT!
Went sightseeing in the madness of Old Delhi yesterday, where Tilda lost her moneybelt but recovered it when a really nice man chased after us to return it. Mooched around the Old Fort, got dressed up as telly-tubbies at the Jama Masjid (photos to follow...when we can find a USB port), and managed to avoid being run over by autorickshaws.
Journey up to Manali was a long one, but Sips and Mandy entertained the entire coach with their angelic singing, gratefully received by all at 2am...?!*@! Nearly lost Big Steve, Monty and Bean when they tried to get on the wrong coach at the services, but again, we're all here and safe now!
Thanks for all your comments so far...hope the tracker is working now we're in the open space xxx
Despite Nathan's foiled attempts at hostage taking on the plane, his machete was removed from his backpack and we managed to all arrive in Delhi on Tuesday am...you're right, we didn't need our thermal sleeping bags, or any other sort of sleeping bag for that matter...it was HOT!
Went sightseeing in the madness of Old Delhi yesterday, where Tilda lost her moneybelt but recovered it when a really nice man chased after us to return it. Mooched around the Old Fort, got dressed up as telly-tubbies at the Jama Masjid (photos to follow...when we can find a USB port), and managed to avoid being run over by autorickshaws.
Journey up to Manali was a long one, but Sips and Mandy entertained the entire coach with their angelic singing, gratefully received by all at 2am...?!*@! Nearly lost Big Steve, Monty and Bean when they tried to get on the wrong coach at the services, but again, we're all here and safe now!
Thanks for all your comments so far...hope the tracker is working now we're in the open space xxx
Monday, 20 July 2009
Thursday, 16 July 2009
somebody else's blog
Thought you might like to check out the Midhurst India blog...http://midhurstindia1.wordpress.com/ ... they've got some pictures of Manali on there as well as a few words about their trek so far.
Only four more sleeps!
Only four more sleeps!
Wednesday, 15 July 2009
tracker link
Below is the link to the tracker that we'll use to show where we are. It shows Midhurst at the mo cos that's where it was last switched on! It's currently in the D of E cupboard at Chew. We'll switch it on when we get to Delhi.
http://live.adventuretracking.com/chewvalley
Woohoo!!
http://live.adventuretracking.com/chewvalley
Woohoo!!
testing the blog.....
Had to get Powell to show me how to use it! Bah!
Just read a blog by another True Adventure group in Delhi at the moment......beware the ear scraper!!
Looking forward to Monday but a bit nervous as well.
Walf
Just read a blog by another True Adventure group in Delhi at the moment......beware the ear scraper!!
Looking forward to Monday but a bit nervous as well.
Walf
No valley too deep...
Five days left in the lovely, safe, cosy Chew Valley before we head off to the wilds of India...we've raised our funds, had our jabs and packed all the kit from the list into our packs. Are we ready?!
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