Lohaghat to Nepal March 9th to 15th

I have found some time to do some writing which is rather lovely - only problem is I am feeling dreadful..

Poorly feeling

We climbed up a nearby hill to get to a viewing point of the Annapurna Range and at the top I started to feel off my food and nauseous which is most unusual and has caused quite a bit of concern amongst my companions. Aching and forlorn, I was thrown into a car, leaving the intrepid Susie and Clare to find a longer less direct route which was eventful in itself as you will later discover, back to Pokara Lakeside where we are staying. Lying in bed and catching up on our stories is so much easier than lying in a bed up on the hill feeling hot and bothered......


We have spent an idyllic time in Lohaghat and Khuna with Saket and Susie and have moved on via jeep and small car across the Nepali border to our present resting spot on the lakeside at Pokara. Susie is with us but Saket stayed home for a couple more weeks to get the work at their cottage more underway. We saw such a huge change since our last visit in early january. The sun had warmed the earth, the pinks and creams of peach and apple blossom were out and the fields were looking green and lush. Oh and of course the blood red of the rhododendrons and the yellow of the daffodils that grow wild along the frostiest of paths. Compared to home we thought spring had already happened in early january, but this is real spring and has transformed the hillside landscape. And what will it look like here in two or three springs' time when the recently planted fruit and almond trees have been planted..!

Wild nature came calling in a more exciting incarnation one morning too. We were woken rudely early to a piercing screech in the ancient oak trees behind the cottage. The scream was a cross between that of an angry boar and a badly injured cat. A month earlier on hearing the same sound continuously for over an hour, jungle meister Saket had taken his loaded shot gun to investigate and had discovered a lone Langur monkey. Near to the tree in which the Langur was sitting some leopard spoor had been spotted by young Shashwat a couple of days earlier.  The Langur was warning the jungle of the leopards approach. These are calls to set the nerves on edge.

Sadly there are no tigers left in this jungle but thanks to the legendary Jim Corbett, who lived and worked as a man eating tiger hunter, and later conservationist, in this very area - The Chapawat District of Uttarkhand - in the early part of last century - there is a large area of the himalayan foot hills further West by only 150Km where Tigers are protected and very much present as Clare and I witnessed on a recent visit to the Jim Corbett National Park.

Blossom out on the terraces

Now, in mid march, the days are hot and make work on the fields far too unhealthy after about 11.30am, the nights, too warm for quilts. In january we had frozen stiff the moment the warming sun dropped below the jungle covered mountains around us at 6pm. Now we welcomed the descending sun for the cool air and shade which meant digging, weeding, painting, sweeping, watering could recommence! Sounds like we were worked hard but we did two days! Saket and Susie had dug 5 fields of land on the terraces by hand,  weeded and prepared for planting with turmeric. They both seemed to be enjoying the work that's for sure and we were very happy to join in. Shadow seemed sure that we were simply digging to supplement his diet with monstrously outsized mealy grubs. That was his contribution to the weeding and cleaning process. One afternoon Clare and I were set for our afternoon snooze when a storm cloud appeared on the horizon and Susie went into overdrive - setting us up with three coriander beds to dig and a drystone wall to build before the rain set in! Two heavy earth lifting chest building hours later we had completed the task. Then a call across the valley to the caretakers' house brought a basket full of well composted and wormy cow dung to spread over the fresh earth. They have a dung mound the size of Annapurna on tap outside their cowshed, under the house. (The cowsheds by the way are always under the main rooms of the house in order to provide extra warmth through the winter months). Anyway eventually exhausted but proud we had hot masala chai to recover from our duties.

New coriander beds!

Stone walling and new coriander bed by Clare Hein - imported stone waller from Somerset England - very cheap

They have planted cactus ALL around the boundary of their growing land, once large and spiky they will be a defence system to keep people and animals from getting in and meddling with the lush produce. Already wild boar and stag pug marks along the fence are evident making it clear that they have attempted to get in. The small plants were very spiky and within a year should be very big as long as they get enough water. SO that was our first job - we had to water ALL the plants by hand with 2l of water each plant in the early morning or late evening. The land we were watering was terraced, each terrace 5 ft above or below the next and we had no hose pipe, the water source being at the top of the hill. ( A very recent and new resource - when I visited last time there was a bucket of water delivered first thing every morning by the neighbours along with the milk for that first Chai!) We carried buckets - it took three hours of relentless effort. What a joy it was to finally meet Saket who had been watering from the other direction! We wondered why these two hadn't  invested in a hose pipe? - of course they had one but it had been left at the town house, the watering needed to be done and they enjoy the physical work so there we go!

Isn't it beautiful?

 It seems that Susie and Saket have really got into the idea of spending more time at the cottage and are in the process of finding someone new to live in their outhouse or the cottage whilst they go on their necessary travels every year too. A good solution for all round happiness. The Khuna cottage is the most lovely place, in the jungle, surrounded by hills, birds, trees, wild animals and peace. In the winter (Jan and Feb) it is cold in the mornings and evenings but march, april its heavenly - june, july, august its monsoon and leach infested everywhere off the tracks ( a problem all over the north at this time I am told, beware) - good time to travel!

Shadowski! So cute and getting bigger by the day, not surprising given his penchant for  giant mealy grubs  in the freshly dug fields..

Vidushi and Shashwat

Taken by the dog - very clever

We said our sad goodbyes to Mummy in Loharghat and the children Shashwat and Vedushi - much fun with these two! They both speak English - age 10 and 8 - and taught us some Hindi - in hysterics at Clares' pronunciation most of the time. And to Nishant, Sakets brother. Then we set off by jeep in the direction of Tanakpur of the Nepal border. It took a few hours to get here, along rough mountainous road and through forest. The border took a bit of manouvering as we had a huge pull along bag, mostly full of other bags and STUFF - awaiting the promise of shopping opportunities in Nepal. The exchange rate makes thing in Nepal half the price of things in India - which is almost heartbreaking but also quite exciting to me in my materialist moments - think presents for the next three years! So large bag, Clares ruck sack ( very small) and Susies ENORMOUS ruck sack for 5 months away all needed to be woman handled from India over border bridge and various bureaucratic paperwork filling out spots.

Ridiculous bag full of stuff paid for it all in sweat and blood - hauling it over the border on rocky roads. 

 I ended up helping to push a ricksha with my bag on it over rough track to the final paperwork filling point. From here I think we fell into the car hire spot but I was too traumatised to remember really. I know we ended up in a car driving to Pokara. (We could have flown to Pokara or taken a bus but decided on a car as a compromise- it was a third of the price of a flight and Clare and I didn't want to fly anyway if we could find another way). We expected this journey to last 10 hours - in the end it took 18 hours. We expected to stop for the night at 10pm in the end we didn't stop for longer than an hour and this was at 2am in a mosquito infested high street with the car owner phoning every 20minutes to make sure the driver got no sleep at all. It was a bad experience really.

Well this is our car. Lovely.

Heading onwards with a driver we had to prod now and again to check he was still alive - we had the surreal experience of seeing a huge tiger on the road side too. The driver showed no reaction whatsoever to this which made it all the more surreal. Susie had just been attempting predictive text, obviously for the first time, and was reacting similarly to my 80 year old mother! She also looked a little disinterested in the sighting but later said it just didn't sink in and as the image settled from retina to brain she showed more bewilderment and astonishment! Clare and I said almost simultaneously "Its a tiger!" (being experienced tiger spotters now we new for sure this was no illusion). The tiger meanwhile turned to look at the car having been apparently minding its own business, disturbed only by the passing head lights. Our eyes met as we sped past! Lucky I hadn't asked the driver to stop for us to have a pee. This had been discussed only minutes before. Its so much easier in the bush, We have changed our minds about this now!
A reminder that this is wild country, that anything can happen and to respect the forest. Nearby people sat by the road side passing the early evening together, soldiers sat alone at regular check points along the long forest roads and tigers roam around.
Our driver was very good at hiding his reactions, he spoke little Hindi so communication was tricky but we gathered that this could be his first drive to Pokara. He showed no reaction to our first sighting of the Annapurna range either - an awesome sight and for us breathtaking!  Maybe he sees loads of tigers and awesome mountains.

That is one of the peaks in the Annapurna range - not Annapurna but Fish Tail( Machapuchare) - the Nepali Matterhorn, just 4000M higher than Matterhorn.

Clare has been bitten by a dog! Horror - not a good place for this to happen, on a mountain side in dusty Nepal. I had been sick and had taken a taxi back to our hotel earlier that day leaving Susie and Clare to walk down from our Annapurna viewing site at Sarangkot. We had clambered up to this high point from Pokara the morning before, myself with a dodgy knee and knee supports, Clare with her stick and Susie like a mountain goat - quite a mixed bag! We had made it up the 2000m climb and were feeling pleased with ourselves, we had seen the spectacular views, be it a little cloudy as the sun set, which meant we didn't get the full effect of this band of 8000m rock massif right in front of us but we saw at least three or four peaks majestically poking through the clouds 4 miles above us! We were knocked back by the unexpected beauty of the mountains, we knew they were big, we knew they would be spectacular but sitting in front of them has a profound effect on the soul!
Maybe its the wildness or their visibility then disappearance behind cloud, the sudden emergence again - its as if we think we see the world as it is but then suddenly we are reminded that we see a very small part of reality. It could be the ephemeral light, the pink, blue and orange translucent shimmering light of the setting or rising sun shining on these mountain peaks above the cloud line. The sun itself is hidden from us by the clouds but not from these peaks, they collect the light from above the cloud and reflect it back to us, for many minutes after sun down, to the piece of earth we stand on.

ouch! See those teeth marks. 

As for the dog bite! Clare is Ok - she went straight to hospital and started anti rabies vaccinations and antibiotics. Her leg has been sore and the bite seems quite small, but she said she felt the teeth on her bone! The wound is behind her knee joint and bandaged well. She had an uncomfortable night as you would expect and is being far too stoical about it all.  She has another 4 vaccinations to have to complete the course so will be continuing at home.  Its unlikely that this dog had rabies, apparently it didn't like foreigners and has bitten them in the past - a good sign as it means it's not mad with rabies but mad with something else probably- this is the only course of action in a country where Rabies is endemic. The antibiotics are also a good idea to prevent a wound infection. She had a good hospital experience, reporting clean needles, very well spoken Indian doctor, well used to dealing with such occurrences. Very clean and efficient all round (God knows how they manage that).

Any other developments I shall report asap -  Its quite traumatic being bitten by a weirdo dog let alone in a strange place, so I think her experience of it all will leak out slowly over the next few days.....

Taj Mahal Agra India

Taj Mahal Agra India.... Ben has set up a competition for Holiday Velvet, where he is working some months of his gap year in Barcelona. To enter you have to submit a touristy photo, with location attached. So I spent the early morning at the taj mahal trying to take some funny photos with Clare performing any act I suggested to try and get our award winning photo. It was fun doing and I am hoping for bias on the part of the judge to pull us through and win us a luxury stay in Barcelona! We couldn't have been in a more touristy venue thats for sure.

Taj at sun rise

 The Taj itself is so beautiful, simply soft and mesmeric as the rising suns rays touch the white marble dome - but the mad rush to photograph the spectacle is quite scary. Its hard to remember to just look and absorb, keep the camera in the bag, just be here and take it all in. This mausoleum is a tomb built out of grief and love for a dead woman - that in itself is extraordinary - are there any other such mausoleums anywhere in the world? Inside this huge place is one small woman. Reflecting on this and the emotion behind such a deep and determined grief - I notice an awkwardness in myself, maybe an unfamiliarity with such deep love? If money was no object would I do the same for my loved ones, what was the deal for Shah Jahan? I have suffered grief of very dear dear close and adored ones but the Taj is something else..... (I have considered that my awkwardness may be connected to the other wives of Shah Jahan, and the fact that he married yet again soon after Mumfaz' death, or that many people died building the mausoleum (no evidence for this one according to wikipedia) - but I have put these factors aside as distractions, in spite of all these things it was for love that this crown of palaces was built).

Everyone around me was running to capture the sun rise on the Taj! The queues were agitated as sun rise approached, pushy europeans angled for the oblivious India ticket collectors to hurry along - cameras were primed in the queue. Then once past the queues THE POSING! Myself and my friends at the Taj, My friends and me holding the Taj up by its tip,

Clare is in there trying to get in on a group shot! - stood on a bench for some height, obviously.

That guy on the left is holding the Taj by the tip - common pose here - ha ha!

The wild life here on our roof top restaurant overlooking the magnificient Taj is prolific which is a joy! We have monkeys Jumping, SLAM! onto nearby corrugated rooves, red raw bottoms shining like fresh cut tomatoes as they scamper around looking for rich pickings. Then there are the tiny Indian three striped squirrels whose tails contract upwards as they chirrup their shrill bird-like calls. There are hundreds of these around on trees, walls, roof tops. In the air - flocks of pigeons - aahh the pigeons are back - how lovely. People train their birds in the mornings and evenings - here and in Delhi I have seen it. Lauren got such a lovely picture of the birds with their trainer from a roof top in Delhi on our last trip -I have the picture on my desk at home - so beautifully captured.

There are pigeon towers here too I notice, brick towers with little square holes in to house the birds. You can hear the trainers calling instructions as the birds swoop and circle above us. There are kites (the birds too) in the sky in the evenings here too, ducking and diving around on strings tightly controlled by children on the same rooftops, cutting through the air, circling and swirling in the lively wind. Lots of Eagles and Kites too - I suppose picking up the debris all around us. Sewage channels on the sides of every road here, its gross and stinks. The hideousness right out here amongst us all as we walk, chat, laugh and banter - part of the life - not hidden and very distressing - the roads stink.

My favorite happening at the Taj was watching a group of beautiful men. As we walked up onto the high marble surround to the mausoleum entrance this group of men strode past us.

I walked in amongst them as they entered the tomb, they carried nothing with them but their entrance tickets, they didn't stop to look at the tomb, they simply entered - walked at quite a pace around the circular inner chamber containing the stone tomb and walked straight out again. They regrouped outside the main entrance then met up with some women folk in bright saris and then I lost them....

It was the way they were all wearing the most superbly pastel coloured fine cotton dohtis, some yellow, some very light pink and shades of white. Against their fine strong legs and bare brown feet it was wonderful. They were all ages, all upright, powerful looking and elegant, there heads were wrapped in equally gorgeous fine cotton cloth or various shades too. Maybe it was the first morning light that made the scene captivating. I imagined at first that they had come from the Hindu Kush - because it made them seem slightly dangerous too - but after a while I realised it was Rajastani cotton cloth they were wearing, so more likely from nearer to home - Rajastan being not far off.

 We sat on a wall for a moment to catch our breath as we walked out of the main Taj site and some Rajastani women came straight up to us, one sat really close and talked with me in Hindi. I knew exactly what she was saying to me, although I speak no Hindi! We chatted warmly and just sat close almost cuddled up. We were interested in each other, wanted to hang out and see what it was like to be with each other and it was lovely! Worlds apart but one as well.

Women friends

Only difference is the metal object hanging from my wrist really?

Thekkady and looking for Elephants

On to Thekkady in the Western Ghats 

- the mountains between Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Searching for cooler air and wild elephants.

Just before we left Varkala it rained - The road became a river for a short while

There in the top middle a snake! Huge!
Not an elephant but a big snake at least

A turtle at least - on a periyar stump

waterfall - given up on elephants

Water fall, different angle. on the Periyar river.

Clare decided eventually that there was no way she was going to see a wild elephant here in Periyar. We had a national strike against us which meant that all public transport came to a halt and all public servants were off work for 2 of the days we were at the park. We had taken a taxi from Varkala up to the park and the driver had warned us that he would not be able to return to Varkala for at least 2 days and that we would have to walk everywhere. He and all ricksha drivers, taxi drivers, ticket office workers were really on edge about the strike and seemed terrified of being attacked by militants enforcing the strike. Our taxi driver - Samu - was not happy at all when we arrived at the hotel we had booked to find it had no secure parking - in fact he insisted we moved to a hotel with gates that locked to protect his bosses car. We did, for him - this hotel had good driver facilities too - beds, showers, food - so worked out well for him and therefore us! Driver power...

So we had to walk into the park, no jeeps were running - it was rather lovely but meant we couldn't really get far enough in to see much wildlife. I was happy looking at the trees - these have become an bit of an obsession for me and was wildly excited to find all trees in one very long avenue labelled with latin name, Hindi name, and a short story about all of them! I think I have learnt some of them. I can look at the road side trees now and occassionally I recognise one or two. The diversity of trees in the South is huge with the Western Ghats having as many as 200 species per hectare. I hope to be seeing my rather gorgeous contact at Kew Gardens in London - soon to see if there are any courses on offer!

an example!

Indian Coral Tree

I'm afraid I lost my mates at this point, they strode on ahead looking for elephants, as I took photos of the trees.

We eventually took a boat ride into the strangely spooky lake, remnants of a by-gone forest stick out of the water, stumps now used as bird pirches. Periyar lake was an engineering project of the British Raj. It was completed at the end of the 1895 and diverted some water from the Periyar river to drought prone Tamil Nadu. It was an amazing project fraught with difficulties, not least the wilderness, ferocious tigers and marauding elephants. The mountains were dug out and huge pipes used to carry the river water to the edge of the high peaks and then steeply down onto the Tamil Plain. We saw these pipes on our journey down the steep cliff road to the plane in a bus - there are four, still huge and impressive.

Periyar river on the far side of the dam. It heads downhill steeply from here. Lovely waterfalls on route.  When the dam is opened the river is quite dangerous we were told - and the timings of this unpredictable. I wandered off looking at trees again and was shouted at to stay close by our guide - fat lot of good he would have been if a head of water was heading towards us.

I am told that the hole for these pipe was dug from two side of the mountains and on the first dig they failed to meet at the join! I can imagine the feeling - new funds had to be found but the engineer was determined and the dam completed. Today there are problems between Kerala and Tamil Nadu over control and safety of the dam, and the validity and fairness of the lease arrangement continue to be point of conflict between the two states.

Indian Darter on a stump.

Happy tourists on the boat in Periyar lake

The following day we hired bikes and that was fun - we made sure Clare had brakes this time. We haired off to some spice plantations - the roads were empty of richshas, taxis, cars and buses. Only the cows, buffalo, dogs, bikes, stall carts and people to contend with. And of course we bought spices which we have all sent home to delight our friends and family. The fresh aromas were quite yummy, pepper, cardamon, cinnamon, vanilla pods, nutmeg and some local tea and coffee.

Amber and Bo checking out the coffee drying on the roof 

Bo checking out the serial acrobatic potential of a bamboo ladder