We were on our way back to civilisation; indeed we were even due to end the day in a small town. Before the town though, came lots of small settlements; we were still in lovely countryside but we were passing schools, smallholdings, houses and even a tea shop ...
... we stopped for delicious ginger tea which was served in these beautifully patterned and colourful mugs with their own lids. Roasted sweet corn was passed round for us to nibble on - very scrummy and a lot healthier than our usual snack of crisps or chocolate.
We knew the tea was fresh and local when we turned round and saw tea drying in the sun ...
... it was very grey and made me think of Earl Grey, it was hard to imagine that this might have been the ginger flavoured tea we were drinking as it didn't look gingery.
Just before lunch we did our final downhill and forded a river, as the bridge over it was apparently unsafe. We were now down at the bottom of the valley even though we were still quite high (2,286m) by British standards.
Our final 2.5 miles was along road - part dirt track and part tarmaced. It was strange to have to get out the way of an occasional car. It was an easy, mostly flat walk with lots of interesting things to see along the way. There was this lovely clump of bamboo, which was a lot more colourful in reality than it looks ...
... there were also colourful roadside shrines and temples.
All too soon we reached the small town / large village of Rimbik. We'd been told we would be staying at a basic lodge where we would be sharing 2 showers. As this would be our first shower for nearly a week, we were planning a rota with strict time allocations. As we arrived we were pleasantly surprised by how nice the lodge looked and how beautiful the gardens. The best surprise, however, came when Dilip told us that most of us would be getting private verandah rooms with, wait for it, an ensuite bathroom.
We got one and it was lovely - front door as below ...
... we sat outside, as you can see, relaxing and enjoying the gardens, so as to let our minders shower first; bears are generous like that.
The real icing on the cake though, was to learn that our rival trekking group (the hooray Henrys introduced in our Camp Wars post) were also staying at the lodge and they had not got ensuite rooms so were having to queue for a shower. This really was one up to Dilip and Exodus and we couldn't help but secretly chuckle and count our blessings.
The men in our party went off for a shave and head massage at the local barbers, then it was time for our farewell meal with our trekking crew. We had an interesting venue for this - find out where, next time.
Love George, Yorkie and Gio xxx
