Camp Wars

So, when we left you last time, we were just about to arrive at our campsite, not far from that lovely lake adorned with prayer flags. We passed a friendly yak on the way ...

We couldn't see the lake from our tents but it was a lovely spot nonetheless. The official camping ground was the far side of the dirt track in the middle of our first picture ...

.... but we were't there. Yes, you can see tents, but they weren't ours. We had been beaten to the camping ground by another trekking group and while there could have been room for us all, if they had pitched their camp sensibly, and thoughtfully, they didn't, and placed their dining tent in the middle of our half, effectively shutting our group out.

Our crew decided that these were people we didn't want to squish in with, so set up our camp on the grazing slopes the other side of the track. It was fine, and mini terraces meant we weren't going to slide down the hill during the night. The only downside was that we did have to navigate round a fair bit of animal spoor every time we stepped outside the tent.

Our picture was taken from the entrance to our tent, so we had pole position for getting to the dining tent in front of us, but the furthest walk to the toilet tents.

We did some great people watching from our tent entrance, and we're referring to observing the antics of the other trekking group. It was clearly luxury trekking for the rich and pampered. We watched cafetieres of coffee being taken round the tents, with aperitifs served from a silver salver a bit later. They also had shower tents with mirrors set up on easels outside and when they sat down to dine (we've no idea what delicacies they were served) they had directors chairs rather than camp stools.

We had none of this, but we weren't jealous as we had absolutely everything we needed and we were being extremely well looked after. We were also having a far more authentic camping experience; after all we were away from it all in the mountains, not staying in town in a posh hotel.

What's more, first impressions of the members of the group weren't good; they were very loud and to put it simply, a bunch of hoorays. We were especially unimpressed when they played loud music after 10.00 p.m. when we were trying to sleep. Believe us 10.00 p.m. is very late on a holiday like this and even the military post alongside us had switched off their generators and turned out their lights.

But we had the last laugh ... during the night our crew opened the gate to the camping ground and sent our ponies in to cause a bit of disruption, and they did this not once, but twice.

Serves them right we say.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

Weather Extremes

Remember our last post and how sunny it was and how blue the sky? Well it lasted a bit longer - and much of that period we were relaxing in a lodge enjoying tea and biscuits while our passports and permits were checked at a military checkpoint, then we had a cloudburst. Just before the heavens opened, we took this picture ...

... which showed the path we'd come down into the valley bottom (where the checkpoint was) only to climb up and out the other side. You can see the cloud coming in that brought the rain. We shouldn't have been ill prepared, but we were. It wasn't a problem for us, with our all weather fur, but our minders were soaked before they'd got full waterproofs on.

Fortunately, within a mile, we'd reached our lunch stop and it was an indoor one. Our group, plus another trekking party, crammed into a small tea house. We were all rather cold from our wet clothes but fortunately hot soup, chapattis and vegetable dishes were served to help warm us up.

It took about 2 hours for the rain to stop. It had got to the stage where we were going to have to leave anyway, when the skies brightened and the rain eased off. We had about an hour and a half's walk to our camp and it was a lovely walk. About 30 minutes from the camp we were met by one of the cook boys who had come to meet us with a big kettle of hot orange juice.

Just 5 minutes from our camp was this beautiful lake with prayer flags and a small stupa. This was Kala Pokhari, literally black lake. It was simply beautiful in the afternoon sun. We admired it from all sides. Gio's picture shows the black lake aspect, while we looked back alone the path we'd come and it looked very different.   

While this was a tranquil spot we had campsite wars ahead of us. Find out more next time.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

Reminders of Home

Sorry readers, we forgot to blog ... but we're back now!

Back in India ... we didn't go to bed, however, without viewing the marvellous sunset (o.k. that was at tea-time) and saying goodnight to our mule friends.

Strangely enough we also said good morning to the mules when we went to breakfast the next day. They were ready with their saddles on long before us. As you can see in our picture it was a lovely sunny morning; it wasn't this warm at 5.15 a.m. though, when we climbed the small rise to the rear of this same picture, for our second 'mountain view'. Kanchenjunga was already creeping noticeably closer.

We were trekking along the old military road built by the British so it was a pretty good path, although quite eroded in places. As a result the only wheeled vehicles that could use it were old British series 1 (possibly 2) Landrovers, older than us, and older even than our minders.

We were trekking along the border between India and Nepal, so we were regularly changing countries. We soon came to our first Nepali village with the indigenous Land Rovers ....

... no sooner were we out of the village and we came across our first local monkeys ...

... we weren't carrying any food though, so they were out of luck.

It was a beautiful day to be out trekking and our minders were busy with their sun tan lotion. We had stops for a military checkpoint and also to enter the Singalila National Park proper. Here we are at the entrance.

It had been an exciting morning and we hadn't even got to lunchtime yet, so there's more to come. 

Lots of love, Gio, George and Yorkie xxx

Our Trek Gets Underway

As we arrived in Dhodrey our Jeeps were unloaded with their contents going two ways: humans and bears, plus daysacks, to a village house for lunch, and yellow Exodus bags to our luggage carrying mule train.

Although it was only 11:30 a.m. packed lunches were produced, prepared by or trek chef Manilal. We were all given a cardboard box and it was exciting to open them up and see what was inside. It was quite a feast: a potato, a hardboiled egg, cheese sandwiches, cake and a chocolate bar. There were also cartons of mango juice which weren't too popular with us, but went down well with the local children.

After lunch we were all raring to go and here some of us are at the starting line ...

... Yorkie was still inside, hoovering up the lunch leftovers and living up to his nickname of the Piranha.

We left the village, admiring some of the mooli crops and crossing the local football pitch before starting an easy ascent through woodland.  We had a fine trekking leader in Kundan who you see in the red jacket. He seemed hardly old enough to have left school but he was very good and looked after us well. Our group leader, Dilip, is crouching down in our picture; he was also an excellent leader and very good company.

It wasn't a hard afternoon's walk and we had plenty of time to enjoy it and the views that started to open up as we climbed. We soon left the trees behind and climbed, on a good path, through scrubby grassland. Our female minder had the claim to fame of being the only member of the group to pick up a leech on her knee. Fortunately it brushed off easily (she later found a second one on her boot, but that was the end of them, as we had climbed too high for for any more leeches).

As we climbed onto a ridge, not any old ridge but the Singalila ridge we were going to follow on our trek, we were almost immediately in the village of Tonglu (3036m) where we were to stay for the night.

Our blue tents were all pitched and ready for us to move in. The cook tent and our dining tent weren't far away.

 
We spent most of the remainder of the day drinking tea and eating, then because it was cold and dark and we'd had lots of fresh air, it was early to bed for us.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

Heritage on Wheels

We were awake and ready to leap out of bed when we heard the call of 'Mountain View' at 5.15 a.m. Being bears we don't have to dress, so we were up on the hotel's sun terrace before our minders, drinking in our first view of Kanchenjunga.

It was very exciting especially as the view changed every few minutes, as it got lighter and the sun moved round the horizon, painting the mountains pink. It wasn't worth going back to bed afterwards, as we had to pack before an earlyish breakfast, so we could leave at 7.30 to walk down to the station,  where we would catch the toy train of the Darjeeling Mountain Railway.

The railway was completed in 1881 and built to exploit the difference in the price of potatoes between Darjeeling and Silguri. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. It was built with a narrow gauge of just 2 foot to allow it to follow a tightly twisting route through the hills. The raised track now runs along the edge of the only road into Darjeeling, which is very narrow and very busy, making for a fun journey as you mix it with all the traffic.

Four diesel locos handle most of the scheduled services, but there are still some British built steam engines which take tourists along a 10 km stretch of the railway between Darjeeling and Ghum.

We were lucky to be able to travel on a train pulled by one of the characterful blue steam engines - Blue Bear would have loved it, especially the fact that the engines are blue like him. It was a slow journey at a speed of no more than 12km an hour, with numerous stops for cars parked on the line which had to be moved, and similar.

We had one official stop for about 10 minutes at the Batista loop where there are beautiful gardens and a memorial to Gurkha soldiers of the Indian Army. Close by stands a sculpture of one of the soldiers, appearing behind me in my photo ...

At Ghum station we left the train and our jeeps were there waiting for us. We climbed aboard and set off for the village of Dhodrey, the starting point of our trek. How exciting!

Lots of love

George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

To the Queen of the Hills

The next day, day 1 proper of the holiday, involved some more travelling. We had a civilised, post breakfast, departure from our hotel, for Delhi airport's domestic terminal, then a relaxing flight up to Bagdogra airport. This serves as a military airport so no photos were allowed ... we'll therefore move swiftly on to our journey from the airport up to Darjeeling.

We travelled in jeeps as we had a big climb into the hills to do, on poor quality roads. The first few miles were on smooth wide tarmac, as you can see from our picture below ...

... so we bowled along, keeping an eye out for elephants crossing. We saw the warning signs, but not the elephants. We suppose that was better than hitting, or being hit by, one.

As we started to climb into those cool green hills that so attracted the British colonials, it started to get cooler and our pace slowed due to lots of hairpins and a narrowing of the road. We stopped for a break at a restaurant with a view at Kurseong, and tucked into a few shared plates of delicious momos (steamed dumplings for those who haven't tried them).

It was dark by the time we arrived at Darjeeling. Our hotel, the Himalayan Resort, was quite new but had bags of lovely character. How's this for a fine room ...

... don't worry, we haven't suddenly joined a convent, we're wearing the Buddhist prayer scarf we were presented with, on arrival, along with a cup of tea (Darjeeling, what else?)

The corridor outside our room was equally splendid with lots of beautiful wood panelling ...

... can you see us relaxing on the settee?

As we had arrived in the early evening, we didn't get much further than a local restaurant a 10 minutes stroll away. We also had an interesting briefing telling us what we would be doing the next day. We were getting very excited as we had the start of our trek to look forward to, as well as a ride on Darjeeling's famous toy train.

We found a picture of the toy train outside our room. We sat in the plant below gazing up at it and anticipating the delight of the next day.

We didn't stay up too late though as we were due to have a wake up call the next morning, at just after 5.00 a.m., for our first 'mountain view'.

We'll share this first view with you next time.

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx

1.2 Billion People ... and 3 Bears

We can talk more about caravanning any time, and we will, but we need to pause to bring you news of our latest big adventure.

Being a caravan owner has, in no way, diminished our sense of adventure and wanderlust; it just provides us with opportunities for more lovely holidays. As we stayed in Europe last year, this year we felt we were due a more exotic holiday, so off we went to one of our favourite countries ...

... the huge flag, which was flying in Connaught Place, will hopefully tell you that we've been to India. It was Gio's first trip, Yorkie's second and my third (George speaking). I'm beginning to feel quite a veteran. 

We flew into Delhi at breakfast time. We might have arrived early in the day but it was already very hot. Fortunately we had rooms ready for us in the lovely air conditioned oasis that the Florence Inn is. 

It didn't take us long to recover from our overnight flight and to want to go out and brave the 'feels like 44 degrees' heat to explore. We couldn't afford to waste any time as we were leaving Delhi the next day. 

You could be forgiven if you think we were in London, when you see our next photo ... 

... as it does look like I'm travelling on the underground. I was however, on the rather more modern Delhi metro which travels on stilts, overground, rather than underground. It was very easy to use, clean, cool, cheap and not too crowded. Perhaps the fact it was a Sunday helped. 

The most sensible thing to do would have been to stay on the metro all day, but being curious bears we surfaced at Connaught Place. This is where we saw the huge Indian flag flying. We knew it was big and have just found out it is 60 feet wide and 90 feet long, and it flies at the top of a 207 foot mast in Central Park. That's big! 

We strolled round Central Park, took in the Lutyen's architecture and marvelled at the fact that we were looking at the fourth most expensive office accommodation in the world. We preferred the official name of Rajiv Chowk as it sounds a lot more Indian. 

We gathered that Delhi doesn't get too many bear tourists as everyone wanted to talk to us and find out where we were from. It quickly became a bit much for us in the heat so we returned to our hotel for a bear nap and to prepare ourselves for the start of the holiday proper the next day. 

Lots of love, George, Yorkie and Gio xxx