New boots tried and tested: 3,600 feet of climbing, over 17 miles and not a blister in sight, not a pain, no agony of ill fitting boots forcing my poor feet to bend in the wrong place, land on the wrong place - no deep raw holes in my heels, no blisters under the soles of my feet, no mysterious lumps appearing...................they dealt with rocks and icy patches and uneven ground...............in short, bliss!
And it was wonderful! Just miles and miles of wonderful pine forest, huge slopes, open space, rocks.................cheerful teashops just when you feel like a cup of tea or drink of juice or packet of biscuits and a rest in the sun, basking in the mountains. The indians we met on the way were friendly and helpful whether they were selling us drinks or leading other tourists. One man has built up a delightful teashop, literally cutting stone from the mountainside to build a hut, and stone benches. He walks up every day, 7 days a week, it takes him 45 minutes unless he's carrying a cylinder of gas in which case its 1 1/2 hours. It took us 2 hours with just our lunch! He sells crystals from Manali as well, and told me that his stuff comes up by mule - a mule will carry 2 crates of pepsi and 2 crates of water bottles. He sends the empties down by mule too which is really impressive as he pays for that. Unlike the rest of India, they remove rubbish and really care about keeping the mountains clean. The path was well made stone pitching and gained height steadily without being steep.
Our goal was Triund, a saddle at 9,350 feet - high enough for the altitude to be noticable, on the doorstep of the Dhaula Dhar range - the ones that so tantalisingly peep over the hills surrounding McLeod Ganj. We stayed half an hour, drinking hot soup at one of the teashops there. We got glipmses of the mountains among the swirling mist before heading down for the long march home.
Wonderful day! It feels so good to have been up and exploring! Very pleased that I managed it so easily which bodes well for the proper trekking in the spring.
I'm taking on the role of volunteer co-ordinator at Lha as nobody else is around to do it when Stacey leaves on Tuesday. Well, it will keep me out of mischief! We've finished December's Contact magazine, now I'm in charge of that too for the next 3 or 4 months. I'm also doing a bit of english tutoring which is very interesting - teaching people who have virtually no english how to speak the language with no means of explaining things. Well, I do like a challenge! We sit in a hotel garden and talk about what is around us and manage to have quite a few laughs along the way.
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