118. Heat.

The first trek was a conventional, organised (very efficiently) trek for tourists with pretty well every comfort you can think of laid on.  We had a brilliant guide (see his profile in Contact: http://contactmagazine.net/dharamasla-life/son-mountains/ (how's that for not missing a trick??), and restaurant quality food cooked over a primus stove, and people to bring us hot water to wash in, and to put our tents up.  Not really me!  And the amount of stuff this necessitated was excessive – this was particularly brought home on the day we went over the pass.  As there was still snow up there, the mules could not do this bit so they unloaded and the mule men carried it all across, with a different gang of mule men meeting us on the other side and carrying it all down to their mules.  I have to admit to feeling shame that these people, who have so little (not even decent shoes to walk over high passes and through the snow) work so hard to keep us in the lap of luxury, knowing that we have paid more for this trek than they will see in years of work.  Of course its work for them, and, in India, ‘twas ever thus – the ordinary Indian man serving the sahibs and memsahibs.  But it doesn’t sit easily on my conscience.

But didn’t we have fun with those mule men!  Our morning stretch/yoga sessions turned into competitive contortion exercises as we all tried to outdo each other, we played hilarious card games, and in the evenings huddled companionably round the fires……..which were not for us, much though we enjoyed them, they were to keep the leopards and bears away.  Seriously.

My companions on this trek were Chloe, a delightful early 20’s very bright young thing who has endeared herself to me for life by giving up a lucrative job with very good prospects on principle – she didn’t agree with what she was doing.  And 2 very well to do Indians – successful businessmen who had never done anything like this before and had absolutely no idea in the world what they were letting themselves in for.  It was fascinating to live in close proximity to people who come from such a different world and to see them at first hate it, and then as they got higher up and further away from all that was familiar to them (and their mobile phones lost their signal) the mountains did to them what they seem to do to everyone, and without knowing it they both found something new and wonderful.  And then, as they walked down the last stretch, their mobiles beeped once more and they resumed their normal personas.

The mountains were awesome. I was in heaven. ‘Nuff said.                     

Heat………..

I’m not complaining, you understand.  I love it here.  Its just that its in the mid 40’s.  Every day.  It’s a case of pouring water in to replace the sweat that comes out.  If you are still peeing at bedtime its a triumph.