100 days of travel

27 th May Bhagsu waterfall Making the most of the dryer weather before the monsoon sets in, the plan for this Saturday was Bhagsu Waterfall.   I headed out the school gate around 7:30am with a couple of farewells from the students, and the suggestion from Deki that I should be back before dark – to which I responded “yes, mum”, much to her amusement! I walked up the hill to Patiphur to catch the bus to Dharamsala and the sun was already unpleasantly hot.   I was glad to be heading for another 800-1000m of altitude.   The bus arrived only a few minutes after I reached the bus stop, and the bus ride was not too uncomfortable.   I amused myself by trying to figure out the words written on the back of some of the seats, and was about to photograph an interesting spelling of what could have been “senior citizens” when the bus got more crowded and my view was impeded.    Traffic hazards - on the Bhagsunag road The usual traffic hazards ...

Dharamkot from the start of our hike 20th May Triund Hill is classified by TripAdvisor as the #1 thing to do around McLeod Ganj, so I really needed to include it in my excursions.   All other considerations aside, the prospect of cooler weather some 2000 metres above our current altitude was wonderfully appealing Forward planning for this weekend had started on Tuesday; I asked Sarah if she wanted to hike – probably the waterfall, (I wanted to work up to the hill) but she was keen to do the hill – the weather will break soon enough.   Plans are laid for Saturday.   We invited Nate, he was already making plans with student Zangpo, who asked if he can join us – of course, we would be delighted!!   I just hoped I wouldn’t slow them down too much. The view after 30 minutes on the trail Friday afternoon saw me walking to Fatiphur to buy eggs (for hard boiling), bananas and biscuits.   Hardly a balanced diet, but hopefully sufficiently energy pro...

26th May There is a student roster of daily chores, and those on kitchen duty are up early to prepare breakfast. Sangpo: a picture of concentration as he reads before breakfast The daily bell monitor sounds the rising bell at 6:30am on weekdays, with the breakfast bell at 7:30am. I have taken to rising at 6, and making a coffee (instant – Nescafe, black).   There is an electric jug in the small teachers’ office outside my room, and after a bit of effort it is now mainly white.      An unfortunate part of morning routine is the regular appearance of a band of monkeys to ransack the rubbish bins and generally leap between trees and roofs and make a heap of noise! If I am lucky there will be running (well, dribbling) water coming through the tap in the shower room – pressure is not sufficient to actually use the shower fixture.   Since Nate’s departure, I claimed the plastic jug and bucket he’d been using and secreted it in my room – so I now ...