Hi Everyone,
Well, we are back in India! I arrived back a week and a half ago. In the end only 2 1/2 weeks after Ben, so he didn't have to survive for too long without me!
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| I even got welcomed home by some beautiful Rangoli, I think he missed me :-) |
The weekend before last we had a fairly quiet one. Ben played in the Atkins sports day badminton competition and then we went to the NH7 weekender festival. It was really good. A proper music festival (which I'm not sure was quite what we were expecting!) only with quite a lot less people than you would normally see. There was a mix of Indian and English/French and American acts and a good mix of styles, everything from heavy metal to Bollywood and plenty in-between.
This weekend just gone we have had a bit of an adventure in Coorg. It is a hilly region of Karnataka (the state Bangalore is in) about 270km from Bangalore. It was another trek organised by the Bangalore Mountaineering Club climbing Kottebetta, which is apparently the 3rd highest mountain in Coorg.
We were picked up from the meeting point at 10pm and finally arrived at our homestay at about 4.30am! A couple of hours sleep and quite a lot of hanging around later, we set off for the ~5km journey to the start of the trek.
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| The guest accommodation at the homestay, basic but nice |
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| With beautiful views and on a coffee plantation |
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Unripe coffee beans right in front of the house!
Nearly 1 1/2 hours later and significantly more than 5km! We arrived at the bottom of some steps that lead to a temple and then a big, steep looking rock! And then proceeded to walk back down the hill we had just driven up and then stop. Then a bit more hanging around while the 2 guides tried to get signal on their phones and work out where we were supposed to be going! Eventually we got back in the minibus and drove back down the road a couple of kilometers then started off again!
All in all, a lovely trek with some beautiful scenery. Could have done without meeting our first leeches (and particularly getting bitten a couple of times!) but in has been fairly wet recently so that is just something you have to put up with by all accounts.
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| Lunch! |
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| Beautiful views from the top |
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| A scorpion we met on the way! |
We must have been quite fast at the trekking business as, even though we started later than planned, we were still finished earlier than planned. So we had an extra little detour on the way back from the start/end point of the trek via a waterfall for a very refreshing paddle. Then back to the homestay for a much needed wash and chill out. Followed by quite a lot more waiting around, and a late, very spicy, but nice dinner and bed!
On Sunday we stopped briefly at the nearby town to by some spices, a specialty of region. Then on the way back to Bangalore we stopped at the Namdroling Tibetan temple and refuge near Kushalnagar which was about 30mins from where we had been staying. It was pretty amazing!
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| The 1st temple on the way in |
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| Inside the main temple - the Buddhas are 50ft tall! |
I don't pretend to know a huge amount about what we were looking at, except that it was beautiful, massive and very cool!
More travels start next week when Jane and Dennis arrive :-) it has crept up really fast but we are looking forward to it. Delhi, Jaipur, Kerala and Hampi! Looking forward to telling you all about it soon.
Lots of love,
Kathryn
