Death Trek pt 1

Ok, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but just barely. Trek in the middle of India's monsoon season? It'll give you hair on your chest. Unfortunately, I think I’ve blocked parts of it out of my mind! We drove on a really bumpy road and then got out in the middle of nowhere.We met our guide Rajesh and he told us he has lots of experience trekking and he must have seen the looks on our faces because he then went “don’t worry,” which almost always makes me worry.

We began our walk in the rain, and it was not as bad as I thought, but early on people's feet got wet (again, so thankful I decided to bring my hiking boots, the info Idex sent that we had a trek did not get to me from headquarters and I'd have been miserable with wet feet for 2 days!). I've never seen so much mud in my life, and we had to start taking shortcuts to avoid it. At one point we were forced to cross a river, and the guys walked into it to help us cross over large stones. Talk about chivalry!

Later, we were warned about a part that was a bit difficult because it was uphill, and it was!

For the most part, the walk was ok, but it was actually the weight on my back that made me struggle. The water we needed (but didn't want to drink because we didn't want to have to use the bathroom outside) was heavy! I thought our walk would be an hour and a half, so when I told Rajeev we shouldn't have much further to go, he asked me why. I explained that the walk should be an hour and a half and he laughed and said "who told you that?" That's never a good sign now is it? Turns out today was to be 3-4 hours! With trepidation I asked Rajeev how long the walk tomorrow would be and he said 6 hours! www.killmenow.com

Finally, we reached a small village and were so grateful to be able to just sit! We went into a small dark house and sat on the floor, then had a delicious lunch of chapati, mixed vegetables, and potatoes! It wasn't a fancy meal, but it was delicious, definitely some of the best food I've had here so far!

This is the lovely woman who cooked the food for us.

I think she may run a small business, because we got our mats and sleeping bags from her as well and then walked to our accommodations. There was animal manure on many parts of the road, and with the rain washing everything together, I worried about where some of it might end up. I think many people in developed countries take their sewage and drainage systems for granted, but I won't anymore.

We got to a large stone building that was to be our accommodations and set up our mosquito nets.

Rajesh wanted to take us to show us something, but wouldn't say what! I'll be honest, at this point I just wanted to be left to sit in peace! But it's not easy to get mad at Rajesh, he's such a lovely guy...but my hair was steadily getting bigger and that was just disheartening, especially since Mike's not here to take my anger out on. I kid, I kid!

I perked up and went on the walk

and I am so glad I did! The tree-lined path we took was beautiful and we arrived at a temple only discovered about 500 years ago because It had been buried underground. I took a few pics and thought "right, now it's time to go home," but Rajesh had already started walking. I was just about to start feeling sorry for myself again when we came to a clearing

We were pleasantly surprised to find a waterfall!

We headed back

and went to the house again where we could learn how to make chapati. Ok ok I admit it, we had a great day! This is an important lesson: don't avoid doing something just because it seems uncomfortable or hard.

After dinner we left for home and being a city girl, I was surprised to see how dark it was! It was almost pitch black in the village as many people use solar power and in rainy season, the clouds make that a bit ineffective. We got back to the hall where we'd be sleeping, laid down the mats for some cushion (they were about 1.5 centimeters thick) and headed to bed!

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