I could say that ive left a part of my stomach on the so called roads between here (Bangalore) and Ooty.
I dont have many good things to say about my outbound bus journey, apart from that it was a memory to be 'treasured'. We left for Ooty at about 11.30pm after our bus was an hour later than proposed, but it wasn't a problem.
From what i could recall from my previous journey to avalanche it wasn't going to be that bad, but i realized we were going a different route from that i had gone before. This route was much worse, but shorter and quicker. This was obviously better, but not for those who couldn't sleep in a car, let alone an Indian bus for 8 or so hours. As you can guess i didnt sleep very much throughout my journey.
This made me somewhat grumpy for the duration of the journey. The bus was being bashed around so much that the seats were rocking back and forth, which didn't provide very a good sleeping environment.
Anyway that was the only bad bit about my trip to Ooty and 'Avalanchi' (proper spelling?). On wednesday morning we arrived in Ooty to see a good friend of mine and manager of Avalanchi; Richard Ajoo.
We then went on to get more sleep in the scripture union office in town. We slept on the floor in sleeping bags; but it was good to get some rest, and to regain my sanity. That day was spent in Ooty meeting colleagues and visiting friends including Wilson; a friend i met last time i was at Avalanchi. Also a good family friend Ralph and his wife Hannah and family who now work at Hebron international school; who previously worked with my dad at CYE.
On thursday we started our journey to Avalanchi in 2 jeeps as the scripture union truck wasn't worth taking with only 10 or so people. We got a short distance towards the camp when we were met by road re-surfacing, so we had to take a longer route round; but this provided views a plenty!
We carried on along some pretty poorly kept roads and stopped next and a bridge over a stunning lake where we took alot of photo's and then we continued on to the outer edge of the jungle itself.
At this point our jeeps would go no further and we had to walk the remaining 6km or so to reach the camp itself. The jungle paths were not your standard flat bridleways that you would find in the uk. 
We arrived at the camp site greeted by some indian tea , bread jam and fried eggs! As the cooks were ahead of us and got there before us. We set up our tents we had brought with us and settled down in front of the fire and ate hearty that evening. We slept in our tents very cosily that night, i slept with 3 other lads because they aren't used to the cold like us brits! The next day(friday) was a day for training and getting used to the camp site before the group came on saturday. We started with some breakfast, porridge, bread and egg along with an indian breakfast also; i had both...
We then went on to start some abseiling from a nearby waterfall. This waterfall was only a small one coming down a rock face which provided a very interesting environment to abseil, including a pool of water to finish abseiling into.
That afternoon we
went on to teach some of the staff how to swim, as a majority of India's people cannot swim.This makes it hard to teach adventure activities sometimes.
That evening we had another semi english/indian meal that was very nice. The camp from Hebron arrived on saturday and were staying until sunday afternoon. Only a 24 hour camp, this was due to exam and coursework pressures meaning they couldnt come for longer.
On saturday afternoon me an Nandu ran an abseil session with 4 girls, this session was good; if not a little slow, but it was good to get some experience.
That evening we went to the dry area near the lake and played some games including a game of ultimate frisbee that i was teaching.
I thoroughly enjoyed playing even though it made me pretty tired out! The next day was less active, we played yet more games on the dry ground including another brilliant game of frisbee.
I think this has contributed to my somewhat red shoulders and neck.
We left Avalanchi along with the group around 3pm and walked back to the pick up point where the Hebron buses were. We managed to beat the Scripture Union truck even though it left the same time also! This did involve some power walking in the heat, but it was good exercise and my ipod helped too!
We arrived in Ooty that evening after continuing our journey in the truck. We went and met Richard Ajoo again as he was not at the camp and we went out for some dinner. We then got out bus back to bangalore.
I expected the bus journey to be rubbish! As the outbound journey had been so bad. But to my surprise i got to sleep and slept on and off all the way back to Bangalore... Obviously this wasnt the best sleep ive ever had, but it was alot better then staying awake for 8hours!
I think the bus driver was alot better then the first driver.
We arrived in bangalore and went back to bed for a few hours and the other girls came over to do some washing and cooked us all dinner too which was handy.My washing was pretty minging too! its all done now though, hooray
Anyway time to stop talking now!
We are running some seminars at the local bible college from tomorrow and doing some activities for them to get them onto our training camp this month in Avalanchi. Also we plan to head to Breakthrough Centre in bangalore this week to see some friends and have a look at the activities and see what has changed since last time i was there (7 years back!)
I have to do a 30min talk tomorrow too, so i need to prepare!
Much love
Charlie D
No comments:
Post a Comment