Updates! this week and the titanic tent trials...

I thought id post as i have the time now; and i feel like it...
We have done a few things this week since i last posted.
As you can expect, being in india and all; things have changed slightly since i spoke to you all last...

Here is a little taster to whet your blogging appetite!

I said that i was doing a talk at the local bible college, sadly this hasn't happened as yet. I dont mind about that too much...
The plan was to lead seminars and activities at the bible college to give the people a taste of what adventure sports are like by providing a host of activities, seminars and experiences.

Due to miscommunication and poor planning we havent achieved too much of that...
On thursday we finally got some time to run a short abseiling session off one of the dorm roof's!
This proved somewhat challenging as the movie stars make it look so easy!










The hard part was changing from vertical (standing) to horizontal (abseiling) within a short space (the edge of the rooftop). All went well, but it was a challenge for both us and the participants.

The next day (today) we planned to visit the campus again and run some more abseiling and provide an experiences of setting up and staying in tents overnight. We hoped to get more time than the previous day with the students (1hour).
As we found that day we would not be getting any extra time. Our plan was to provide abseiling for some time, as well as a tent erecting tutorial during the afternoon; But the only tome allotted was the same 'recreation period' that we had the day before (5.45-6.45pm)

In order to make the best use of the short time we had; we decided to erect the tents for the students in order for them to sleep in them that night. This was not a small task as we had to cater for 30 or so students possibly. We had brought with us 11 or Raj's treasured tents for use that evening. Between the three of us; me raj and nandu, we managed to put all the tents up in the grass area inside the college grounds. At this time it was reaching the hot part of the day but we carried on! After several hours and several litres of water along with equal amount of sweat we accomplished our goal! We finally put up the various tents, including pegging them into the concrete like ground.

As we finished, the students arrived from their seminars and looked with eager intent towards the fairly unusual sight of tents. Most of the students had never slept in a tent before, let alone in the middle of the college grounds. They crowded around as Raj went through the fairly boring details about good housekeeping when staying in tents. As it was, this was pretty interesting to those who have never slept in a tent before!
They all brought over their pillows and other such bed like things and set themselves up for the night ahead before leaving for dinner, we left shortly after then.

We did not have time to set up the abseiling for that evening, but we planned to abseil some point next week, when we have more time.

Regarding the trip to Breakthrough Outdoor Centre, this has been arranged for next monday as it was not possible for us to come today. Me and Nandu hope to see first hand the activities that they provide and how they go about teaching them. I also would like to see what changed have come about since i last visited the centre (7 years previous)

On the journey back to Raj's place, on the back of hos motorbike it soon became apparent that there was thunderstorm approaching! We had seen the flashed beforehand but it came closer and provided some of the best sights of lightening i have ever seen!
It was fantastic, the sky was a blaze with thunder strikes and flashes lighting up the sky for a split second at a time! as we drove back towards Bangalore central i kept my camera at the ready catching every moment possible as fast as my poor camera could go...
I took plenty of photo's and a few videos. It was incredible to see Gods creation at work right in front of you in the most spectacular display of natures awesome power!

We stopped a few times to get some of these photo's.
Enough for now, I think that will do for the awe inspiring nature stuff. Tomorrow is going to be a day off; i think i will go and get my hair cut, should be fun! i might get a shave as well...

Much love

Charlie D