Avalanche!

Hey guys!

Were back from the jungle safe and sound, if not a little more muddy and tired!

We arrived in ooty at around 7am monday and went to a guesthouse called montoban for the day, we met up with some friends; the buckingham family who we know through CYE.

It was great to spend the day with them looking around a tea factory, as it all come from here anyway. As norman said ' i do love tea!' so we all enjoyed learning about it and having a cuppa afterwards. We also went on a train along the moutnainside for some time. We went for a posh tea at a Tea room later that day, we pretended that the tea was nice... although it was pretty weak and looked like dish water...

During the day we also met a lovely english family with 2 young kids which we really enjoyed spending time with. We found out that the father had met Raj at a conference once... small world!

On tuesday we got picked up by the scripture union army style truck to be taken with the group to avalanche, we drove to the edge of the jungle on poorly maintained roads and then walked into the camp for some 5 or so kilometres. We arrived in time for some lunch and we then set up our tents to sleep in for the next few nights.

That afternoon we started our activity rotations of kayaking, gorge walking, abseiling and swimming. I ran abseiling with nandu and managed to send a majority of the group down over the 2 days sessions.

The group didnt all speak english and so lanaguage was difficult. The speaker was talking in 'canada' one of the bangalore languages, as well as saying some in english.

We completed all the rotations and had some great fun with the group. Dad was in charge of kayaking and mum was running swimming sessions.

Andy was helping and being the official photographer.

On thursday we ran some team challenges including a river crossing challenge and another activity dad brought from cye. The activities went down well and everyone learnt from it!

We brought with us a safety line and a life ring to help the avalanche staff with water safety and the training was in 3 languages!

We came back to montoban on friday afternoon to some hot water and a swim at hebron school, where the buckinghams and the fairfields live. That evening dad met with some camp leaders and discussed ideas for the future.

This evening we are heading off to kerela joined by our friend anupa for a few days, then back to chennai for friday to fly home.

I will post again if possible, but otherwise i will post again in england!

Much love

The Doneys

x