From Indian heat to English gloom

I had meant to update this blog for one final time before officially closing it post-expedition, but an exciting holiday whirlwind tour of Indian heat, colour, spices and light swiftly followed by grey January English gloom has meant that firstly I lacked the time and then felt less than inspired to write about my experiences.

It is only now, 14 days exactly since I touched back down in the UK and the day of my 28th birthday (which I have spent at work), that I feel mentally ready to return to the blog and write some kind of update.

Adam and I had a wonderful 16 days holiday over the Christmas and New Year period, taking in Mysore, Ooty, Coimbatore, Fort Cochin, Alleppey, Varkala and Trivandrum by means of taxi, bus, train, a houseboat on the Keralan backwaters for New Year, ferry from Alleppey, auto-rickshaw and aeroplane (from Trivandrum back to Bangalore).

I’m going to put some photos up soon, but highlights included visiting various elephant reserves, feeding, washing and watering the elephants, spending the night on our very own houseboat for New Year, eating lots of delicious food and attending a production of Kathakali in Fort Cochin.

Somehow the UK just doesn’t seem so colourful!

I have various challenges facing me in 2009, and before returning to the UK I had been keen to work as hard as possible to continue to develop myself in taking up Raleigh’s “fourth challenge”, with challenges such as the forthcoming London marathon, voluntary work and going for promotion at work at some point later this year.

However (while I’m doing my best not to make excuses!), I am finding readjustment to life in the UK a lot more difficult than anticipated, and so my main aim for the next few weeks at least is to be kind to myself and take things one step at a time. New Year may traditionally be a time of new beginnings, resolutions and self-improvements, but I think my fresh start may need to follow in the spring of 2009 instead, when I will have rested, recuperated and readjusted to the exciting opportunities hopefully open to me later in the year.

I may decide to continue this blog once I've recovered my Raleigh spirit and feel more like "Ros on Raleigh" again. In the meantime, thanks for taking the time to read and follow this blog, as well as for your encouragement and support - both emotionally and financially - in actually getting me out to India in the first place. It's been amazing. Thank you.

Shallowness, decadence and mascara

Now the venturers have left, I'm starting a slow but steady return to something ressembling normality. In addition to post-expedition paperwork, inventories and debrief chats, I'm desperately trying to sort out last minute things for mine and Adam's trip - train travel (turns out you have to book trains in advance and can't just rock up on the day!), more accommodation and a taxi to pick us up from Bangalore airport on Monday morning. The office phone has gone down and the computer server keeps crashing, so these tasks have been more challenging than they perhaps should have been!

I also, very importantly, have to keep going into town to buy more clothes, since I accidentally posted most of mine back to the UK or donated them to the logs room, not to mention the fact that I've looked like a Raleigh-branded mismatched lunatic for the past 13 weeks and would really like to look like an attractive-ish human being again. See example of said lunacy in pic from last phase.

I also HAD to buy mascara, since I may have learned how to live without makeup, but it doesn't mean I have to like it. Yesterday I managed to buy a pair of jeans, pair of light trousers, three tops, said mascara, a copy of the Indian Marie Claire and some conditioner for 20 quid in the ever-reliable More Megastore. Fab!

And finally, I've had to begin an important retoxification programme to ensure my body can cope with alcohol once again. So far I've had 1 beer, 2 rums and a G&T (over 2 nights). We had an amazing thai green curry at Gav's house on Wednesday, an evening that was mellow, candle-filled, tasty and fun. We then went out to the Green Hotel for dinner last night, the hotel we went on our first night in India, which shows that what goes around comes around, circle of life stuff, etc. etc. etc.

I really don't feel much like drinking even now, so haven't done anything stupid! Staff party is on Saturday night in Ooty so we'll see if I can say the same come Sunday....

Christmas comes to Fieldbase early

All the venturers have left now, leaving a somewhat emotional and bereft-feeling staff team behind them. This afternoon they headed off in their different directions, either by coach to Bangalore airport or to travel on in India or, in the case of the host country venturers, to the train and bus stations in Mysore to head back home to their families.

Before they left we reassembled in our original Alpha groups, an emotional experience in itself as we caught up with the highs and lows of expedition. I've been with 5 members of my original group through all three phases, but it was amazing to catch up with the other 5 to find out about their adventures.

We've had a festive couple of days at fieldbase. Last night we prepared a Christmas dinner for 50 people (my role involved peeling 20kg of potatoes, a task that took a mammoth 2 hours!) and watched the nativity plays that fieldbase staff and the alpha groups had prepared. Curry and Stew, the two fieldbase goats, played a starring role in the fieldbase staff play. I was narrator in our alpha group play, which involved squinting at a scribbled piece of paper filled with asterisks and arrows and trying to figure out where to pause to allow the venturers to do their acting. We hadn't rehearsed beforehand so it was all a bit stressful!

The decorations at fieldbase have been amazing. Beautiful lights, a Christmas tree, paper decorations, huge stars hanging around the quad, leech socks decorated with tinsel hanging up for Santa! It all felt very festive, albeit incongruous given the daily temperatures which hover around the high 20s, palm trees and green parrots that flit around fieldbase.

After dinner and speeches from three venturers, the country director Gavin and the deputy programme manager Robin, we were all surprised by fireworks exploding into the sky over the roof of fieldbase and the coconut trees.

Definitely an image that will remain in my mind for a long time.

Phase 3 - Kebepura community project

27 November 2008
We deployed yesterday and arrived at Kebepura, the village where we are constructing eco-sanitation units, by midday. Met with Mykaps (NGO with whom we are working in partnership) and introduced ourselves; we started to unpack before going into the village community centre for a meeting.

This was perhaps the first meeting I've ever been to involving a woman cradling a baby and a monkey at the same time. The monkey, which looks cute but apparently is incredibly evil, jumped on a small child's back while she was crawling around the floor. Apparently it's good with children but vicious with older people.

The meeting was quite difficult, as despite my best intentions I started to nod off. This did not go unobserved by the venturers, much to my chagrin as I was trying really hard to set a good example! After several speeches we were presented with flowers and after a good five minutes of inhaling their scent deeply, we were informed by someone from Mykaps that it was dangerous to smell them since they contained small but deadly insects. However, I haven't dropped dead yet.

After the meeting we walked the 1.5 odd km down a track to Kebepura B, the second part of the village where we will be building the final 15 eco-sanitation units.

While the main part of the village consists of 80-odd houses, a school, a tiny shop (literally the size of a cupboard), community centre, plus the 30 units that the first two Raleigh groups have built, Kebepura B is an even smaller cluster of about 10 houses, a cattle shed and a rainwater harvesting tank / hand pump.

Animals roam freely in both parts of the village and in the morning we were woken by a cacophony of different animal sounds, from cockerels to dogs to peacocks to cows to small children playing outside. There is also an elephant risk from the forest next to the village, despite the elephant-proof electric fence (which has a huge hole in it at any rate, through which villagers take their cattle to graze on the edges of the National Park). Villagers are very scared of wild elephants since they are not only potentially dangerous but can also destroy their livelihood and crops in one fell munch.

We are staying in the main part of the village. We have one room in the village school where the venturers are sleeping and where we are storing our worksite tools and food supplies (mostly porridge, since every meal apart from breakfast is catered by Mykaps). Jo, Nikki and I have a large tent - really more of a mini-marquee - that we have set up in the school grounds.

The interest from villagers and school children is much less than I'd anticipated. Nikki told us that in the first phase they were watched while they ate, did their reviews, walked to work, set up the tent, washed, basically in every aspect of their daily routine, but the novelty has clearly worn off by now as besides a few shy glances from the women and being approached by the children to enquire our names, our presence in the village is clearly not the oddity it once was.

I should also mention that I think I've secured a job for the new year in the Older People and Ageing Society division of DWP. Very strange to be standing in the middle of the school playground surrounded by children, chickens and cows being informally interviewed by a senior civil servant about a job come 2009!

29 November 2008
First day at the worksite and we completed all 15 foundations for the units and one unit built their unit up to 3 brick level. The foundations are so shallow that they cure in literally no time, so there is a danger of running out of work if we're not careful.

Luckily we have the option of building wormeries if and when we finish the eco-sanitation units, and before deploying we discussed a few possible trip options with the group, to break up the work schedule and make good use of our rest days, including the long-awaited trip to the Mudumulai elephant sanctuary.

We are also trying to organise another trip to Kalkere, a more local elephant reserve about 9km from the village in the N Begur forest range. For this we need to arrange permissions with the N Begur Range Forest Office, which is one of the places we visited during the project planning visit for the environmental phase. Seems so long ago now! Finally, we are also seeking permission from fieldbase for a trip to a Tibetan colony just north of Handpost, which is where the Mykaps head office is based.

It rained yesterday and we discovered our tent / mini-marquee isn't waterproof. Nearly all the zips on the doors are also broken, so our tent is now held together with duck tape and two large pieces of tarp sheltering it from the elements. We've decided to add on extra components to the tent-palace project every day - next stage is a mini-moat to stop water turning the ground to mud underneath the tent. We have also considered a drawbridge and a turret, naturally constructed from duck tape and ricebags, just to add to the castle feel.

Yesterday I stayed at the school as one of the venturers was feeling unwell. I ended up getting drawn into a rousing chorus of the hokey-cokey and heads, shoulders, knees and toes (with the school children, rather than him), as well as taking on the less-than-pleasant task of disinfecting the showers and toilets with almost an entire bottle of bleach. This felt extremely necessary, since I had found a congealing turd in one of the shower cubicles, again I assume one of the school children's rather than belonging to our lot!

Having grappled with poo in the showers and litres of toilet duck, I made things nice for the return of the others from the worksite by putting the kettle on and chopping up some pineapple, whilst entertaining small children in the sidelines. By the time the others got back the children were singing traditional Indian songs and dancing in the playground for me.

Tomorrow we had been planning our trip to the Tibetan colony, but Raleigh HQ have put a blanket ban on all trips over this weekend in response to terrorist attacks in Mumbai. I don't know much about these, due to living in the middle of nowhere, but I'm fine and nowhere near Mumbai.

As the masons don't work on Sundays, we are hoping to organise a cricket match with the local community instead.

Today has been a fairly lazy day - for me at least. The venturers all got stuck in with brick-laying, fantastic to see as it means they've succeeded in building a positive rapport with their individual masons. All the units are now built up to a 3-brick level, so this afternoon was spent lazing (me) and cutting metal sheets (them). There is a bit of a danger with this project of going a bit flat, as there isn't a huge amount of building work to do and still less for us as project managers since we want to allow venturers to do as much as possible.

The real joy of this phase is living in the midst of a rural tribal community and making the most of opportunities to interact with the villagers. Already we've been playing with the school children and today I walked around the whole of Kebepura B (which took about 2 minutes!) taking photos and (attempting) to talk to the local people, conversations that chiefly consisted of factual information about name, age and numbers of people in our respective families.

Everyone is so approachable and smily and interested in our presence without it being overwhelming. Looking forward to learning more about the local people and their community at tomorrow's cricket match....

2nd December 2008
Building work is moving on apace this week and now all the floors in the eco-sanitation unit have been laid, while one of the units is up to 7 brick level. I didn't work a huge amount yesterday, apart from shifting dirt to fill in the base of the units. This acts like a mold for the floor to sit on top and set solid, after which the dirt will be dug out of a small hole in the base of the unit leaving the floor sitting intact on top. We hope anyway.

I grafted a bit more today, both carrying breeze blocks (300 in total) to one worksite and working with one of the masons, Shivu, in constructing the concrete floor in one double unit. Mykaps expect beneficiaries to contribute to the project through their labour to ensure that the local community has fully bought into it and will use and maintain the units appropriately, so I was working alongside the wife of the village chief, who was carrying the bricks on her head. Jo, Nikki and I also managed to have a little sit down on said breeze blocks - turns out they're pretty versatile things!

I haven't done any of my one-to-ones yet and to be honest am finding it difficult to stay motivated and focus on our task as project managers. This is partly because I can feel that I am starting to disengage from Raleigh and look forward to life post-expedition, to Adam and my holiday if not my return to the UK.

I wish I were staying more focussed, as I feel I'm cheating both myself and the venturers by feeling like this. The community project is fantastic in that I feel privileged to be staying in a lovely rural community with people who have so little but seem able to give so much. However, the work isn't as demanding as either the environmental phase or the trek, and time pressures are much less.

We are catered for lunch and dinner, meaning the only real chores are making porridge, scrubbing toilets/showers, making tea, purifying water jerry cans and making sure is stowed away so stray dogs can't get at it. Being less than fully occupied means I'm starting to feel lethargic and a bit lazy.

In an attempt to curb this inclination, Jo, I and a couple of the venturers are going for morning runs to the little temple at the top of the road, a 20-25 minute run in total. On our way we pass the water pump with its steady stream of bucket-wielding women balancing jars of water of their heads, cattle, goats and one or two farmers gawping at us in disbelief as we jog past.

The local shopkeeper has proved most enterprising. Within a couple of days of our arrival his cupboard-sized shop was already heaving with bottled mineral water, coca-cola, sprite, packets of crisps (admittedly masala flavour!) and oranges, all the things to suit a western palate, alongside the slightly dusty plastic containers of Indian sweets, condensed coconut blocks and spicy snacks. Naturally the gannets move quickly, but even I've managed to buy the odd perfectly succulent sweet lime before they all vanish from the shop shelves.

6 December 2008

We've just got back from a two day break to Mudumulai wildlife sanctuary. We visited an elephant camp for rescue elephants and watched them being fed giant "ragi bols", huge versions of the squidgy playdough stuff that Manu the forest ranger fed to us in phase 1 (basically you swallow them whole with a dash of sambar, and the bigger the balls the better!).

The baby elephant put its trunk on my shoulder and I felt thousands of muscles in his sinewy trunk pushing against me nearly knocking me over! Here's a picture of him doing the same to Nikki!

We also went on "safari" this morning in a Forestry Department bus, but we'd actually seen more wildlife the day before on the bus we'd used to get to the National Park. This morning we saw some spotted deer and a peacock, but just driving through the park on the main road yesterday brought us face to face with a doe and her baby, not to mention wild boar. Someone on the tour bus, a fat bespectacled Indian tourist, was playing music out loud from his mobile phone, and I felt like killing him. So the safari was a bit of a letdown, but at least we got to travel in a camouflage print bus cunningly disguised as a pile of leaves.

It was then back to our accommodation for some illicit porridge making, before jumping on the bus and heading off to Gundlupet to buy birthday cake for one of the venturers and to eat lunch in a roadside restaurant. We arrived back in Kebepura this afternoon and quickly discovered our tent had been broken into and most of the contents disturbed.

Closer inspection reveled that we were missing 2 packs of crisps, a bottle of coke and a miniature plastic tuk-tuk, suggesting the intruders were highly discerning. They'd also left dusty footprints across the tent and not only taken the crisps but also left evidence in the form of crisp crumbs sprinkled liberally all over our rollmats.

Unsurprisingly given this evidence, the culprits turned out to be 9 children from the school, and we quickly had to intervene to make sure they weren't caned, which mostly involved us leaping across the grass to the teachers' accommodation and gibbering madly about how they were only packets of crisps and it didn't matter to us. The teachers didn't understand our English, but at least they stopped threatening to hit the children.

In slightly more pleasant news, the work in Kebepura B is coming on really well. I laid my first bricks and had a go and filling the gaps between bricks with cement. Very messily I hasten to add.

All the women in the village have also come to introduce themselves to Nikki, Jo and me. They came en masse, one woman clearly the appointed spokesperson by virtue of the fact she could speak a few words of English. they gathered around us giggling shyly and smiling, offering us information about their families and offspring and asking us questions in return about our age and marital status.

The youngest woman was 20 and already had 2 children. Apparently the women in this village stay in school until about 14 or 15, at which point they stop their education and marry. The woman with some grasp of English appeared to be an exception, in that she was 20 and still unmarried. Although it felt a little intrusive to inquire the reason why, I wondered whether the fact she turned out to be the daughter of the village chief hasd anything to do with it. The other women had mostly married into the village, either from nearby villages or from places further afield such as Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

I reciprocated these sharing of confidences by showing them a picture of Adam, the only one of which on my current memory card is of him eating a fish pie we'd made in our kitchen at home last year, whereupon they announced that they would also like to turn up en masse in London for our wedding!

It is mostly the men in the village who have been labouring to dig foundations and mix cement, although as I mentioned the chief's wife got stuck in the other day and we all carried breeze blocks together (though I didn't lift them on my head!). However, this project is of particular benefit to the tribal women of the vilage, as in the past they have had to wait until nightfall to leave the house and relieve their bladders in the nearby forest.

This is obviously not only uncomfortable for them, particularly if they are pregnant, but it's also dangerous because of the wild animal risk from the forest. Having their own personal loo should offer them both some more comfort, privacy and safety. It feels very humbling that something so simple, easy to construct and that we'd take for granted in the UK, could potentially offer so many benefits to the individuals we are meeting on a daily basis.

8th December 2008

Following an argument about an asbestos roof with Mudu the mason, a conversation that involved some serious throwing of the trowel out of the tuktuk, 8 of the eco-units now have rooves, 4 of them also have steps leading up to the door, completed floors and toilet pans, 2 still need building up to 9-brick level while a further 5 await roofing tomorrow. Progress has been steady but slower than anticipated, partly because not all 5 of the masons have been on site as intended, but also because of sickness in the group.

Nevertheless, we are only working a half day tomorrow before going on an 8km trek to a nearby elephant sanctuary in the forest, where we will be staying overnight in a forest guesthouse courtesy of the Bandipur Forest Department.

I personally can't wait, although it has just started to rain this evening which may prove difficult for elephant spotting. I'm very tired tonight, physically because of digging dirt out of the bases of the units, but also mentally/emotionally for a whole host of reasons.

10th December 2008

We spent an amazing couple of rest days visiting Kalkere, an elephant camp located about 9km from Kebepura. Accompanied by two armed rangers, we trekked into the forest, where we spotted fluffy black and white monkeys, though sadly no wild elephants. Kalkere was the most incredible experience.

In the afternoon we arrived I stroked a huge bull elephant, a working elephant that was brought to the camp to help to train a blind wild elephant that the Forestry Department had rescued. Being so close to such a heavy and powerful animal, albeit a gentle one, was really quite incredible! We also watched the rangers feeding some of the wilder elephants, including the blind one who had only been living at the camp for a month, so was still quite scary - lots of trumpeting and bellowing from her!

In the evening we joined the Foresters on elephant watch, who spend their nights sitting around campfires keeping an eye on the inhabitants of the camp; in particular to check that wild elephants don't harm the blind elephant, who is clearly quite vulnerable at the moment. This was possibly one of the most unique and amazing experiences of my life - sitting around the campfire with my fellow PMs, Nikki and Jo, the host country venturers and the elephant watchers; the crackling fire, Jaga singing Tamil songs, elephants munching in the background, elephant snores and sneezes were the only sounds to be heard.

Before we went to bed Jo, Nikki, Jayesh and I spent about an hour stroking two young elephants, a boy and a girl aged 3 and 4. I can't get over how muscly and dextrous their trunks are, and also how intelligent they are! They sniffed us all over from our feet to our faces, and managed to locate a chocolate wrapper in Jo's pocket, which they tried desperately to steal. It was simply the most beautiful evening, and one that I think I'll remember forever.

In the morning I woke up early and sat out in front of the Forestry Guesthouse hoping to glimpse more wildlife, in particular wild elephants. Maybe I'm not patient enough, but after an hour I'd only seen one deer, so I went back to the elephant camp elephants and watched their handlers do a training session with the blind one, using the placid bull elephant to help them. Incredible.

13th December 2008

Last day in Kebepura and there was a huge ceremony in the main village community centre, to which all the local bigwigs and Gavin, our country director, attended, along with about 100 villagers. We were presented with flower garlands and listened to lots of speeches from representatives from Mykaps, local village people, the chief of the village and Gavin. I also gave a (mercifully short) speech on behalf of the project managers, as did one of our venturers. Gavin then cut the ribbon on one of the eco-units and after a few Indian nibbles - spicy crisps and sweets - we headed over to Kebepura B for one final visit.

Saying goodbye to the women of the village was particularly emotional, and the daughter of the village chief was actually crying as she waved us goodbye. It was a bitter-sweet day, in that we have achieved our goals of building 50 eco-sanitation units in Kebepura A and B (across the three phases of the expedition), but I felt painfully aware that as we left to return to Mysore and the luxury of buying consumables, tasty food and drinks pretty much as the whim took us, that we were returning to a world that most of the people in this village could never really imagine, let alone hope to attain.

Although I enjoyed coming back to Mysore and doing the usual foray into Food World to buy cereal, wholewheat bread and marmalade (which even in Mysore are not easy products to come by!), it did make me question whether the things that I can purchase so easily are actually all that great. I felt somewhat decadent, wasteful and shallow.

I will always remember the village women waving goodbye to us from Kebepura B between the two toilets that we've built, toilets that should make a huge difference to their everyday lives, looking back over my shoulder to see their smiling and tearful faces as we walked away to a world of luxury and privilege.

Final phase challenge

Project allocations have just been announced for the final phase of this Raleigh India expedition, and I have found out that I will be working in Alpha 1, which is the community project, based in a village called Kebepura which is located on the edge of the Bandipur National Park forest. We will be building eco-sanitation units (toilets) for families in the village in conjunction with an NGO called MYKAPS. My fellow PMs for this phase will be Nikki, who I have just spent 3 weeks trekking with in Kerala, a delight to work with, and Jo, who I'm looking forward to getting to know better.

I'm delighted that I need never eat another rice bag for lunch unless I so choose! I'm already looking forward to the delicious local food. If phase one was arms, phase two was legs, phase three will most definitely be stomach (the expansion thereof).

I will be back in Mysore / at Fieldbase on Sunday 14th December, so will reestablish internet communications then! Back to the pen and paper once again...

Keralan kraziness

Further to my "lessons learned in Kerala" post, here's a further blog entry with some more details of what I've been up to for the past 18 days. I am really touched that people actually seem to be reading this thing - thank you! A special hello and lots of love to Nana-Jo and Grandma, both of whom I believe have had the chance to read this blog and catch up on all my news.

Am currently having my relaxing few hours off. After a night spent in a nearby hotel, a 4/5 course breakfast (papaya followed by porridge followed by rice and sambar followed by eggs and toast followed by toast and marmalade - yes I'm a greedy pig!) and a relaxing back massage, I'm now safely ensconsed at the Windflower Hotel / spa just up the road from Fieldbase avoiding other people for a few hours and getting screeched at by an incredibly noisy parrot that seems to be sitting in reception making a racket about something.I'm also trying to sort out my bank, who appear to have cancelled my bank card, which I thought was sweet of them. Luckily I have spent about a grand total of 20 pounds in the past 3 weeks, so this isn't too inconvenient, but I would quite like it to start working again.

Trekking was great for the most part, in spite of 4.30am starts every day and leeches. The first few days and the last few days of the 12-day trek were certainly the most exciting, but also the most challenging, while there was a spate of road-walking in the middle that got a bit frustrating. Here's a summary of the trek on a day by day basis - the views, the leeches, the blisters and the pain. Enjoy the read...

Day 1, Thursday 6 November 2008
Coach journey Mysore to Marayoor
Deployed from Fieldbase in our coach and spent 10 hours driving down to Marayoor in Kerala. A long, hot and tiring drive but we got there in the end. Nothing very exciting to report; spent the night at a dormitory in Marayoor.

Day 2, Friday 7 November 2008
Top Station to Kolukkumulai
One of the toughest days of the trek. Left our dormitory at daybreak (6am) to drive to Top Station for a 9am walking start. A really long day - we didn't finish walking until 7.15pm and the last hour of the trek was by head torch up a big hill (apparently the climb was the equivalent of Ben Nevis). I kept motivating the group as much as I was able, but ended up throwing peanuts at people and begging them to eat them as it seemed the easiest way to keep them going. Slept in the inner of our tent under the stars, on a large patch of concrete where the coffee plantation farmers dry their coffee beans.

Day 3, 8 November
Kolukkumulai to Lakeside
Another really long day of trekking - 6.30am - 6.30pm - starting with a mad scramble to the top of the hill we had not quite finished climbing the night before. We hit a leech zone by mid-morning, just at the point where Emma asked our guide "so when will we reach the leech zone?" to which he replied we were already in it and she already had one crawling on her leg. Our guide then hopped on to a rock, her leg started bleeding, and all the venturers and myself got a bit panicky trying to tuck our trousers into our socks and fumbling around for salt and Dettol.

For the remainder of the leech zone, we donned our special leech socks that made us look a little bit like funny elf creatures, and set to work bombing the little blighters with salt bombs and Dettol whilst trying not to slow down enough to allow them to board our boots. Besides Emma's leech bite, the rest of us escaped lightly with nothing more than a bit of a fright and feeling knackered from non-stop walking for 1.5 hours up a hill.

By the end of a very long day we needed to organise the group into one hour elephant watch slots througout the night, something that no one particularly wanted to do after 12 hours of solid walking (least of all me). It was actually really nice, and I took the 12pm-1am slot by the camp fire with the local trek guide and tribal people. An experience that was most surreal but curiously relaxing; I practiced my Malayalam introductions and I snuggled next to the fire in my sleeping bag watching the stars and failing to glimpse any elephants.

I think the hardest thing at this point was not knowing whether it would get any easier (it did). It also didn't help that we were using 30 year old maps and a trek guide who tended to give "Indian" answers to questions like "How much further?" and "How many kilometres?", the general answer being along the lines of "not far" or "not many", or else giving estimates that were wildly variable in accuracy.

Keeping a group motivated without the accurate information needed to reassure them with credibility was difficult to manage to say the least. Scenery was stunning but spent most of the time staring at rocks and dirt on the path and trying not to fall into a leech-infested bush. Things could only get better at this point...

Day 4, 9 November
Lakeside to Shantanpara
This day was an easier walking day - thank god - mostly spent on the road wending our way through Teletubby-esque tea plantations, lots of rolling impossibly green little hills but luckily no scary creatures bouncing towards us saying "eh-oh". We were able to stop twice for chai breaks and also took a toilet break in the home of a lovely Keralan family, as we were desperate and weeing in a tea plantation is a little bit too exposed for my liking. Didn't realise it then, but this was the start of a series of toilet breaks in the homes of different people that we ended up approaching in desperation and begging to use their loos.

This was the first evening we got into camp before dark and we all managed to have a bucket wash. Felt like the most amazing shower ever, despite being freezing cold and taken next to a squat toilet (hey, at least it was a porcelain toilet rather than a hole we'd dug ourselves in the ground!). Funny how quickly little things start to feel luxurious.

The day ended with a campfire and we three PMs cooking dinner. We listened in to Radio Raleigh and fell into bed at about the time of the evening call to prayer from the local mosque. Best night's sleep I've had in ages!

Day 5, 10 November
Shantanpara to Chaturangappara
A stark contrast to the first two days of 12-hour trekking days. In fact we finished at 10.30am, possibly because we opted for the road route rather than the jungle route to allow people's feet to recover! Spent the day relaxing at our campsite and attempting to write my diary. Will killed a chicken for dinner, although it refused to die and the sight of it being killed meant half the group (including me) didn't really fancy chicken after all. We had fresh vegetables brought out by the fieldbase loop team (who were doing our first food drop), mushroom soup, sweetcorn and noodles for dinner, which felt like a feast after days of rice bags and protein deprivation! Three of the venturers tried fishing in the duck pond at the campsite but didn't catch anything. Geese seemed a bit disturbed by our presence and did a lot of honking. It was nice to spent a few hours recovering from the difficulties of the first few days.

Day 6, 11 November
Chaturangappara to Pushpakandom
Another relatively day of trekking, although we had all acquired food rations for the next five days which meant our bags were considerably heavier. We started the day with a 6am bag weigh prior to departure, and asked the group to put their bags in order of relative weights. Mine was the joint second heaviest! No longer worrying that I wasn't taking enough group kit, I powered on with a brilliant day of walking that felt like we were finally performing as a team, supporting and encouraging each other and laughing and joking as we walked on together.

We started the day by trekking along a ridge with great views over the Tamil Nadu plain. Cool breezes, bracken-covered moorland, mists... very much a North York Moors kind of feel.

Amazing views from the evening campsite which was located in a family garden. The site was on the side of a hill with panoramic views across the valley to a windfarm, over forests and palm trees and smoke curling up from tiny settlements dotted around the valley below. At 5pm music came wafting across the valley to mark the end of the working day, something that seems emblematic across Kerala, India's only communist state.

The family were incredibly generous and brought us vegetables, chillis and coconut for dinner, and also allowed the girls in our group to use their shower to get clean (so we didn't have to strip off in front of all the local people next to their well). Personally I don't mind as my quest to stay clean was far more pressing to me, but there are definite cultural sensitivity issues there!

Day 7, 12 November
Pushpakandam to Kambammedu
A fairly long day of road walking involving lots of ups and downs (literally and emotionally!). I really struggled, probably because this was our 6th day of walking, and actually had to offload some group kit for the last couple of kilometres. Didn't feel too guilty since I did have the 2nd heaviest bag out of 15 people and was certainly not the 2nd heaviest in build!

When we arrived at our campsite, located next to a church, I had a little rest and went to the local village with Emma and Nikki for chai, packets of crisps, basically anything we could lay our hands on to eat! Had a bucket shower at the church and watched venturers amuse themselves with sticks (limbo, martial arts etc.) and roll mats (boxing a tree). Wondered at this point how they would manage to amuse themselves for the whole of the next day at this site, as we were due a rest day.

Day 8, 13 November
Kambammedu - rest day
Didn't do much but washed some more, went for ta and cake, did some one-to-ones, cleaned trangias properly (a job that I found curiously satisfying but that took 2 hours and turned my hands black with soot and meths grease). Had lovely lunch in village - rice, sambar, green beans with coconut etc. This cost 17 rupees (about 20 pence) and the food just kept coming!

Day 9, 14 November
Kambammedu to Sethukuzhy
Really boring day of walking, spent on the road. I got very frustrated with the lack of excitement and challenge, and my joints started to ache with the constant tarmac pounding. However, managed another local lunch similar to the day before, as well as tea, cake, paratha and sambar in a local "family restaurant." We were possibly the most dysfunctional "family" the owners had ever seen, but they kept bringing us different things to eat so we were definitely content despite the few stares we attracted!

Day 10, 15 November
Sethukuzhy to Kumily
More never-ending road walking but excellent company. As the last group had found camping in Kumily a bit too much (lack of privacy and constant staring), we had a night of luxury in a fantastic guest house. On discovering there were only 12 beds available, the PMs were delighted to be "forced" into a separate room replete with en suite bathroom boasting hot water no less! Far more luxurious than I'd expected.

We had lunch at the guest house restaurant - paneer butter masala, coconut rice, lemon rice and rotis, all of which was lovely. We had another food drop from fieldbase that had been left in a barrel for us, and Sulfi our guide went to pick it up in an auto.

As it was one of the venturer's 18th birthday the following day, the whole group went out for dinner at a Halal restaurant in Kumily. Unfortunately my huge lunch meant I couldn't eat much besides some fried tomatoes and rice! Early(ish) night at 8pm - didn't see a whole lot of Kumily but bed felt far more important with the regular 4.30am wake-up calls we've been enduring.

Day 11, 16 November
Kumily to Hiburia
After making breakfast for everyone, we left the guest house at 6.45am - luxury to have spent the night in a real bed! A lovely day of walking through tea plantations and not so much tarmac as in the preceding few days. Huge spiders glimpsed en route. I shuddered as they rasped their legs in my direction.

One of my favourite campsites yet! Hiburia is a small settlement right next to the river, where I took an afternoon nap listening to the river flowing, birds chirping and palm fronds rustling overhead. Wildlife glimpsed included a kingfisher fishing in the river and a water snake that wriggled past in the water. Was very pleased I didn't brave swimming, and just went for the bucket wash option instead.

Day 12, 17 November
Hiburia -
Long walking day - 32km. Main meories include eerie tea plantations in the morning, loudspeakers blaring out music through the early morning mist, the sun breaking through the mist at about 9am when we'd been walking for 2.5 hours and lots of workers picking tea in the fields.

After a morning of fairly laborious uphill climb, later in the day we ended up amongst a Yorkshire type landscape filled with dry stone walls, rolling hills, stiles and, um.... palm trees. Yorkshire gone a bit tropical perhaps?

We finally rolled into camp at about 5pm after 11 hours of trekking and met up with the second loop of fieldbase staff, all of whom were staying to walk with us for a few days. Ivan had brought the PMs lots of treats such as Dairy Milk and Pringles, which we wolfed down like we hadn't eaten in days. We decided that we felt like we were at fat camp - never quite enough food and lots of exercise, but illicit eating round the back of buildings whenever the opportunity arose.

Day 13, 18 November
Pat, Sam and Ivan (fieldbase staff) were walking with us on this day. Tea stop in the morning for our first break, which was in the midst of yet another tea plantation. Once we escaped the road we headed up a track then a jungle path with amazing views in every direction. Walked along the ridge for a bit, endured a slippery and slightly scary descent on slippery rock, saw a freshwater crab stuck on said slippery rock, followed by a humid and sweaty jungle to our campsite for the night, based next to another river where we bathed. Luckily no water snakes to be seen, but one of the venturers accidentally uncovered a snake when trying to build up the camp fire. They all tried to prod it with sticks while I tried to get them to stop being idiots.

Day 14, 19 November
The last day of trekking. Following a steep, fairly strenuous descent amongst a rubber tree plantation, we managed another tea stop for break no 1 of the day where we stuffed our faces with cake at 7am! Cannot believe the amount I ate and that I didn't put on any weight. As we walked on we saw sheets of rubber hanging out on a washing line to dry.

Needed to find toilet again as area was too built up to find nice tree. I did almost get caught weeing in someone's vegetable patch, but luckily a lovely woman offered her toilet to me instead.
The group was jubilant on reaching camp, and we all chilled out admiring the 360 degree views across the Keralan mountain ranges where we'd spent the past 12 days trekking.

Days 15, 16 and 17
We then spent the next two days inflatable rafting and bamboo rafting, which was a less positive experience than the trek. Second day of rafting involved a hellish 8 hours of near continuous paddling to travel a grand total of 4km. The group suffered sunburn, burst tyres, not to mention a sore bottom from uncomfortable bamboo. Possibly the less said about the whole experience the better, but suffice to say it did not meet my expectations of gently floating down a stream, mocktail in hand being serenade by lute music. We did sing "50 Green Bananas hanging on a tree" and Christmas carols though. Very badly but we were desperate to do something to take our minds off the tedium of going nowhere fast.

Given the disaster that was rafting, we squeezed in an unexpected day in Fort Cochin before coming back to Fieldbase in Mysore yesterday. No one in the group could face the final day of rafting and the river was dangerously low in any case.

Fort Cochin seemed really nice, although we only spent 4 hours there and given this was my first glimpse of civilisation in weeks, most of the time was spent drinking western style coffee in Cafe Day, eating Keralan fish curry at a lovely restaurant and shopping. Saw the Chinese fishing nets at a distance but not a whole load else, but I'm looking forward to revisiting Cochin come Christmas, when I won't be responsible for 12 young people or have to lug a water-tight bright yellow pelican case containing a mobile phone, GPS, sat phone, various chargers and a solar panel around with me all the time. Somehow puts a little bit of a dampener on the whole tourist experience!

After a few hours at Fort Cochin, we were ready for the long journey back to Mysore. Stayed in a hotel which wasn't particularly luxurious or exciting on Saturday night, but we did manage to fit in a farewell dinner for the group and also picked some tasty snacks from lorry driver style jaunts en route back through Tamil Nadu. Ravi, our driver, was amazing, and coped with the crazy Indian roads admirably, including a traffic jam that started on bend 6 out of 27 incredibly steep hairpin bends leaving the state of Tamil Nadu for Karnataka.

We all breathed a huge sigh of relief on reaching fieldbase with everybody fit and well with their limbs still intact. Did some report writing last night then escaped for 15 odd hours of peace and quiet.

Will find out my final project allocation tonight... watch this space.

I have survived!

Well it wasn't easy, but I survived a 12-day trek, 2 day rafting trip in Kerala, not to mention the 12 hour coach journey each way to get there and back! I have lots of news from the trekking phase, but suffice to say that it was a lot of fun and the following lessons have been learned:

• You can actually survive a lunch of a rice bag a day, even though they are disgusting


• Peanut crunch is a suitable subsitute for Kendal mint cake - just about


• Motivating a group of people who are really struggling is an excellent way to take your mind of your own pain, tiredness and general woes!


• Kerala is gorgeous, from tea plantations to mountains


• Keralan people are really generous about letting you use their toilets


• You don't actually die if you can't wash for a couple of days, you just look a bit grubby


• Swimming behind a bamboo raft attempting to push it along by hurling your body weight at it is not an effective method of river transportation


• Getting chased by leeches isn't much fun, but leech socks, Dettol and salt save the day every time!


• When the guide says "only 2km to go", take this information with a large pinch of salt (and possibly even Dettol).

Loads more to write, but just wanted to update t'blog while I had internet.

I received two batches of post whilst out on expedition, which was simply amazing. Thank you for writing to me (and including pictures of weird vegetable creatures from France!), and also thanks to everyone who has been keeping up to date with what I've been doing via this blog. It's lovely to know you're thinking of me.

Lots of love, and I'll be writing proper emails and blog entries tomorrow.

Ros xxxxxxxxx