What a day!

It started with waking up at 5am, then a snappy conversation with someone, then an argument with someone else, then some tears, then some laughter, then some hysteria (both good and bad), then leading a session about formulating our group contract, then a bit of an up, then a bit of a down, then a quick trip into town for fruit juice and Diwali cake as a treat for our group as a "Welcome to your New Home" celebration for tomorrow night, then lunch, then some more up-down-up-down and hysteria and laughter and homesickness and fun and sadness, then some packing, then some counting out group kit and food supplies for 19 days (see pic), then such pride in my group's teamwork and creativity in presenting their group contract, then a trangia cookery competition for the venturers, then a staff meeting with some Indian sweets to say goodbye to everyone going out on phase 1 tomorrow, then a last minute medical kit check with the fieldbase medic, then a debrief with other project managers, then a quick email check that turned into a longer internet session than intended, then finding out I have a place in the 2009 London marathon (eeeek!), then some more emailing, and hopefully now some sleep before we deploy to the jungle, the quiet jungle, where the elephants sleep tonight - for the next 19 days.

I must be absolutely mental.

They're here!!!

This is probably the last post I'll be able to write until 3rd November, so I need to get used to writing a good old pen 'n' paper diary till then and then maybe transferring the diary online when I get a moment.

The venturers (participants) arrived on Saturday and I've been really busy ever since. I'm currently feeling a little bit overwhelmed and emotional over ridiculous things, and also quite homesick, well for the 10 minutes thinking time I have to myself before my head hits the pillow each night.

The venturers seem a really nice bunch and come from a real mixture of backgrounds (roughly 1/3rd host country i.e. India, 1/3rd "partnership" people that have been referred from organisations such as Fairbridge or the Princes Trust, 1/3rd people who have raised sponsorship money and who tend to be gap year students etc.)

Since Saturday, Zoe, Hamish and I have been leading Alpha 2, a fairly arbitrary mix of participants. This has mostly been for admin and training purposes, and since then we've led sessions on using the comms kit, map reading and camp craft. We also completed a two day training trek in these groups; I didn't get sick this time although some of my group were showing signs of dehydration by the end of the day. We also had barbed wire in one person's leg and vicious thorns in another's, not to mention scary bees today.


It feels like a huge responsibility being manager of ten young people under these circumstances. Some of them seem quite young and vulnerable, although for the most part they seem very supportive of other team members and I'm sure they're all going to do amazingly well.

Putting the venturers first is kind of nice in that it means I just CAN'T be selfish or self-indulgent. Of course when I get a moment to myself (like now when I'm hiding in the office), I feel particularly exhausted and emotional as we've been up since 5am trekking.

We have also found out our new groups this afternoon for phase one, so we've been doing icebreakers, name games and sessions on fears and concerns this afternoon.

A Indian snake man / environmentalist then came this evening to do a talk about snakes; he had a beautiful bright green snake with him called Dave (I think) as well a scarylooking cobra that reared up at our country director, Gavin, and tried to kill him. I wanted to hold Dave (though definitely not the cobra) but the venturers got there first.

We're about to have a BBQ with the venturers, who NEVER EVER get tired and are currently playing football outside.

Message to everyone: I'm on email till tomorrow, but then letters / posting messages on the Raleigh India blog are the only ways to get messages to me until 3 November (when I return to fieldbase for 2 days).

Reading your emails / messages on facebook this evening (from Daddy, Kate, Naomi, Rhiannon and of course Adam) was just fantastic so please keep them coming! I probably won't be able to reply to you individually before 3rd November, but I really loved reading them all.

Anyway, had better go and be bright and bubbly and entertaining. Will try and post some snake photos later tonight or tomorrow, especially of Dave. Love to all xxxxxxxx

Dasara and end of staff training

The two weeks of staff training have now come to an end so theoretically we are now fully responsible, trained up project managers who are good to go once our venturers arrive on Saturday. Actually, some of the in-country (Indian) venturers have already arrived, as they have a couple of days extra time to settle in and meet the staff. Some more Indian venturers arrive tomorrow - they make up a third of the venturers in number for this expedition so it should be an interesting mix.

Before Saturday I plan to have at least two full nights of sleep - something I haven't really had since leaving the UK - not to mention our first (and probably last) day off! We have some last minute project planning to do tomorrow, and I also hope to get into Mysore at some point to have a little shop and look around and generally make the most of some long-awaited free time.

Today marks the last day of the Dasara festival celebrations in Mysore and the big elephant parade, but reports from the town centre about crowd surges and horrendous traffic (more horrendous than usual, so it must be bad) meant we went to a local hotel bar and watched the celebrations on television instead, accompanied by delicious banana colada mocktails.

Today also marks my first day as a teetotaller until December 17th, which is when the venturers depart and we can drink again!

From what we could see on TV, the last day of Dasara entails lots of decorated floats on parade through the streets of Mysore and the palace, as well as music and dancing, with the most eager spectators jostling into prime positions at the top of coconut trees.

We've managed to get into town a couple of times this week to experience the Dasara celebrations, which have been going on for the past 9 days, so I don't feel like I've missed out too much this evening, even though I did want to see the elephant parade. Still, wild elephants await us in Bandipur National Park!

Yesterday morning two of our drivers, Girish and Manju, performed a special Dasara "puja" at daybreak to bless all the "tools" (cars, computers, building tools and camping equipment) that should enable us to carry out a successful Raleigh expedition. The blessing should ensure auspicious travels, working conditions and successful projects - fingers crossed!

Project planning visit (PPV)

Alpha two's spirits were high as we set off from fieldbase on Friday morning to reccy the environmental project sites for the India 08I expedition. Giresh the driver loaded up the car and Hamish, Zoe, Jerry, Antje and I all piled in.

Two hours of constant photo opportunities later - cow traffic and women transporting huge containers of water on their heads to name but a few sights we encountered on the road out of Mysore - we arrived at the Hediyala Forest Ranger station where we met our project partners for phases one and two of the environment project.

The rest of the day was spent scoping the proposed site for the anti-poaching camp (APC), doing some fairly serious off-roading around Bandipur National Park and taking lunch in another APC (example in picture below)

On arrival at our accommodation for the night - and the next couple of months - we met the resident guard dog Sitar, who loyally followed us around and took very good care of us.

Hamish and I then took a trip to Hediyala village for fresh food supplies, where at one point I turned around to find surrounded by a crowd of men all staring at me rather oddly. Realised this was because I was standing at the village bar, and being the only woman in the immediate vicinity and therefore something of a freak show, I quickly excused myself and went to talk to the village children instead.

On the drive back to our accommodation, the Chikka Boirgie Forest Guest House, there were yet more exciting photo opportunities - whole families working in paddy fields, people drying tobacco leaves by the side of the road (see above), herds upon herds of cattle being driven home for the evening...

The project site for phases 1 and 2 is challenging to say the least. We're all quite concerned about the lack of natural shade, lack of drinking water, exposure of the slope where we will be building etc. Mobile phones don't appear to work either, so we are entirely reliant on the sat phone for comms contact with fieldbase and emergencies. What a view though!

The accommodation also has its own challenges. Although the four walls and roof are much appreciated, being in the middle of a National Park means that after dark we have to be very careful about remaining within the compound boundaries and ideally indoors due to the wildlife risk (elephants, tigers etc.). This should prove interesting given we will have about 15 young people to entertain and it gets dark at about 6pm!

We travelled to a different area of the National Park for day two of our project planning visit and met with a different set of Forest Rangers, this time at the N Begur Forest Ranger Office. The rangers took us out to the project site for phase 3 of the environmental project, an incredibly remote site deep in the jungle.

The highlight of this excursion was definitely our wild elephant sighting! Don't have any pictures as we only saw it for about 5 seconds, but this was enough time to worry the Forest Rangers sufficiently for them to feel that we needed an armed ranger to jump into our car.

We spent an excellent couple of days out on project sites. The trip back to fieldbase was as colourful as the drive out, with a stop in a local town (HD Kote) to scope the local hospital and buy some flower garlands and fruit.

Since getting back to fieldbase we have all been busy compiling our project reports, risk assessments, casualty evacuation plans and environmental/cultural impact assessment.

Writing the project risk assessment has gone beyond anything I've ever encountered in the civil service - somehow "being charged by elephant", "accidentally setting off ranger's gun" and "getting shot by poachers" never made it into any of the risk assessments I've experienced in my career to date!

Finally, since getting back we have spent our evenings attending some of the Desera celebrations in Mysore. I have seen music and dancing shows, elephants and camels, and the Palace has been lit up every night - dread to think what the electricity bill for 97,000 lightbulbs must be!

Phase one project assignment

We received our first project assignments for Phase One (16 October – 3 November) this morning, and have spent the day planning the next two and a half days, when we will be going out on project sites, meeting project partners, doing risk assessments of the local area (project sites, transport to and from site and accommodation), as well as planning our emergency casualty evacuation (casevac) plans.

Zoe, Hamish and I are leading Phase One of the environmental project, building an anti-poaching camp in Bandipur National Park. We will be accompanied on our scoping visit by Antje the medic and Jerry, one of the Indian trek leaders.

Here's another pic of the intrepid three project managers for Phase 1 Environmental Project: Zoe, myself and Hamish (+ elephant)


Raleigh is working in partnership with the Karnataka Forest Department to construct two new anti-poaching camps in Bandipur National Park, which was one of the first areas to be given special projection by the Indian Government as a Tiger Sanctuary in 1973. Tigers… Gulp.

The project should enable the Forest Department to better protect the wildlife (tigers, elephants and others) and National Park ecosystems (in particular to protect the area from illegal harvesting of precious wood such as sandalwood and teak) from poaching by building observation posts for full time anti-poaching teams.

One site, the one in the Hediyala Range, is a tricksy beast as the camp will need to be built on a rocky hillside in an area where water is scarce. The other site, in the N Begur range, is in the depths of the jungle so we may need to build an elephant-proof trench to ensure the 'efferlumps don’t trample the site (or us!) down before building is complete!

Friday and Saturday’s project recce will involve visiting both project sites and sets of accommodation, as well as a nearby hospital. We are going to meet the Range Forest Officers for Karnataka Forest Department “Project Tiger”. I also spoke to the main project partner today on the phone, a senior Government official from the Forest Department. So I have now had my first ever contact with an Indian civil servant.

Personally, I can’t wait to get out in the jungle and meet the local wildlife! The only part of our project brief that worried me oh-so-slightly is the part about the forest being home to big cats (leopards and panthers), snakes (King Cobras, Spectacled Cobras, Saw Scaled Vipers, Common Kraits and Russell’s Viper), marsh crocodiles… and perhaps most worrying of all the part about unconfirmed reports that one of the local tigers has recently become a man-eater. Ummm…. aren’t they all man-eaters? Anyway, I’m going out there with 2 men, 3 including the driver, so have plenty of grub to offer hungry tigers if need be!

We will be back at Mysore fieldbase on Sunday morning, when I hope to be able to write another update post-jungle adventure.

One day, two posts

It isn't going to be often that I will have a chance to blog or email whilst in India, so I am making the most of a relatively quiet day at fieldbase to mess around on the internet and update my blog for the second time today. Since I last wrote, the others came back from their 2nd day of trekking (which I missed due to sickness) with stories of monkey babies and temples and villages. Very sad to have missed it, but doing another trek with residual sunstroke wouldn't have been much fun.

Around mid-afternoon we headed into Mysore for our swim tests in a nearby hotel followed by cocktails. Once the venturers arrive we won't be able to drink alcohol, so I began to acclimatise myself to the idea of an alcohol-free existence with a lovely mocktail banana colada (fresh cocount cream and bananas - MMmm, who needs alcohol?!).

A few of us headed into Mysore for a spot of shopping, which was great fun. I can't believe the traffic, people, cows and general horn blowing in the centre of town. It bucketed it down just as we left the "More Mega" supermarket-cum-department store, which was where I bought most of my new clothes, but we got a tuk-tuk back to fieldbase which was exciting to say the least.

We're getting pizza delivered tonight for a special treat, but I'm already missing my curry! Hopefully there will be curry for breakfast tomorrow...

I put the V in D&V (but just a little bit)

I ended up getting mild sunstroke on our staff training trek yesterday - headache, nausea etc. and threw up after dinner (nothing to worry about at all, the medical team were amazing and I was very well looked after). Anyway, I was very sensible and left the campsite at 11pm last night to come back for a night's rest at fieldbase along with one of the medics, which I probably wouldn't have done if I were on a real trek but the management team were there with Ford Explorer anyway so I went for the easier / more risk averse option!

I did manage to cook dinner on the tranjia first, sit round the campfire, use the longdrop once and participate in the debrief before I threw up though! Anyway, I feel fine now, and had some lovely anti-nausea drugs from the medics that are usually available on prescription only (love having 3 GPs on our expedition), had a lovely night's rest, and have had a quiet morning doing washing, sorting stuff, checking email and chatting to Dr Antje (who is lovely German girl just qualified as a GP in Aberdeen).

Before getting sick, our trek yesterday was AMAZING... it was only about 11km total but we were practicing our sitreps and reports over the radio, and we saw temples, children, big bull shrine on top of Chamundi Hill, coconut groves, more temples, tuk-tuks, sugar cane juice sellers, butterflies, palm trees, palaces, eagles etc. etc.


Best of all, we saw monkeys and their babies, and saw one monkey mug an Indian woman and run off with her shopping. Apparently they are really naughty like that!


We also saw a massive snake and almost witnessed a bus run it over, but the bus did an emergency stop and the snake survived and slithered off into the undergrowth. I kept my distance but the others got a bit too close for my liking! When we were driving back to fieldbase last night over Chammundi Hill we also saw a wild sow and her piglets crossing the road.

On Sunday night we went into Mysore to the Maharaja's Palace to witness all the lights being turned on - over 97,000 light bulbs so quite an experience. We've been training from 8.30am till 10 or 11pm most evenings, but we've had two meals out at local hotels and the trip out to Mysore on Sunday which included a ride back in a tuk-tuk.

Best of all, the food is AMAZING. I didn't think I would want to eat curry three times a day, but it is so diverse and yummy and full of flavour that I love the stuff and am feeling perpetually starving and in need of more curry! It's not too hot either, I think because southern Indian food tends to use a lot of coconut and fragrant spices instead of chilli.

I find out my project assignments tomorrow morning I think - I've said that my ideal would be 2 environmental phases and 1 trek, but we'll see as it depends on who will work well together and all the different skill sets that we have and can bring to the project groups.

Must dash, as there is curry available for lunch and I am well over my sunstroke now!

Ummm... so where are we then?