Trekking

Many things to be said today, but once again no pictures. I am an avid believer in, 'a picture says a thousand words', especially when I, myself, are somewhat limited in time and linguistic poetic-ness. We are in Mt.Abu as I have stated in my previous post. Mt. Abu is the smallest place we have been so far, population 20 000. You may say that this is still a significant amount of people but it feels deserted. It is beautiful. The town is build around Nakki lake, which is said to have come into being by Krishna. Krishna is a reincarnation of Vishnu. Using his, Krishna's, nail he scratched the surface of the earth in order to produce this magnificent body of water. Surrounding the lake are mountains. A few days ago I was unsure whether to call them hills or mountains but after a day's trek into them I can say without doubt , they are mountains. We trekked to 1730m. Above the clouds we looked out on the flat desert land of Rajasthan. Our guide Charles, a native of Mt. Abu was hilarious as well as knowledgeable about the regions' flora and fauna. He did impressions of all the British, French and Korean tourists' he has taken on treks. He did it with impressive accuracy.

We began around 7 in the morning, a jeep took us to the edge of a national park but could not take us further for it is prohibited. We trekked for about 3 hours before stopping among the tribal community that lies in the hills. these old men would not stop smiling. they though our presence was stupendous. They were men of around 45 who looked 65 but were so happy with their lives. They lived in the hills by choice with their small stone hut and their cows who gave them milk. They said we were huge and laughed at the Indian cricket team, which they listen to through a broken down radio. They said our size and strength outdid the entire teams. They did not speak English but Charles translated. The laughed, we laughed although we did not understand until after the translation.

If I don't publish this now I'll never do it...Sorry folks! Tell more late..Look at photos, the old man from the mountains is there.