Walking in the Wilderness

India February and March 2014, with Tropical Ice

Tropical Ice's "flagship" trip is its "Great Walk of Africa", 100 miles, on foot, through both halves of the Tsavo National Park. I've known two "graduates" of that trip, and have no doubt that, if you have the fitness for it, it would be an absolutely fabulous experience.

On our trip to India, there was also a walking element... but, obviously, there are differences between the two programmes. Partly, of course, due to the different environment. (Although I had, once in a while, to remind myself "No, you are not in Africa. This is India". The occasional feeling of being in Africa was quite strange.)

I must apologise for a fairly limited report on the walking aspects of the India trip. I have been lucky, traveled a lot, and very rarely been struck down by any illness. But no one, however careful, dodges the bullet forever, and I was laid low in the midst of the principal walking element.

AND, this page, in particular at the moment, needs work. But...

The "walking" parts of the trip were in Satpura, near the start of the trip, and as day hikes out of our hotel in Shimla, at the end of the trip.

Satpura Walks and Camps

In a nutshell... February 26th, day 4, we were driven a bit away from our nice hotel, Denwa Backwater Escape. (Which itself was out in a remote area.) Walked about five miles, down from a high hill down to the valley floor, in the upper reaches of the Denwa, deep inside a national park and tiger reserve. Arrived at a very nice, under- canvas home. Did walks... details below... usually changing "home" each night... and then, March 1st, day 7, walked "out" again, to vehicles, and were taken back to Denwa Backwater Escape.

Now, Satpura in detail... this section followed by information on the Shimla walks.

February 26th, 2014, "Day 4"

I was delighted to be able to take part in this walk. It wasn't very long. Having got nearly to our intended "jumping off" point, it became clear that there was some kind of traffic problem ahead. So we missed seeing the community founded by Forsyth (I think) at Pachmarhi (if indeed we were ever going to explore that), and launched into our hike. I'm delighted to say that where ever all those other people were going, it wasn't to where we were going!

In the course of the walk, we dropped about 500m, from a start on the top of the mesa at about 1000m. However, the path was reasonable. (Sadly, my tried and tested excellent Holuxes... two of them... did not cover themselves with glory on this trip, and I can't show your the exact profile of the walk. (A modern Sony digital camera was also having trouble getting a fix when it shouldn't have had trouble.))

Setting off, into the sal forest (the dominant tree is the "sal")... prime tiger habitat. Still at the high starting elevation. Near Pachmarhi.

It was fun to be "away from it all" in the wilderness. This walk seemed to be more about reaching a destination than enjoying wildlife, but we did pass through some marvelous scenerey.

We had goods view of some 100m or so cliffs where vultures nest, and heard about some things about the problems faced by them. Problems for vultures are problems for us, even if vultures aren't as media-cuddly as tigers or, say, pandas. But: no vultures, and we're going to have a lot of dead stuff lying around being smelly.

A fun thing someone showed us... When a fern is ready to release spores, if you put it on your arm and slap it, you get a "fern print".

Nice picnic lunch en route, and eventually arrived at our very comfortable camp on a broad sandy area by the river's edge.

View of neighborhood, at our first campsite.

Excellent tents, whole camp very "ship-shape and Bristol fashion". Including hot showers. "Camp" style... but first class camp style. This was not "roughing it", but it was "going back to a simpler life". Very enjoyable.

Beyond the well set up equipment, though, there was the superb service by the considerable numbers of friendly and efficient camp staff. Tropical Ice really know how to find The Right People. Everywhere, in every capacity, the people we were taken care of by were wonderful.

A little illustration of the Tropical Ice people being Right Thinking: On the night of 26/ 27 February, there was torrential rain and strong, gusty winds at about 5am. The camp staff were laughing like kids as they scrambled, in the pouring rain and the dark, to hold the tents down. They had been (extremely) well set up, and were first class tents... but a stake can only do so much in loose sand. The cheerfulness of the staff in the midst of what I would have seen as a pain in the neck was admirable. (Okay... the photo is staged... but it is faithful to "the games" played in the storm!)

Not content with trying to drown us from above, or blow us away, Mother Nature had another arrow in her quiver. There was a small stream coming down from the hills behind our leader's tent, which he was sharing with his twenty-something son. (Who contributed a lot to the trip.) Had no one noticed, their tent would have been "dropped" by several feet by the stream, which was doing a fine job of cutting away the bank just behind their tent, until it was noticed and the camp staff turned engineers in addition to dealing with the tents, and moved many, not-small, stones to prevent the erosion going too far.

So... Hats Off, and Thank You, to the staff who looked after us in the camps, to the staff at various hotels, to the drivers who moved us serious distances.

I was saying....

I enjoyed the first day's hike. And arrived at the camp quite comfortable. My knee had been "twinging" a bit, and I needed to be careful not to wrench that leg, but I wasn't even limping. My back... which is aching now, after too long at the keyboard... was not giving me any trouble at all. Muscles were not complaining. I had done some training in he weeks before the trip, believe it or not. (I am not a "sporty" type, I fear.)

Went to dinner, all well.

But towards the end of dinner was becoming aware that the knee wasn't happy. Didn't leave dinner "early", but got up to go as soon as polite... and found standing difficult. Knee had "frozen up" during the meal. But that was to become an academic side issue.

Went to bed. Knee was troublesome in the night. A little scary. Seemed maybe a ligament binding the knee capsule might have come adrift. Eventually learned, you know how it goes, that the thing I couldn't do was raise my heel towards my butt.

But... this soon became the least of my problems. I've done a lot of traveling. I'm careful- effectively so, it would seem from past good health. But no one dodges the bullet forever, and my time had come. Nauseous, but unable to bring anything up, much of the first night. That passed, thankfully. Delhi belly in spades for about 36 hours. Absolutely "laid out" the next day, and the night of 27/28 not a lot of fun, either, although by then I was getting the hang of my "new life", my new routine.

Enough! On that topic... but it explains why I didn't even consider....

February 27th, 2014, "Day 5"

Most of the group had the joy of two "out and back" hikes. I'm told they were wonderful. We were in the same camp two nights running. (From afternoon of 26th, to morning of 28th.)

Eva very kindly found a jam jar, and provided "the sick" with some very welcome "Get Well" wildflowers... a cheering kindness. Sadly, I failed to photograph them when they were fresh... they did look nicer than this, at one point!

February 28th, 2014, "Day 6"

I still didn't feel up to day's hike... which took (almost) everyone one else from our first home in the forest to our second.

A few of us went by vehicle to near the site of the camp we spent the night of

(MUCH HERE TO BE WRITTEN UP... SORRY... Much to tell... new camp, and experience of a VERY rural village, en route, for those who didn't walk that day.)

March 1st, 2014, "Day 7"

At last, I was feeling semi-human again, and with a precautionary Immodium, I was delighted to take part in the "walk out" hike. Met by vehicles. Taken back to Denwa Backwater Escape. (One last little "health" note... having been brought low by the guests in my alimentary tract, I then moved on to one of my periodic "allergy" melt downs. Even with the help of Benedryl, I was rather sneezy for a while... sorry, fellow travelers. Thank you Benedryl for making it less awful than it would have been.)

Question: How do nine tourists and two expedition leaders live in relaxed comfort in the wilderness?
Answer: Through well done planning, good equipment, and 22 people in the immediate neighborhood, skilled and hard working, to look after the tourists and trip leaders. (Plus other people in the camp, who did much more than take pictures, and even more people, elsewhere, providing critcal other support.)

  (Photo by M White, used with thanks).

So.. that's what I can tell you about the walking at Satpura. Sorry I was out of action, unable to record elements of it. Better to miss these no doubt splendid walks than to miss what was to come!

The return to the Denwa Backwater Escape eco-lodge after our Satpura walking was good planning by Tropical Ice. We had been able to leave surplus "stuff" there, while on the walk. It was a place we "knew", and we didn't face the normal "settle into a new place" issues, we just enjoyed returning to a known situation.

Shimla Walks

March 10, 11, 12- Wildflower Hall Hotel

(This page is a work in progress... sorry...

(This section still needs more post-trip editing... sorry...)

Day hikes out and back, March 10 & 11

Visit town of Shimla, morning of 11th.

Left: While not what the true walkers in our group would call a "walk", I had a very pleasant stroll along the ridge, in the private woods west and south of the hotel. Perhaps a mile, total, including "out" and "back".
Right: While it was nice, and not very cold, when I set out, happily I have spent time (at about the same elevation) in the Colorado mountains and know that the weather in mountains can change. Got my camera damp, which led to a very worried time the next day, but didn't get cold, having brought "more" than I needed. Missed some massive thunderstorms which were rumbling in the district, not long after I set out on my short stroll. (10 March 2014)

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