Friday, Walked to the end of Temple Road, where you can get onto a walking track that circles around the Tsuglagkhang complex, which comprises the Tsuglagkhang or Tibetan Temple itself, the Tibet Museum and the residence of the Dalai Lama. Initially I started to walk up what I thought was the right track, but an old Tibetan monk coming down the track motioned to me, then explained in fluent Tibetan, that I was going the wrong way, and he walked with me and showed me the right road. The track going to the temple is very peaceful and has great views, with convenient benches where you can sit and soak up the atmosphere. Took some pictures around the temple, and later visited the Tibetan Museum. On the way back I realised I was on the road that the old monk had told me was the wrong way. As I was then closer to the temple than the way he had shown me, I wondered what could have been the matter with him. It was only later when I was re-reading what LP had to say about the temple, that I realised that, in Buddhist ideology, it is essential to circumnavigate the complex in a clockwise direction. The rest of Friday, and all of Saturday, I took it easy and fell into bludge mode.
On Sunday I was up at 6 am in order to walk to Triund at the top of the hills surrounding McLeod. After my trip of a few days back, where I had seemed to be flying blind much of the time, I decided to go on a 'guided' trip. I had enquired about this on Friday, as this travel place had advertised that they had guided trips leaving at 8 am every day, 750 rupees return, and they said it was okay to come at 8 on Sunday morning. Had an early brekkie at Nick's restaurant nearby and fronted up at 7.45. A guy cleaning the place was adamant that there were no walks to Triund today, so I went for a short walk around the main streets (unsuccessfully keeping an eye out for other travel places), and returned after 8, but still nobody had turned up. I then noticed a travel place advertising trips right opposite, and asked there if they knew if the first place was running trips to Triund today. They didn't, but said one of their guides was leaving on a 4-day trip going past there, and if I liked I could go to Triund with them, and walk back by myself afterwards. This would be 500 rupees, and I accepted with alacrity. My walking companions were Emma and Anthony from England. They have a place at Islington in London, which is the suburb where I lived for a year before being transported to Australia. Anthony does something suitably obscure in the banking industry, and Emma has just graduated, and is intending to do a Dip. Lib. I did my best to try and talk her out of it, to no avail. The walk up to Triund was some 7 or 8 kilometres uphill, all the way on a rocky trail. We did stop twice at tea-houses though, and on another occasion Babu, the senior of the two guides, called a halt, and produced life-saving cartons of yummy fruit juice for all. After this I seemed to get my second wind, and whereas I had previously been lagging behind a bit, I now began tearing up the hills, leaving the rest of our party far behind, and overtaking several others who had set out earlier. The views at the top were well worth the climb, with a 180 degree panorama of the snow-topped peaks of a spur of the Himalayas that dominates the whole of the area around McLeod. After a rice and dhal lunch, I said goodbye to Emma and Anthony, and set out to return, having been invited by Joyce and Tampa, two other 'day' walkers, to walk with them. Big Mistake! Talk about pride before a fall. I'm okay with climbing up hills, but going downhill (especially on steepish rocky trails) is another story. Joyce is the opposite, slowish going up, but away like a gazelle on the downward slopes, leaping from rock to rock, and all the while discussing hiking trips, such as the Inca Trail, etc. She lives on Dartmoor in Devon, and probably does a walk like this every day before breakfast. I totter along behind, and eventually Joyce gets so far ahead that she isn't seen again until the lowest tea house, where she has flagged a taxi to take us the last part of the trip. Tampa meanwhile has diplomatically dropped back some couple of hundred metres behind me, but the overall effect is that I descended a lot quicker than I should have, and when I get back to McLeod I'm so wrecked that I crawl into bed unfed and unwashed at 6pm, and don't get out till 15 hours later.
Post Mortem : (on contributory causes of down-hill problem).
1/ General stiffness and creakiness caused by Arthur (Ritis). Solution? Minimise by reverting to Paovo Airola's Anti-Athritis Diet?
2/ Since Belgium a couple of months back I notice a tenderness in my left ankle, but only when I'm on a decent (day-long) sort of walk. With rock-hopping it means that you have to always lead with the right foot, and be careful not to bash down the left one. Solution ? Get left ankle x-rayed later ?
3/ Because I have tri-focals, when I'm descending on a rocky trail and glance down at my feet I'm actually looking through the reading part of the lenses, and so see just a blur. The only solution would be to push my chin into my chest each time, which would be rather tiring, not to mention that one would appear to be imitating an over-amorous pigeon. Solution? Have a pair of distance or mid-distance/distance specs for walking ?
4/ Because my 'normal' weight is 10 to 10 and a half stone, and I'm currently tipping the scales at 12 and a half, it's like carrying an extra 28 lbs in your pack. Solution ? Ease up on the ice cream and chocolate?
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