IntoIndia

Posted: Thursday 01st January 1970

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We arrived early in the morning at Delhi Station and forged through the throngs of people and smells to get on our waiting coach. Sharon left us at this point as she had extended her journey to go and meet some old VSO friends down south. The coach continued the journey down to Agra, stopping for breakfast on the way. We transferred onto an electric bus in Agra “Clean Agra Green Agra” (a misleading statement) and were driven to the Taj Mahal and guided around this fantastic building finished in 1653.

 

We then went for lunch in a revolving restaurant and then onto a shop to buy some souvenirs whilst a few visited the Red Fort. Jam organised a trip to the barbers for Frank, me and himself for a cutthroat razor shave and face massage to get rid of two weeks growth, which cost 60p! We travelled back by coach to Delhi stopping on the way for a final dinner and celebrated Claire’s birthday with another pre-ordered cake. We got to the Surya Palace Hotel late in the evening and chilled out in the sitting area with some drinks. Soon the local wildlife showed itself as a rat darted across the room, straight at Marks S who was sitting on the floor. Mass hysteria followed with people jumping onto chairs and tables, beer bottles flying through the air and girly screams from all – the same people who had remained cool and calm a few metres away from a tiger. The rat eventually ran out from under the sofa and legged it down stairs, whilst everyone made sure their room door was closed.

Another early morning for our final coach drive to Delhi Airport. We said our fond farewells to Jam at the airport security entrance and dragged suitcases and kayaks through to check in. Each kayak had to be wheeled to the other end to be x-rayed and then wheeled back to be taken off for loading. The flight back home was fairly uneventful, I had strapped in and fallen asleep and missed take-off altogether and woke up over Afghanistan for the first of two last curries. The kayaks were safely returned to us at Heathrow and we were soon on the coach back to the PCC with the boats in a van behind. Re-united with our families, we were off for a real beef burger! The expedition was certainly no holiday, but nevertheless highly enjoyable. Everyone, especially the young members, was a credit to the trip. Hardly a cross word was said (possibly a few mumblings under their breath) and everyone got on well together. Despite the fact that there were 37 people on the trip plus Jam’s team of 16, it never felt too big and cumbersome. The cooks provided loads of tasty dishes at every meal, however, curry, day after day can get a bit monotonous. Every place we stayed seemed to provide the same staple dishes, but we did get the occasional Chinese or pasta dish.

 

Delhi belly was a constant problem and it lasted a good week after we returned – a few people managed to avoid it. The kayaking and rafting provided a real challenge, stretching everyone’s abilities and providing some exciting challenges. The Himalayan foothills and river provided some breathtaking scenery and camping on the beaches was superb. Singing songs to a guitar around the camp fire was great fun. Richard’s song “The Kali River Browns” should be out on cd before Christmas. Camp Forktail Creek was fantastic – a little bit of paradise in the jungle. I wish we could have stayed there another couple of days. I missed Chris being followed down the path by a wild pig and Alison seeing a pair of big cats eyes staring out of the darkness on the path – tiger tracks were spotted later that day just outside the camp.

It was sad that Les had a heart attack two and half weeks before departure and he and Liz had to drop out. He has had three stents inserted into his heart valves and is recovering well – they both missed seeing the exploits of their Explorer Scouts. I was glad we were able to support the 3 community projects and hope to be able to send off our financial donations shortly. The blind school have collected their three suitcases of donated items plus some specialist blind equipment from Delhi (Liz and Les were to have flown it up to them at Kullu). The children at the orphanage were poor but happy and I think both them and us had a great time. The children at SOF were also from very poor families and the school hand-picked children that wanted to learn and kitted them out with uniforms. Whilst the formal presentations were going on the kids were well behaved and it was only when we started playing games with them outside that they let their hair down and had some fun. Both the projects in Delhi were doing good work and I felt that our visit and gifts were well received. I think our young people realised what a privileged life they lead in the UK and perhaps material possessions aren’t as important as they thought before.

Transport was a constant source of bemusement. Public buses and lorries were in terrible condition and we felt luxurious next to them in our ancient coach. We saw bike tyres held on with rope, a bike transporting 4 huge gas cylinders, constant hooting, total disregard for the oncoming traffic, even if you were on their side of the road, trailers with 30 people in being towed by a tractor, cows sitting in the middle of the road and nobody seemed to move out of the way but we didn’t see any accidents. The poorest caste were used for road repairs and lived in hovels by the side of the mountain roads that pigs would refuse in the UK. We stopped to buy a rope to tie on the roof rack mounted suitcases and a funeral parade passed our stopped coach with the body at shoulder height (or window level) covered by a blanket. It was being carried down to the local river for cremation.

The trip was certainly fascinating and one that will be remembered for a long time. We achieved everything we set out to do – will UK rivers be so exciting now?