Day 9

Everything felt so much better this morning and now less fazed by the crowds, we headed out through the busy market streets for a spot of shopping before heading off to our next stop - the wilderness.

Flora is quite sensitive to the smells (not even particularly unpleasant smells - she isn't keen on spicy smells at all) and wandered round with her hand (or preferably someone else's cardigan) over her face half the time. Apart from that, we quite enjoyed our purchasing and have picked up lots of bits we didn't need for almost no money!!

Then a short hop to our mountain camp, but the most bizarre drive I have ever had. A few km out of Haridwar we headed off the main road (such as it was) on to a dirt track which meandered along a river bed for miles and miles. In fact 'meandered' is far too tame a word, but I can't think of an appropriate one. It is really hard to explain just how extraordinary this journey was and quite how confused we felt about where we were heading! We bumped along over rocks and ditches, occasionally stopping to see if the next bit of river we had to cross was actually shallow enough for us to drive through. We had no idea of where we were heading because we could see nothing at all for miles forward or backwards, except more of the same, and on either side of us were steep mountains with the occasional little house or farmer walking goats or cows down to the river to drink. Finally one red roof came into view perched on the side of the hill and our guide announced we were 'there'! All I could think was 'please no-one fall ill or have an accident because heaven knows how many hours it would take us to reach any medical help'!

I shouldn't have worried, our jungle camp was amazing and one of the best places we have been to. We were in 'tents', actually canvas houses complete with their own really cute bathrooms and flushing loos and everything was so impeccably clean and comfortable and the people working here lovely. From the dining area under a thatched roof right at the top of the camp, we could see for miles and watch a dozen or so local youngsters in a field below us playing cricket.

In the afternoon we went for a long walk along the river bed without seeing a soul and then back to camp for lots of card games, a camp fire and even hot water bottles to take to bed! And as it got darker we saw lights come on in about 10 little houses on the hill facing us that we hadn't even been able to see in the daylight. And since it is Diwali tomorrow, a few even had flashing fairy lights up. A really fabulous place - we feel lucky to be here.