A 13 hour trip

We were all up early and on the bus by 7am a little bit anxious about the " 10 hour trip ahead of us and the state of the roads!
Off we bounced and had not been going long when the driver pulled over to have a quick prayer at the Hindu temple on the side of the road. We hoped he was doing the prayer for the team.
On we went with mist on all the hills and the raging river beside us. It wasn't too long before we came to a huge traffic jam in the gorge. With great boulder cliffs hanging over us, it's not the kind of place you want to be in. It turned out that a truck was on its side and a grader as well so hence the jam.
Finally we got through but the bus wasn't sounding too good and the air-conditioning wasn't working. Farmer Frank thought it was the fan belt.
After a couple of stops an a couple of hours it became clear that the bus was in trouble so off we got in an " interesting town" an found a very nice restaurant to have lunch at.
After much discussion it was decided that our supposed destination was just going to be too far so a decision was made to go to Shimla only supposedly 4 hours away.
It took a couple of hours for the bus to be fixed and off we set again. What a trip !
Winding around hill after hill with sheer cliffs below us and some hair raising moments as our driver although very good is also very fast. Our internal organs were fair rocking and rolling.
There were a few near misses but I logged into.my talking book as was too stressful to be looking at what was on the road.
Finally we got to Shimla but still took another hour and a half to get through the city. Shimla is at approx 6 thousand feet with a population of 250 thousand so not big in India standards but it's really spread out and built on steep steep cliffs.
The drive down to the hotel is so steep the bus couldn't get down.
We had an amazing welcome into the beautiful hotel set amongst firs and pine trees and all given the little fez type Indian hat.
Totally exhausted so was a quick meal and now in bed. Looking forward to exploring Shimla tomorrow.
Great to see more gold medals for NZ. India very excited with the bronze they got in the men's hockey!Читать далее