We set off from lakeview homestay with gay abandon and vigilence of the local biting wildlife lurking in the wet leaves; the dreaded leech. The path down to the lake was hard with our bags, we took a muddy short cut and ended up on our arses a couple of times. At the lake we managed to bargain with a jeep driver to take our bags ahead to yuksom. It was hard finding someone as most of the jeeps are booked up by indian tourists not wanting to sacrifice any of their comfort. So off the bags left with a kiss goodbye from their pessimistic owners who grumbled that theyll either be laying in a river or the driver's family will be adorning their contents by tea time.
So up the opposite hill we walked ( where we'd previously been on our trip to the lookout) and then started the first descent to the next valley. The terrain here is tough; no wide open flat valleys like the alps, it's perilously steep mountain side all the way to rapids and torrents that cut harshly between the slopes. The compacted clay tracks were slippery under foot and i was constantly checking for signs of movement in the leaves. As we passed through a particularly wet stretch with niki out in front i could see the little blighters extending their soft bodies up from the ground desperately trying to latch onto anything warm blooded and soft tissued. Theyre crafty sods these leeches. Contracted they are miniscule and almost undetectable then they throw their frontal extremities upwards to latch onto the animal that has woken their senses with its tread. They grip onto your shoes and quickly clamber up to the warm skin in a cumbersome but deceptively quick goose step. Theyre tough to get off as well. Kicking and scraping isnt that effective so a lighter has to be employed to release their grip. They can sink their teeth into you and gorge for minutes without you noticing, their saliva is an anaesthetic as well as a decoagulant. Niki found this out as she got to our hotel with a bloody sock but no leech to be found. Grim but to be fair this invertebrate packs some skills.
We passed through some neat villages exchanging shouts of "namaste!" to all we passed by. We crossed a couple of rudimentary bridges and started another ascent up a greasy vine fringed path. The flora here is ever changing; from tropical and steamy, insect infested jungle to fresh and cool alpine forests. Back down the other side of the peak we found the main road to yuksom and exhausted from the precipitous slopes we decided to stick to road for the last 8kms. We were soon required to cross a large bridge squatting over some tremendous rapids a hundred feet below. We took a pit stop here to take in the views and eat a lunch of crisps, biscuits and toffee sweets. We set an ambitious pace up the road to yuksom and passed more local villages and the 8km seemed to fly by. We got to the travel agent to pick up our bags and headed to our hotel, really feeling the pain in our stiff legs after the swift respite in the office.
At the hotel we took advantage of a rare luxury, a red hot shower to ease the pain of our weary and weakened frames and the thought of watching crap telly in bed was like charlie winning the golden ticket to the chocolate factory.
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