The final count-down...

(Above: Sreejith on a river cruise restaurant, Raleigh style.)

Greetings avid blog followers.

I am pleased to present to you a blog with a headline reminiscent of yet another excellent 80s song title. The first one was "We built this basha city on rock and soul" which was, of course, a reference to Bernie Taupin's classic of 1985.

The point? Well, let's be honest here: After 32 blogs, 92,0000 words, 771 blog comments and possibly my first grey hair, we have reached the final week of Raleigh India.

[insert sigh of sadness/relief here]

And whilst looking for a snappy and readable headline for this edition, all I could keep thinking of was the ditty by Sweden's favourite sons of the 80s, Europe. Perhaps I'm scraping the the bottom of the cliche barrel as we trudge relentlessly towards the 100,000-word mark for the Raleigh India blog in what is most definitely the final countdown of this expedition.

But I think it's more likely that I'm procrastinating from giving you the Raleigh round-up for this week, becuase it will be one of the last times I will have the pleasure.

So, now that you're no-doubt humming Final Countdown to yourself (and if you don't know the song, you're probably wondering what on earth this blog is about) settle in to read the news as we launch into the last week of Raleigh 09C.

This week the Alpha Groups are finishing off their repective projects and planning for a series of inauguration ceremonies.

The cohort will return to Fieldbase on Friday for a series of activities called "wash-up", which is set to include a fashion parade, photograph exhibition, a party, endless games, and no-doubt some tearful farewells as the venturers prepare for life after Raleigh.

In the meantime, they're enjoying their last days on expedition! At Alpha 2, the gang continued their dressing up antics in the town of Kalaiahnahalla with a "weird" party, and rumour has it at least one venturer used badminton paraphernalia in their costume. Weird indeed.

Yesterday team toilet actually came back to Mysore to go to a GRS fantasty water park. They were joined by finance manager Paul Billet has since told me he got a great suntan and the venturers were in great form.

(below: Hobby and Remi show their enthusiasm when the fieldbase vehicle reached Kalaiahnahalla earlier this week.)

At Alpha 3, resident art-fanatic Hamish has been carving a totem-pole in honour of the two project managers, who have become known as Princess Jenny and Queen Andrew.

The race is on to complete the pole before the end of phase, as the Anti-poaching Camp will officially be opened on Thursday by the field director of Bandipur National Park and Tiger Reserve, Dr Raju.

After that, the gang go on an exclusive safari trip deep into Bandipur courtesy of the Karnataka Forest Department. The safari has been arranged as a thank-you for the hard work of the Alpha group, who finished the anti-poaching camp ahead of schedule.

(above: the almost-completed anti-poaching camp in the depths of Indian forest)

We are sure there are plenty of fingers crossed for another tiger sighting, but as we have all learnt in India, it is always a good idea to expect the unexpected!

(Below: PM Andrew with the totem pole in progress)

Over at Alpha 4, the group battled India’s public transport system to get to the tourist town of Ooty where in appropriate biblical style they discovered there was no room at the inn they had booked.

Fortunately it was only a two-hour wait of negotiating and searching before Team Elephant Fence found some alternate accommodation but it wasn’t really needed because the gang ended up nightclubbing in complete sobriety until the early hours. Meanwhile, PMs Neil and Matt spent the evening in Coffee Day like a pair of grandfathers, apparently not wanting to cramp the style of Guna on the dance floor! Unfortunately I have no pictures from the grand aventure up the mountain but please expect some soon.

And now, on to the trekkers, Alpha 1!

I have a super-special blog edition for you today from Alpha 1. Not only do we have a special-guest blogger in the form of Phase 2 and 3 explorer, Alex Watling, we have also welcomed back to field base photographer Anni who has brought with her a host of wonderful photographs from her 10 days out with the trekking group.

Before you start reading Alex's blog entry, we here at blog headquarters would like to issue this warning: Both the PRO and Alex speak with antipodean accents. This blog must be read with long vowel sounds reminiscent of a Neighbours character for it to make sense.

Read on!

(above: Eveline and Emma lead the Phase 3 Alpha 1 trekking group)

(picture: special guest blogger complete with Australian accent, Alex Watling)


Phase 3 kicked off with a spring in its stride. For Alpha 1, which consisted of the remaining 21 venturers who had not already completed the 200km Misappuli Mala trek, it was a daunting and exciting prospect. The 19 day trek promised to be the most challenging phase of our Raleigh experience and would show us the best of what Kerala had to offer.

It all started on a Sunday afternoon sorting through tents, porridge and the two recommended pairs of socks we were ordered to take. With occasional wise words from our mountain leader Ivan, it became very quickly apparent that this was going to be a strong group. One spine-tingling speech from Mark later, and our excitement was confirmed as we set off in for the two-day bus journey to the trek start in Kerala's Silent Valley.

Having underestimated the length of the bus journey, ipod batteries ran low very quickly, as did our junk-food supplies. However, spirits remained high, helped by a beef lunch just over the Kerala border. Beef is a rare treat in India and Kerala is reknowned for its food.

A quick overnight stop at an isolated hall saw the group rested, except for poor old Dr Andy who spend the night running to, and from, the toilets thanks to a staggering bout of D & V. Don't worry, he recovered quickly.

Another quick trip on the bus took us through steem mounatins and endless tea plantationt to our final spot. Water filled, packs on, we took our first momentous steps on the trek.

...

Thirty-five minutes later, we arrived at the campsite.

To be honest, that was a bit of an anti-climax after having heard tales of the struggle and desperation of the first day from the previous trek groups. However, we settled in and took in the mountainous viewed and ate our first trekking meal of rice, baked beans and tuna.
(Above: a big landmark on day six of trekking)

An early wake-up of 4.30am greeted our summit day. We broke camp and set off abotu 6am and walked strongly during the morning, reaching the summit at 11.30am.

We had heard tales of awe about the view from the top of Misappuli Mala, the second-highest peak in southern India, from the other group. And we were no different, the views from the top were spectacular, an unforgettable panarama of layered mountain peaks, distant sillhouettes amongst low clouds.

I will remember it always as a classic, definitive gap year moment.

A trip down the mountain was steep and trecherous and some used their ingenuity by sliding down the mountain on their arses (read more about that in Holly's blog)

Lost cigarette packets, anti-histamine packets and sewing kits were the result but we did save time and as a result, arrived at the world's highest tea plantation for a tour well ahead of schedule. We had a tour, some tea, then headed for our next campsite.
(Above: trekkers Ed Kneale, Eveline, Emily O and Petrina around the campfire during the trek)

Waking up the next morning was another surreal experience. We scrambled on top of big rock that overlooked views not so far inferior to that from the summit of the mountain, but this time it was with a 5.30am sunrise.

An uneventful walking day followed until we were abruptly stopped by one of our guides, telling us to be extremely quiet as there were two wild elephants in the area. Shortly after, we were told to run down a hill and back up another until we found ourselves at a small house overlooking a hill where we could see two, enormous elephants.

We followed a path and met two bird watchers who seemed more interested in a three-inch bird than they were the 12ft-wide elephants. Within an hour, we arrived at our third campside overlooking a lake where we could have a much-needed wash.

Afternoon activities includeda game of rounders, washing, swimming and for Chris... alone time. (pictured below)

The game of rounders was played with a stick and a ball of socks. Arguments are still going on as to whether Will actually made it to third base before Juliette tagged him.

The scenery continued to be amazing through the next few days and we noticed the villages we passed were getting larger.

On day 10, we reached Kumily, the biggest town we had encountered on our travels for a well-earned rest night. Sleeping in a small hotel was our retward and we enjoyed all things Western: beef, internet, clothes, cigarettes, television and a real bed. Some of the group even treated themselves to a night out at the cinema, where the latest Bollywood release was showing.

Ed, Tom and I had an Indian hairbut and came out looking 12 years younger. Even Ivan had some hair removed from the forest growing on his chin.

....


And from here, the blog boss will have to fill in the gaps for you because this is where Alex's blog entry ended.

Today the trekkers are on their first rafting day, and tomorrow they will finish up their epic adventure before boarding a bus and coming back to Fieldbase to celebrate the end of their expedition.


So that's it from Raleigh India for today.

If you haven't done it already, please do tell your mates about the Global Giving link that will help build homes for people living in remote Indian villages. Find the link on the right-hand column of this blog, and the instructions at the bottom of the Good Friday blog post.

You can even give your friends the link to the inauguration blog which has lots of info about the houses.

There will not be a new blog post for a few days now as most of the fieldbase staff will be out at inauguration ceremonies or preparing for washup.

Rest assured I will post new updates on how the end of expedition really goes as soon as practicable.

Happy last week of expedition, everyone.

*sniff*