Tales from Kerala and Fieldbase antics

(Above: Phase Two Fieldbase medic Andrew Cox reading a bit of Emily Bronte during poetry night)

Happy Monday everyone!

We sincerely hope you all survived Friday 13th and had a wonderful weekend, we've heard it's started to warm up (cough... really??) in Europe. As for India, it's finally started raining which is great for the forest but does cause some complications for our intrepid workers out on the proejcts. (pictures: Rain cascading off the Fieldbase roof and Logistics Manager Amanda Ockwell preparing the many, many loop requests from Alpha 4.)

This morning our able admin volunteer Lucy, photographer Anni and country programme manager Mark jumped into the Raleigh SUV with Girish to head out to a triple-loop to Alpha 2, 3 and 4. So there will be lots of news from them towards the end of the week. (pictured: Mark Ashby preparing for the triple-loop visit)

For the rest of us at Fieldbase, we've continued our cultural tour of Mysore which started last week when we attended a performance of a string quartet from the Vienna Chamber Orchestra who were o tour of India. (I will also point out that right now as I write this, Andrew is also extending is cultural diversity by playing Britney Spears really loudly in the Fieldbase office.)

We’ve also been to the Mysore art gallery and had a poetry night, which Dani opened with a quote from the Dead Poet’s society before reading Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem, If.

Our resident Scot recited a poem by Scotland's favourite son, Robbie Burns, Andrew got into a bit of Emily Bronte, I read the Banjo Patterson classic "Clancy of the Overflow" and Mark…

Well we think Mark read this "poem" by the literary behemoth that is someone called Ne-Yo.

We have also discovered one of Fieldbase's lesser-known residents, an owl which lives in a hollowed-out coconut tree in the courtyard, has hatched a little owlet, which has got all of us chasing away the miner birds which have been trying to oust the owl and take over the Fieldbase nesting post.

And now, for a quick whip-around the Alpha groups...

Alpha 1 had a day off yesterday and went to the village of Nedumkandam where they picked up some chicken for dinner, ably-cooked by super- guide Aaron. The trekkers did get a bit on the damp side with a downpour shortly after deployment but fortunately they’ve been visited by Lucy and Vijay on the loop who took out a swag full of wet weather gear.

At Alpha 2, they’ve replaced a few plastic chairs that got broken at the school and have put in some requests for paint to decorate the Jagankorte school where they’re staying. PM Matt celebrated a birthday, and on that note, Fieldbase has received a loop request from fellow A2 PM, Liz, for earplugs as she's sharing a tent with Matt and apparently, he snores.

At Alpha 3, they’ve relocated the Raleigh campsite down the hill and yesterday took an excursion to a nearby waterfall. At a guess there was probably a bit of water coming down it because on their second night at Kappikadu, a couple of tents got washed out in a good bit of rain.

And at Alpha 4, the bamboo city is going well with the most recent addition to the Anaikatty camp being a super-sized teepee complete with fire in the middle of it to protect them from the downpours that have been soaking everyone. Today they've gone to Massanagudi, a nearby village, to have lunch.

And now, we have a special-guest blogger who has just returned from the trek loop! Thanks to Lucy Holloway for putting fingers-to-keyboard for this one.

Hi everyone. This is guest-blogger Lucy here, standing in for PRO Peta while she is busily selecting pictures for the Raleigh magazine from the (literally) thousands taken by photographer Annie, and the thousands more taken by the Venturers. Although the photos look amazing, it’s a hard job, and I’m glad it’s not me that has to do it!

Vijay, 60/60 and I have just returned from a four day jaunt down to visit the trekkers in Kerala where we dropped off some much-needed supplies. I can report that the trekkers are getting on really well, despite some heavy rain that took them a little by surprise (Vijay and I made a lot of people happy by arriving with a bag of assorted waterproofs on Friday evening). They are all enjoying themselves, and even the rain can’t keep them down - the general consensus is that it’s actually better than the sun, as it makes walking uphill easier!

(Below: The new Alpha 1 trekking group hit their straps)
On Thursday, the trekkers successfully climbed the second highest mountain in India outside of the Himalayas. The day was made even more special as it was Zoe’s 19th birthday. She reported that it was the best birthday she’d ever had, having a bit of everything: fantastic scenery; great achievement; and even a bit of excitement and adversity, when she was forced to abandon her tent in the middle of the night due to the river that suddenly developed running through it. All was well in the end though, as she and her two tent-mates were able to sleep inside a nearby shelter, which remained dry (ish) all night.

When we met the trekkers on Friday evening they had just completed one of their longest days. Despite having been on the road for nearly ten hours, they all remained upbeat and were very pleased to see us. I am sure that had nothing to do with the fifty-odd bars of chocolate we were carrying in the car in the Raleigh shop. The trekkers reported that on their way to meet us they had seen an elephant, and nearly lost their guide and several members of Alpha 1 (including Angel and Rosanna) in the depths of a muddy bog. Thankfully all the Venturers were safely extracted from the mud, although the same can’t be said for Zoe’s and Murgesh’s sandals.

I awoke on Saturday morning to the sound of the whole of Alpha 1 (who were now used to getting up at 5 am in the morning) singing ‘happy birthday’ to Hannah. The day was bright and clear, and some of the more bloodthirsty members of Alpha 1 were already discussing plans to cook a chicken curry from scratch in honour of Hannah’s birthday when they reached their campsite later that afternoon. Sadly Vijay, 60/60 and I did not get to enjoy the curry, as we had to get starting on our two-day journey back to field base. We did, however, take a sneak peek at the campsite they were heading for (where they spent a well-deserved rest day on Sunday), and can report that it is lovely, and even comes complete with its own ducks.

I envy the trekkers immensely - Kerala really is beautiful, and the mountains they are trekking through are simply stunning. I am not sure I envy them their food however, which consists mainly of tuna and pasta, tuna and noodles, or tuna and rice. And porridge, of course.

(Above: Guna, Angel and Zoe with... well, we're not entirely sure.)