Take me to the river

After only a few hours sleep in a new bed surrounded by new people and new noises, the venturers had to rise before sunlight, eat their first mess tin of porridge and head off for three days of training in the beautiful Indian countryside.

Everyone was divided into six groups for the first few days of training and we headed out to catch up with them on their long, hot treks.

The first group we met up with was India 1 (Project managers Eeva and Stuart) and we caught up with them near a river just as they were finishing lunch and applying more sun cream.

India 1 on trek

India 1
Back row L-R - Ben, Maddy, Stuart (PM), Emily, Eeva (PM), Simone, Chris, Hugh and Dan
Front row L-R - Sarah, Guy, Jen (Comms), Lauren. Sean, Book. 

Everyone was very hot and very sweaty (a recurring theme for all the teams) but in very good spirits. We managed to catch up with Ben from Camden, Lauren and Sarah who were both sporting excellent sunglasses, Guy and Book who are both currently living in Hong Kong, Maddy and Emily, Sean from Doncaster, Ben from Glasgow dressed all in blue (great smurf costume in the making), Hugh from Coventry as well as Simone and Dan from Holland. 


After a quick chat about Basshunter it was time to let them go on without us as we then headed off to meet India 6 (project managers Stuart and Susan).

India 6
Back row L-R - Dharmendra, Thatte, Anne-Romee, Anna, Alexander
Front rows L-R - Philip, Sam, Georgina, Ellie, Rachel, Susan (PM), Stuart (PM), Laura, Robert, Samantha

India 6 on trek

Some of the locals joined us on the shade.

This group had been racing ahead and overtaken one of the others groups even though they had stopped quite a bit as Thatte, one of our vanturers from Goa, had been showing lots of dead snakes.

We sat with them for a break under some much needed shade as Rachel from Perth did a great communication check back to field base. In this group we have, Philip and Anne-Romee from Holland, Dharmendra, Thatte, Laura, Ellie, Georgina, Samantha, Robert, Sam, Alexander, Anna and Rachel. 


After stealing some of their biscuits we watched them head off over the hill singing at the top of their voices as we headed off to catch up with the group India 4 (project managers Celine and Dan).

India 4
Back row L-R - Florine, Lauren, Sophie, Ameze
Front row L-R - Celine (PM), Lucy, Danielle, Keiran, George, Andrew, Rachel, Ed, Jonathan and Dan (PM)

We tried so surprise them but with little luck as some of the local villagers had gone on ahead and told them that their friends were waiting for them. However they thought that ‘their friends’ would be India 6 and that they could overtake them but alas it was only us which now explains the disappointed looks on their faces as we met up. 

India 4 on trek

India 4 had had a tough day as they’d started later than everyone else so the heat had been tough to walk through.

But as we met them just two hours before sunset it was starting to cool down again and camp was getting closer and closer. Despite getting little sleep and the long day they’d had, the group were also all pretty chirpy as we did the last stretch of the trek.

However, everyone soon learnt that once at camp the work isn’t over, tents still need to be set up and dinner cooked for all those hungry stomachs. But luckily this was all done under an amazing sunset on the nearby river so it wasn’t all bad.

Sunset at camp

The work continues

India 2 get the dinner on.

India 4 cook up a storm, otherwise known as super noodles.

After a dinner of noodles round the campfire in their groups, it was time to catch up on the day, make sure everyone was ok and then back to the tents for some sleep accompanied by the howling of some local dogs. 

Everyone was then up at sunrise the next day to make porridge and head out for a shorter trek to the river where the swim assessment was taking place.

We walked to the river with India 2 (Project managers Kate and Mona) who had discovered the wonder of group massages to ease away those shoulder pains. In this group we have, Alexander, James, Martyn, Holly, Clare, Daphne, Caz, Sophie, Scott, Lottie, Felix, Louise and Sian.

India 2 share a group massage along the way.

India 2 - joined by a few locals, their mode of transport and their cow.
Back row L-R - Scott, Kate (PM), Felix, Alex, Holly, Martyn, Sian, James, Clare, Mona (PM)
Front row L-R - Sophie, Louisa, Lottie,Daphne, Cas. 

The water was a welcome break from the heat for everyone and also a chance to feel clean again as many haven’t had time to wash since arriving at field base. One early group was even joined in the river by some of the local cows which must have been quite an experience. After noticing all the humans in their river, the cows went quickly went off doing backstroke away from the group so all was well in the end.

Ben wins the best towel competition.

Down at the river for the swim test.

India 2 take a dip

After the swim tests we walked back to camp with India 5 (project managers Ros and Naomi) made up of Andy, Richard, Katy, Elliott, Binika, Karla, Rebecca, Louis, Ross, Philip, Ellie and Georgie. It was great to spend some time with the venturers and see how they’re feeling about it all, very tired but having a great time seems to be the general feeling which is a good start.

India 5
Back row L-R - Becky, Ross, Andy, Elliott, Karla, Louis, Binika, Philip, Georgie, Richard
Front row L - R - Naomi (PM), Ros (PM), Katy, Ellie.

After the swim test it was back to camp for everyone to carry on with more training on first aid and radio communications in any shady spot that they could find before enjoying cheese and crackers or rice for lunch.

We finally managed to catch up with India 3 after lunch. The project managers are Dave and Cat and in the group we have Nic, Laura, Emily, Fieke, Clare, Jessica, James, Alice, Phil, Sunil, Wieger, Sachin and Genevieve.

India 3
Back row L-R - Nic, Phil, Wieger, Sunil, Laura, James, Dave (PM), Genevieve, Sachin, Alice
Clare, Fieke, Emily, Jessica, Cat (PM) 

Then just as the sun was going down last night we were joined by the amazing Snake Shyam from Mysore. He’s the local snake man that everyone calls if they’re having snake problems so he can rescue them and releases them back into the wild.

It was amazing to see the snakes he brought with him which got bigger and bigger as we went on and some people were brave enough to hold them, not me though! Then it was finally time to see what was in the big box at his feet - a huge spectacled cobra, a really beautiful snake. When held by a professional from a distance of course.

After all the excitement of the snakes it was back to making dinner round the campfire and another night in the tents.

Now we’re all back at field base and everyone is getting closer and closer to that much needed shower, once they’ve cleaned all their trek kit and tents of course.

We’re all getting a bit excited here today too as in addition to the luxury of having a cold shower using a bucket and a jug, everyone will also find out this evening which project they will be heading out to for Phase 1 which starts on Thursday. Once the announcements have been made this evening, we’ll be back with a full update on who’s going where tomorrow.

On behalf of everyone here, I wanted to say a huge thanks to you all for the many messages you’ve been sending in, everyone absolutely loves receiving them. Each of them is printed out and handed over to the person individually and there are little blog mail smiles spreading through the groups now.

Now that everyone is back at field base they have an opportunity to give me messages to send back to you also so I’ll post these in a few days when they’ve recovered from the last few days and had a chance to write them.

Oh and for those of you that may be wondering what the heck as happened to Kate and Wills the toads, I’m sorry to report that there have been no further sightings here so they must still be on their way back from Kerela. I think there are so many people here at field base now that all our pets have hidden away for a while, or we just can’t see them through all the people.

Back soon.