October 6- from the itinerary: Full day independent. Enjoy the resort grounds and facilities.
The day started with the very civilized British custom of having tea in bed at 7:30. I decided to have it looking out my window at the garden and morning clouds. There were some lovely shortbread cookies with it.
Strangely I feel a bit like I am in Africa instead of northern India, but it's probably the misty clouds and colonial vibe
Breakfast was in another nearby bungalow and was very restful and very British, with the exception of a wasp that thought I smell like a flower.
There were some beautiful views and flowering/fruiting plans including pointsettias and palmetto trees. While sitting there I saw my first common birdwing butterfly which, it appears, is poisonous!
Quite a hike today. Total turned out to be about 8 miles and elevation increase was about 2000 feet from around 3000 to 5000 feet. It was very hot and there wasn’t enough water available- I was so hot it was like I had taken a shower. The views were nice at the top, but I was straining due to too much breakfast. We came down and had lunch, all guests together at the “fruit orchard” for a Nepali lunch. It was very tasty, but I couldn’t eat too much.
This was lucky because we had to walk back to the estate. Denish (guide) was setting a very fast downhill pace. We ended up arriving about 2-3 minutes after the old couple that took the jeep.
Along the hike we saw a big spider !(Linus hand for comparison). We also saw monkeys, a baby goat and lots of cats today- first I’ve seen. Flora included marajuana plants. NO STINGING FLIES!!!! Liz/Chris (the other guests) did waterfall walk from yesterday in flip flops! They were nuts. Apparently one of her flops broke and she had to do some of it barefoot- no way!!!!!
I had a bath drawn and they added oat, mint and rose petals. The water was very hot and it felt very good! They also offer a boot brushing service- very civilized!
Dinner was Mongol and included the most wonderful garlic naan and lentils I’ve had. had a beer with dinner which tasted wonderful. 3 new guests from Germany Andreas, his friend whose name I never got, and Sabine. I don’t know a lot about them yet, other than one is of Indian birth, a biologist, and has been living 20 years in Germany. He is gay and Andreas is traveling with them. Sabine is their good friend who they invited to join on the trip. I like Sabine. It is her first trip to India and she is rather overwhelmed. The Andreas’ luggage was lost and they took Lufthansa so he may never see his luggage again. They flew into Delhi this morning, caught the connection to Bagdogra and then were driven the 4 hours here - very long day for them without sleep.
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