Day 59 (Mon 4 Sep) - McLeod Ganj
We got up, had breakfast and went to see what delights the tourist office could give us.
We asked if they had any information on short walks in the area. The tourist official just looked at us blankly as if we'd asked for a ticket to the moon. Then just said no he didn't... and that was that! No other suggestions, he just went back to reading his newspaper. After we didn't budge he finally suggested we go to a local bookshop.
After some searching around we found a map at a bookshop but it didn't have any short walks. We decided to head off to Dal Lake a few hours walk away.
Our map wasn't very helpful so we followed the sign posts out of the town. We were following the main road out of McLeod but we realised that it was the wrong road; from our map we saw another road marked that would take us to the lake. Tried to find it with no luck.
By this time we have been walking for over half an hour and we were pretty hot. We decided to turn back. Not long after we found our missing road. We realised how unfit we are, especially Jo, as we had to stop every couple of metres on the steep road to catch up our breath.
We finally reached the "sacred lake" and were surprised to see two brightly coloured pedalos tied up at the edge of the lake. We didn't have to wait long before a loud indian family took the pedalos out into the lake - what a sight!
We decided to walk higher up to the little village of Naddi. It was quite a struggle but it was worth it for the amazing views of the valley. Sarb then spotted a sign for a cafe further up the mountain, Jo reluctantly followed him. When we finally reached the cafe it was closed down so we sat down on some rocks to catch our breath. Suddenly a herd of goats came along, and one of them decided to rub himself up against the rock Jo was sitting on. He was very persistent and nearly pushed Jo off ( [1], [2] ).
As we sat admiring the view the clouds came down so we couldn't really get any photos to do the view justice, or to show how far up we had climbed.
Headed back to McLeod Ganj. By the time we got back we were pretty hot and tired so we dived into McLos for a drink. Jo just had a soft drink but Sarb had a couple of beers which went straight to his head.
We went back to the hotel for a rest, witnessed a beautiful sunset and then had a fabulous dinner at Nick's Italian kitchen. We sat on the roof terrace and had delicious home made ravioli and garlic bread. We walked back to the hotel, Sarb managing to walk twice the distance as he zig zagged the roads, and a good nights sleep.
We asked if they had any information on short walks in the area. The tourist official just looked at us blankly as if we'd asked for a ticket to the moon. Then just said no he didn't... and that was that! No other suggestions, he just went back to reading his newspaper. After we didn't budge he finally suggested we go to a local bookshop.
After some searching around we found a map at a bookshop but it didn't have any short walks. We decided to head off to Dal Lake a few hours walk away.
Our map wasn't very helpful so we followed the sign posts out of the town. We were following the main road out of McLeod but we realised that it was the wrong road; from our map we saw another road marked that would take us to the lake. Tried to find it with no luck.
By this time we have been walking for over half an hour and we were pretty hot. We decided to turn back. Not long after we found our missing road. We realised how unfit we are, especially Jo, as we had to stop every couple of metres on the steep road to catch up our breath.
We finally reached the "sacred lake" and were surprised to see two brightly coloured pedalos tied up at the edge of the lake. We didn't have to wait long before a loud indian family took the pedalos out into the lake - what a sight!
We decided to walk higher up to the little village of Naddi. It was quite a struggle but it was worth it for the amazing views of the valley. Sarb then spotted a sign for a cafe further up the mountain, Jo reluctantly followed him. When we finally reached the cafe it was closed down so we sat down on some rocks to catch our breath. Suddenly a herd of goats came along, and one of them decided to rub himself up against the rock Jo was sitting on. He was very persistent and nearly pushed Jo off ( [1], [2] ).
As we sat admiring the view the clouds came down so we couldn't really get any photos to do the view justice, or to show how far up we had climbed.
Headed back to McLeod Ganj. By the time we got back we were pretty hot and tired so we dived into McLos for a drink. Jo just had a soft drink but Sarb had a couple of beers which went straight to his head.
We went back to the hotel for a rest, witnessed a beautiful sunset and then had a fabulous dinner at Nick's Italian kitchen. We sat on the roof terrace and had delicious home made ravioli and garlic bread. We walked back to the hotel, Sarb managing to walk twice the distance as he zig zagged the roads, and a good nights sleep.
posted by Jo and Sarb at
9/04/2006 05:35:00 am
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