Yesterday Cassidy, Trish and I joined a few others on staff on a long hike. While no one knew the exact amount of ground we covered it was in the neighbor of 10-ish miles.
Cassidy was trying to weasel out of the hike but since it was my birthday we used that as leverage and she gave in. We left the front gate of the school and headed towards Dehradun. Which driving is just over an hour away, but we would be walking and taking a much more direct route. We would end up in Rajpur which is on the outskirts of Dehradun.
The walk eventually took us about 5 1/2 hours with some stops here and there. It was all down hill and we went from the cool mountain top to much warmer climate in the valley where tropical plants and cacti was growing.
Most of the walk we were off the roads. Apparently the road use to end at Rajpur and to get to Woodstock you would have to walk, or if you were really special you got carried. We were fortunate enough to be carried back up via taxi, but lets start at the beginning.
We walked through the bazaar where we had some monkeys in the electrical wires above which they walk on like expert tightrope walkers.
Some sights along the way just prior to our tea break.
We stopped for a tea and it gave us a nice break to share some snacks and chat.
Then we got back on the road and headed downhill. The monsoon has given the flowers a chance to explode in their color. Cows are protecting a random pile of bricks which seem to dot much of India. Ok, at least the parts I have seen. Like there has been construction that suddenly stopped. Or they are preparing for when they might need to build in a moments notice.
There was a band and fighting demonstrations, but sadly I ran out of battery power. It was one heck of a way to end my birthday walk.