Thalacauvery - April 15

Easy walk today. Spoke with Preetam-san in the evening. He told me about the children in Shoja - grandchildren in a joint family who run up and down the hill, play in the mud and are very cute. He asked me to bring chocolates for them when I come to Himachal, I'll remember to do that. Rest - life is dragging a little. Today we found one leopard scat. There were a couple of other scats too, but too old to determine which animal was responsible for them. It usually rains in the evenings here. The roads become wet and a kind of mist starts rising from the roads. I don't know if it's mist or vapour, but it sure creates a nice effect. Sometimes it becomes so dense and rises so high that visibility is drastically reduced. Looks like an ideal setting for some horror show or movie - twilight, rain drenched roads, with mist rising. Reminds me of some X-Files episode. It gets quite cold here at night. And the problem if you come late from the walk is - you've got to fetch water from the well in the dark, and these days there are leeches in there too. Which reminds me, I had a close encounter with leeches today. One almost got me you know. I made a loud hue and cry and much jumping around, to the amusement of our guide, a local guy. Ap helped remove the thing off me. I am sure to get bitten one day, the sooner I get rid of this leech hang-up, the better. So lemme look at this slimy creature with sympathy, and give it all the respect it deserves for its place in the universe.

View from a high point

View from a high point