A day in Manali

We had a day in Manali to help acclimatise to the altitude. We were supposed to visit an artist and then spend the morning at Naggar Castle. The drive up was through some lovely woods.

Unfortunately, the artist was away when we got there so we went straight to Naggar which is an old, traditionally built castle with a mixture of wood and stone walls and some amazing carving.

There was a lizard running around the log walls and the views were stunning.

We returned to the hotel for lunch and then walked into town to suss out the shops which was an interesting experience and we improved our bartering skills although I decided to leave most of it until we come back next week. In the evening we went to a music event as it was one of the girls birthdays.

Delhi to Manali.

An early morning call that didn't come, so lucky we had the alarm, had us up about 5.15 with a simple breakfast of melon and yogurt and a cup of tea. The jeeps were loaded ready for the trip to Chandigarh.

It was quite an undertaking with a gang of coolies portering our luggage to the exact spot on the platform where our coach would stop. One of the party had to return to the hotel to retrieve her bag, but this was soon sorted out. Once the train arrived our stuff was loaded onto the luggage racks and we sorted out our seats. It was an AC car coach and the AC was very welcome. The train left punctually and it was an interesting ride to Chandigarh through both urban and country landscapes.

Many of the towns and villages have rubbish dumps and pools outside the walls where pigs of every size rooted and wallowed and the morning ablutions just outside Dehli were crowded places with young boys and men dotted all over the place. The area we travelled through is the Basmati rice basket of India and there were certainly lots of paddy fields at different stages from just planted to nearly done.

There were several birds seen from the carriage with Red-wattled Lapwing, Glossy and Sacred Ibis, Squacco Heron, Jacana and hundreds of Cattle Egrets, with very bright heads in the wet areas. A Coucal flashed into view and the wires held Roller and Black Drongo. We were served an interesting breakfast and every seat was given a bottle of water. The station had some really interesting statues,

The removal of our luggage at Chandigarh was organised by the train captain and we were really pleased to find everyone's cases on the platform. Another well organised crew collected it and took off with us following to three cars where everything was either strapped to the roof or packed inside.

I got in the car with Desh as driver and we set off for the hills. We made a stop for lunch at a 'Pure Veg' restaurant, which meant no omelettes and I tried a Paneer Kofti, which was balls of cheese in a spinach sauce with butter roti and a lovely Sweet Lassi. We also had an unscheduled stop when stopped by the police who told us one of the bags had fallen off about 10km back. The officer took great delight in telling us it was ours. Our driver went back for it while we had some drinks. There is a lot of work going on on the roads and the driving for the first few hours was tortuous and slow but once we got further up into the mountains it became much easier and the speed picked up, but it still took ages to get to our hotel.


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An afternoon trip round New Delhi

After settling in, having a quick wash and brush up and an emergency biscuit, we met up in the lobby for a guided trip round New Delhi. Our guide explained the history of the city and explained the itinerary. We toured some of the important Government buildings including India Gate, and it was great to see a Red-wattled Plover on one of the water features.

Our next stop was at Mahatma Ghandi's last home and where he was shot. A very interesting museum with quotes, an explanation of his life and a brief history of India. There were lots of mynah birds on the roof and feeding on the lawns.

We then stopped at the India Gate where we fell foul of a couple of very persistent and strident young girls who insisted on doing a henna pattern on my arms and then vociferously demanded money.

Our last stop was at the Junta Mantar, which was something I had wanted to see. It is an ancient system of Solar Observatory which was built by one of the moguls, with another one in Jaipur, and formed the basis of much of modern day astronomy.

The only birds I saw were House Crows, Black kites, Mynahs and a ring-necked parakeet but we were entertained by the 3 striped squirrels that squeaked and ran about.

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On the way to Spiti Valley

After a horrendous 4 1/2 hour drive to Heathrow I settled into my seat with acres of legroom and 8 1/2 hours later we landed in Delhi where it was hot and humid. The arrivals hall had some interesting artwork.

Sorting out luggage, money and the rest of the group we boarded a small coach and headed to the rather smart and comfortable Hotel Shangri-La where we booked in. We agreed to meet at 2.30 to sort out activities for the afternoon.

Our room was 8 floors up with a great view across the city and Black Kites drifting past on the thermals.

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Location:Delhi

Flying Squirrels quest

We settled into Sabrina's, watched the feeders, had a lovely meal of soup and salmon before setting out for a small reserve about 2 hours away. On the way we stopped at a strange display called 'The Silent People' which is a space with more than 1000 crosses which have turf heads and clothing which is changed each spring and autumn, all looking one way and changing their 'look' with the changing sunlight.

We met the owner of the reserve, who has assigned this piece of forest specifically for flying squirrels and after parking the car we set off along the track, looking for signs of leaf damage in the aspens. Sabrina showed us a couple of nest boxes with squirrel droppings around them,but they weren't in use this year.  The dropping are a straw colour and look like grains of rice, We set ourselves up in a clearing with several aspen trees but no luck. We also walked through some forest areas but again no luck.

After a couple of hours we decided to go home as there didn't seem to any action. On the way we pulled into a car park to watch an amazing sun rise and then Sabrina noticed a Ural Owl sitting on a lamp post. We stopped and watched it for a short while before it flew into the wooded area near the road, we managed to catch up with it over the next few minutes before it disappeared further into the woods. Back at Sabrina's we turned in after setting the clocks for 8.00 o'clock.

We were up in time for breakfast before Sabrina had to leave for a trekking morning, we then spent some time watching the feeders where there were a couple of red squirrels, northern bullfinch, siskins and a young leveret, then packed up and left for the airport and our flights home.