Trekking 2

Trekking part 2 Now we were in the middle of a remote region, miles from any big town, we walked into a village after dark and were warmly welcomed by strangers and given a meal and a bed for the night. Would that happen in my home town, I don't think so! Now the mattress was made from straw packed into rice sacks sewn together, this was not going to be a comfortable night. Left, right, front, and back whichever way I lay was very uncomfortable, I didn't sleep much until about four in the morning, then I dropped off only to be woken by the call to prayer, I dropped off again having the best few minutes of my night's sleep. Darkness falls and out comes the head-torches  Rice and sauce for breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper all provided by generous hospitality, I felt so welcomed. At the beginning of the second days trek we were descending a steep hill on a gravel path, at this point I fell with my 20lbs backpack on, landing on my left knee. It didn't break the skin but was painful and uncomfortable to walk on. It was 6 miles to backtrack to the car or 10-12 miles to continue and visit more villages, we decided to continue and I had to limp on. There was no mountain rescue or ambulance crews to come and help, it was my responsibility to walk out, the further I walked the less painful it became. Tree trunks to cross streams   Stepping stones to cross the river Dry parched land It's all a matter of what you are accustomed too, that's what I was telling myself when we left the next village, and our guide was the elder from the village. At 73 years old we ascended a steep incline a great speed, the two of us were perspiring profusely and out of breath, the old man had hardly broken into a sweat. He told us that he goes up and down three to four times a day, once was enough for us. We didn't see too much wildlife on our trek, the odd bird, cows, goats and sheep. In one village the hunters had returned from a hunt, they were empty handed but told us they had scared off some monkeys outside the village. As we were walking I heard a strange noise, my companion told me that was the cry of a monkey, I bent down a picked up a rock to throw at the monkey if it came near me, and 10 minutes later I felt silly carrying a rock so I dropped it. Later we saw a snake skin that had been discarded by its owner, didn't want to see it as the skin was quite large and long.