Exlnt...if you're gonna get injured, get injured in stlye, that's what I say.
Did I tell you about the time I ruptured my achilles tendon dancing with a crazed French lesbian, dressed as a lion on a remote beach in Mexico on Christmas Eve?
Sorry, couldn't find any appropriate emoticons...but maybe the storyline makes up for it.
They removed the link to the forums in an effort to phase them out. Seems to me the forums on the uk site these days are just to organise the many meets they have on there. Not that I was ever too impressed with the forums on there anyway.
Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps; for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are, and what they ought to be.
Our hotel, The Mountain View was a most welcome sight. A long low wooden building with a beautiful garden to the rear. The town of Chitral itself was a pleasant surprise. One main street, which also doubled up as a polo ground, wooden shops either side selling all manner of wares. Compared to anywhere else I'd been so far in Pakistan it was very clean with cool crisp mountain air instead of the unpleasant odour I had become accustomed to in the lowlands. It seemed like we were the only westerners in town and received more than just a passing glance from just about everybody, many would shout over to us, "Hello, welcome," usually with a huge grin on their faces and a wave. Overshadowing the town was the imposing sight of Tirich Mir. At over twenty five thousand foot it was an impressive sight, towering above every other mountain in the area. Unclimbed since 1964, since when it had repulsed every attempt to scale it's formidable ramparts. In fact Dave had attempted to climb the mountain a few years earlier and had been very lucky to escape with his life. They had to abandon their attempt in bad weather halfway up and quickly return to base camp leaving all their equipment behind. Our plan was to reach base camp and maybe on to camp one, the mountain certainly seemed a long way off and I was sure it would take a good few days to walk in to base camp. The hotel was proving to be a real haven. We sat in the lush garden shaded by large broad leaved trees drinking tea and relaxing after our ardious twenty seven hour bus journey. After a short while we were introduced to the hotel owner, Mastood, he was the cousin of Siraj our airline pilot who had looked after us in Peshawar. He had been running treking holidays in and around Chitral for a couple of years and was keen on the idea of teaming up with Tims company KE Adventure Travel to further develop the area.
This was the purpose of our trip, we would find a trek in the area that would fit into a three week itinerary with enough places to stop that would take up to a dozen or so tents. We also had to be sure we could get enough porters along the way, up to about thirty would be needed for a group of around twelve. Then we had to make sure that once out of the mountains we could find reasonable hotels for the clients on the return leg. It was shaping up to being a great adventure.
Next time.... Leaving Chitral and heading for the mountains.
There are quite a few in Europe. A friend of mine goes to this Zappa festival in Germany every year, the town where it is held has a statue of Zappa in the main square.
bodleing Forum Posts (13,810)
RE: I am broken-hearted.... please indulge me, yeah?
I'm so saddened by this news Alison, I think I know who you mean.