Maybe out of sequence

Entry five

21 May 2012

It rained most of the day yesterday. Apart from a short walk along the river it was a day spent eating, updating Blogs, eating, synchronizing our Spot message devices, eating and lazing about and some eating. Maybe the eating is just a fantasy though. My memory of Chitral is of a place with bad food. We have been pleasantly surprised by the number of vegetables for sale in the shops, getting to eat them in the restaurants is another matter, this is still a great place for carnivores especially the once that love chicken and mutton.

Today dawned reasonably clear with some dissipating high cloud. With all the rain, the moisture content of the air is high and the cumulus popped up early. I predicted an early over development and maybe some wind aloft so I stayed in the valley while the rest of our quintet took an early taxi up the hill. I put some clothes to soak in a bucket and went for a wander through the town to find a place to fill my oxygen bottle. The guy that we used two years ago is starting to rip us off so I wanted to find an alternative. With the help of my guard I find a little shop that has a stockpile of oxygen bottles and with a little persuasion I can connect my little two liter bottle to his big bottle   A  positive side on having a guard following us around where ever we go is that they know the town and can help us with a variety of problems . The little hotel we are staying is fairly basic and has only cold water. Taking a shower is a quick, emasculating affair accompanied by squeals and grunts to bite trough the cold. I talked about this with the guard and he showed me a barber shop where one can have a hot shower for 30 rupees, 40 cents NZ. I would certainly never have found that by myself and was therefore already inquiring at the better hotels in town about what a night stay would cost so we could have a hot shower once a week.

People in the street looking up at those stange birds

 Alex,Glen,Dimitry and Grey on the drive up to launch on the first day.

We are rapidly becoming famous in this town. The word has spread about our conflict with the DPO and even without that, our paragliding antics make that people react to us. Walking back through town with my guard we noticed plenty of people looking and pointing skywards as six gliders flew over town. When we arrived at the polo ground there were three clusters of 50 or 60 people each standing around Alex, Grey and Glen just staring or making comments and asking questions. It is good fun and I guess the novelty will wear off after a while.