Life in Manali

Here at the Bee's Knees cafe -- quiet, no one else here yet except the staff; lush, green; at a low, comfortable table in an apple orchard; tranquil, relaxed. Manali might be strongly focused on the tourist trade but it does it well; I like it, probably too much and might spend too long here. It's more expensive than McLeod Ganj but the additional expense is relative; in absolute terms it's insignificant.

The muesli takes a while to arrive; the black tea I also ordered turns out to be a tea bag and a glass of hot water. Surprisingly, though, the tea has a passable flavour and -- a nice touch -- comes with a small, plain biscuit. Brooke Bond seems to be the ubiquitous tea bag; I've encountered nothing else anywhere so far. The day, which had begun to build towards an uncomfortable heat, has cooled; the sky's clouded over, and I hope I'll get back to the Tiger Eye before the rain. I have no plans other than relaxing, catching up on sleep, maybe preparing another blog post, and a little, gentle exploring of Old Manali. I might even look at buying a shirt or light jacket -- something that makes me stand out a little less -- and perhaps a shoulder bag for more convenient access to the camera and other walking-about items. Travelling often seems like this: a process of finding out what works and what doesn't, of adapting and modifying.

A small bird that looks like one of the British tits fossicks in the garden nearby. Black markings, grey body, some pale underneath, longish tail. I'll see if I can identify it when I get back to the Tiger Eye, but I might have to pay the exorbitant price for the Grimmett and Inskipp app -- the only alternative is the free 'Indian Birds' app which is riddled with errors, some serious, and, as I discover, isn't even close to comprehensive.

The first customers arrive: young; trendily dressed; Irish, judging from their accents; at least two of the three with colds. The muesli arrives at last, and it's worth the wait -- a small bowl of real muesli (no cornflakes here) with a large bowl of curd (yoghurt) and an enormous bowl of fruit: banana, mango, papaya, watermelon, plum. Everything except the pieces of plum has been scrupulously peeled and the cubes of watermelon have even been deseeded. I trust it's all safe; as Bradley pointed out last night while trying to alleviate my suspicion of salads, it's not in the interests of the restaurants here to poison people. I trust these words won't prove perversely prophetic.

Just going on 9 o'clock and the place is still quiet. The sun's just come out, and the big Irish guy with the tattooed shoulder and arm (he wears a loose tank top and even looser, floppy pants -- very trendy; almost de rigueur here) returns from another trip to the toilet and says, 'It's beautifully warm in that sun,' as he returns to his companions. A kid with a heavy crate of empty bottles races down the path at a half run, jandals flopping. He looks as if he should be at school. All these people working while we, the privileged and indolent, relax and eat our expensive breakfasts and enjoy the beautifully warm sun. How is it that we're so much luckier? What did we do to deserve our lives, other than being born in the right place at the right time? Maybe this is the rationalisation for theories of reincarnation and karma -- that in the previous life we lived well enough to deserve this one. Maybe also it's a reminder to live this life as generously, compassionately, and appreciatively as we can, so we might earn another as lucky as this.

A small spider climbs the arm of the cane chair opposite me, its world on a completely different scale to mine, utterly unaware I'm watching. What might be watching us? One apparently bizarre theory suggests we're something like simulations in some enormously complex computer model. Surprisingly, this has some supporting evidence in the form of the observed small changes in cosmological constants, as if some modeller were tweaking the parameters of the model. Far-fetched, perhaps, but what else explains those changes in constants, which are, after all, supposed to be constant, fixed, unchanging? The problem with that hypothesis, though, is that it's hard to see how it might be tested. If it can't, it joins the endless list of other intriguing ideas that have no scientific worth, and we're not short of those.

I stop on the way back to my room to refill my bottle with filtered water and buy a small tube of sunscreen. On the balcony I sit with the binoculars ready, but so far the only bird to appear has been a subadult common myna. In this heat the other birds have disappeared, but I suppose they'll become more evident towards evening. Sensible -- doing what needs to be done, or just enjoying being out and about, is definitely more pleasant early in the morning and in the cool of the evening. Now, even the mountains have retreated behind puffy, white-and-grey cloud.

Nevertheless, this sun and heat have advantages. A beautiful chestnut and buff dove with a blue-grey chequered pattern around the sides of the neck, a white band at the end of the tail, and an alert red eye spreads itself out on the dark, damp ground of a fallow garden below. As I watch, it repositions itself, giving me a better view of the beautiful colours of its plumage, but it appears to be limping -- yes, one leg appears to be cramped up and useless, making the bird hop on the other. Another point of difference between ourselves and other animals: no other animals I can think of will support another of their species with a disability, discounting the natural maternal instinct of many mammals and birds.

I'm not sure why I keep comparing humans to other animals. Maybe by paying attention to our similarities and differences we can understand more about ourselves -- and them, too. Maybe, too, some of these observations are a good counter to sentiment.

A row of prayer flags, so faded nothing remains of their colour, flutters in the breeze on a nearby rooftop, and two small, unidentifiable birds fly past. A jungle crow strokes its way through the air, high up, going towards the mountain, the conifer forest. A Himalayan bulbul flies up and alights, half obscured, at the top of a leafy fruit tree. I'm lost in thoughts, looking out over the valley, when I hear knocking and, looking around, see two mynas on the balcony with me, the nearest less than a couple of metres away on the railing. We study each other for a few moments, bird to man, then it apparently decides I have nothing to offer, so it drops off the railing and, joined by its companion, flies off. I must remember not to leave small, thievable items lying around -- my Lamy Safari, for example, is exactly the same bright yellow as these birds' bills and the bare skin around their eyes.

 …
In town in the afternoon I meet Rebecca and Rose, the two young British women on the bus from Dharamsala to Manali. They seem cheerful, enjoying being here. Already they've visited nearby Vashist, which they recommend as lovely; tomorrow they're on the bus to Leh, staying overnight at Keylong camp. We talk a bit about altitude sickness. This morning I checked the map and discovered Keylong, the lower of the two camps, is almost as high as Leh and close to 1500 m higher than Manali. Still, as Rose pointed out, hundreds (possibly thousands) do the journey every year, so the problems can't be too serious. They seemed keen to chat. I liked their energy, their enthusiasm, their enjoyment of where they were and what they were doing. 'Maybe we'll see you in Leh,' Rose said as we went in different directions.

I'd like that.

…
A crow flies past the balcony where I write then arcs around to fly directly away. I love the shape of their wings when they fly -- the way the wings flex and curve, the deliberate grace of their flight. A few minutes later, two quick pigeons speed past, tilting so the sun shines through their wings. Rico and Bradley and two other friends sit in the far corner of the balcony, talking quietly while Bradley strums his ukelele. I'm sure I'd be welcome to join them, but I'm enjoying just being here, watching the birds, the butterflies, the sway and flutter of the faded prayer flags, the gradual darkening and thickening of the clouds over the mountains, the colours and textures of the rusting corrugated iron roof below us, so much else. Everything seems so laid back it feels like the land of lotus-eaters, although I suspect here the lotus has been replaced by another distinctive plants that grows wild and in abundance along the roadsides and pathways.

 ...
One afternoon I walk down the hill to New Manali to see what it's like and locate an ATM I can visit early in the morning before the crowds. On the way back I stop at a rough little shop that advertises aloo paratha in faded, just-distinguishable lettering. 'Yes,' the man says, 'aloo paratha. Chai?'
Yes, I say, chai also. I step inside and sit with the only other customer, an Indian man absorbed in his phone. The vendor returns.
'No aloo paratha,' he says. 'Only chai.'
Fine with me. I'm happy to drink only chai. The stall's little more than a shack with a corrugated iron roof and walls of tin and thin, buckled plywood held together by grime. On top of the partition between the kitchen and dining area (a table and two hard benches), someone has draped several pairs of what appear to be old underpants. The chai's wonderful: real chai; sweet, flavoursome, the taste of real India. I love it.

Ten rupees the man says. His tone's gentle, undemanding. He sits with a cigarette in his fingers, a friend in the seat next to him. He asks where I'm from.
'Ah, Nooh Seelund. Beautiful country. Beautiful people,' he says.
His friend nods and I hope I'm not letting the side down; I also wonder what he really knows about New Zealand but I appreciate the gesture. I ask if I might photograph them, and afterwards I show them the result. They seem pleased, and as I leave I tell them I'll see them tomorrow.

It's a promise I keep. The next day, after booking my minibus to Leh, I celebrate with chai. The elderly vendor isn't there (he arrives shortly after) and the underpants have gone from the partition. Once again, though, I can order only chai. The young guy who takes my order checks whether I want sugar.
 'Sugar?' he says.
 'Yes, please.'
 'Big?'
I assume he means lots of sugar, like real chai. 'Yes.'
Laughter all round. I'm not entirely sure what the joke is, but it's all good-natured and I'm happy to join in. The chai's just as good as yesterday's -- sweet and full of flavour. I sit in the cool of the dark shop, watching people and vehicles passing by, and I'm slightly puzzled by why I feel so happy after such a couple of insignificant events: buying a bus ticket and drinking chai in a little shack with people who seem to like having me here. If it's easy as this, how is it that so many people, including so many of the visitors here, seem so unhappy, so stressed, so dissatisfied? Maybe their lives are so much more complicated than mine; maybe, when I travel, life becomes so much simpler and decisions reduce to straightforward things like where to eat, where to sleep, when to move on, and how to buy a bus ticket.

…
Up early on the second morning in Manali, I wander slowly up the road, past old wooden houses where colourful laundry hangs draped from dark windows and yellow straw fills lower-storey balconies or dangles in swatches from the railings. Mynas and house sparrows forage; great tits flit and snap at each other in fruit trees; two russet sparrows with their chestnut crowns tantalise me by not staying still long enough for a decent photograph (one later relents). I walk until the path narrows and squeezes past a construction site where several men are already assembling breeze blocks to form a wall, using the typical mortar that seems to consist mostly of hope. On the way down a family of jungle crows alights on the path to collect something indistinguishable from the ground. I photograph, crouch, photograph more, from a better angle, but they won't stay still. When I finally stand and move slowly and quietly past, they hardly bother to get out of the way. This acceptance -- it might be contempt but I prefer the other interpretation -- delights me.

…
I stroll down the lane to the Bee's Knees. The entrance is already open so I walk in and the young guy polishing glasses with a rag of indeterminate cleanliness beams at me. I ask if they're open and he nods.
 'Open!' he says, with a great smile that I later find seems permanent; I never recall seeing him without it.
Yesterday's waiter sits at a nearby table. He looks up. 'Yes sir,' he says. 'Open! Open for breakfast!'
He looks overjoyed to see me and no doubt recognises me from yesterday. Telling someone their food's good is one thing -- it's a nice gesture and always appreciated -- but returning to the cafe or restaurant proves. The cliche's true: actions do speak louder than words.

I take a seat at the same table in the apple orchard. A little way off, a crow forages in long grass beneath pinkish-mauve chrysanthemums, and a myna flies down and fossicks along the path. Under this overcast sky I'm almost cold in my freshly-laundered merino t-shirt and light cotton shirt. I should savour the feeling and store it for the heat that lies ahead -- months of it still to come -- but it's hard, perhaps impossible, to truly remember being cold when you're sweltering. A very loud, melodious bird flies past above the orchard; all I see is the movement, a glimpse. I have no idea what it is. 

After breakfast I walk down the road, past cars attempting 12-point-or-more turns, minibuses belching black fumes, shops setting up their multi-coloured wares. A man arranges seats in the upstairs Fusion cafe; he blows his nose vigorously into the street below and calls out a cheery 'Good morning!' as I pass. I carry on down to the bridge where I see several small birds on the big boulders of the raging river, so I go down to the ghats, frustrated by my inability to remember the name of these attractive little birds that I came to know so well in Uttarakhand almost eight years ago (how can it be so long, and will I manage to return this time?). I want a closer look and some photographs if possible.

Several males, with their blue-black bodies and rufous tails, chase each other and a few females dart about catching insects. While I crouch with the camera ready, just about to photograph, something taps the back of my left shoulder. Startled, I stand and look around. A tawny dog looks at me quizzically, as if expecting a response -- food, probably. Seeing none's forthcoming, it trots past, scaring the birds. One of the females lands on a nearby boulder in the shallows, but before I can frame a photograph the dog decides this would be a good place to splash about. The female flies off. This dog's lucky I like it.

Later I grudgingly pay for the Grimmett and Inskipp app and at last find the name of these lovely little birds: the plumbeous water redstart. The free Indian Birds app doesn't even list this species.

…
I spend most of one afternoon engaged in conversation with Rico, the Italian in another room on my top storey of the Tiger Eye. Mostly I listen; sometimes I manage to slip in a comment; sometimes those comments delight him, as when I mention the Elizabethan polymath Dr Dee.
 'Ah, John Dee!' Rico exclaims, leaning back and smiling and sweeping his hair back with both hands. He starts on a long discussion of Dee's interests in alchemy and occultism and leading eventually -- or was it back -- to the Benign White Cabal. On another occasion I mention Tarkovsky's film, Stalker. Rico beams and expresses great approval.
 'But don't watch anything else,' he says, warning me how most films are part of the way we're programmed.

Most of what he talks about leaves me lost, but I still enjoy the conversation, which ranges from topics like classical music, the origins of the term 'rock and roll', and the Beatles' White Album -- Adorno, he tells me, created the Beatles -- to the Tavistok Institute, Marlowe, 12 atonal music, and Orson Welles. Much more, besides.
 'There are no coincidences,' he says, shaking his head and looking serious. 'It's against the laws of physics.'
I can't work out whether he's a nutter -- at one stage he even says I probably think he's one -- or whether he's attained a kind of secular enlightenment that allows him to see society more incisively. Two things can't be disputed, though: his astonishing knowledge and his matching likeability.

Nor can I fault his taste in music. The next day the friendly middle-aged Dutch couple and I are on the balcony as the evening light begins to fade. Mist hangs around the mountainside, high up, picking out the slender, spiky, almost needle-like conifers in a beautiful, atmospheric, and slightly eerie perspective, like something from a Grimm's fairy tale. Music floats from Rico's room: Nick Drake, Nina Simone, a woman with a beautiful voice I vaguely recognise, Bob Dylan -- all slightly haunting, all perfectly suiting the mood. Rico comes out to check he's not 'inflicting it' on us, but we enthuse about it and encourage him to keep playing it. Later I ask him about the woman whose voice I almost recognised: Alela Diane, he says. Of course! Perhaps this is an indication that I've left my life in the Pohangina Valley behind me to a greater extent than I'd realised. I do feel more 'present' here and all through this journey; noticeably more so than on any other major journey. I take this as a good sign.

Nevertheless, I wonder whether, listening to this music, sleeping in a comfortable, clean room with a shower that delivers dependable hot water, simply relaxing on the balcony, sometimes enjoying a Kingfisher with a simple dish of veg momos on the balcony in the evening, occasionally making short visits to Old Manali with its almost single-minded focus on catering to the desires of the trendy travellers -- these things make me wonder whether I'm really in India. Did I return for this kind of lotus-eating life? This certainly isn't typical India, but I'll have plenty of opportunity to immerse myself in that (as was unquestionably the case in Amritsar) -- probably more opportunity than I'd like.

Sometimes I question what I'm doing on this journey, not in the sense of questioning my purpose, but of wondering what that purpose might be. Maybe it has many purposes. I wanted to see India again, to be part of the chaos and richness and strangeness and difference. I also wanted the feeling of being on the move again, doing something about the restlessness which is more curiosity than dissatisfaction. 

Perhaps also -- perhaps even mainly -- I wanted the stimulation and freedom that would let me write as much as I want: not a retreat, but an immersion. I wanted to write in places and among events that might break me out of writing about the same things, over and over. Time will tell whether this journey has succeeded in that, but the question remains: what will happen when I return to my usual way of life? Will the store of memories sustain me and my writing for long enough? Long enough for what? As I said, time will tell. I do know that many people have expectations that visitors to India will do certain things, that they go to India to be in India, that any time in India spent doing what might also be done back 'home' amounts to time wasted. I reject these expectations. Wherever you are, you live your life.

...
On a flat, concrete rooftop below the Tiger Eye, apricot kernels lie spread out to dry. The flesh lies on a sheet on the flagstones in front of the house, presumably so the owner can quickly scare off any marauding birds. Rico must have intuited my concern about being insulated from 'real' India, or perhaps we talked about it and I've forgotten; in any case, he plays a raga from Bihar: sitar, tablas, vocals. Beautiful music that goes on and on -- I can imagine listening to this all day and all night and never tiring. It finally finishes at exactly 1.30 p.m., to the second.

There are no coincidences.

---

Notes: 
1. Again, this is an edited selection of impressions. It's long, but I spent a while in Manali and wanted to do it justice -- at least from my perspective. I'm now in Leh, after a two-day minbus journey. More about that later.
2. Assembled in haste at an Internet Cafe. Apologies for errors.

Photos: 
1. The main road of Old Manali.
2, 3, 4. Along the path from the road to the Tiger Eye Guest House.
5. Male plumbeous water redstart.
6. Manali forest, evening; from my balcony.

Photos and original text © 2014 Pete McGregor

Dharamsala: an alternative meditation

A pigeon flies past, going somewhere fast in the hazy grey morning. Pigeons in flight always seem to be intent on a destination; even when they circle they seem to be building momentum for an eventual arrow-like flight to somewhere that must be reached as quickly as possible. Strangely, I've seen very few pigeons here, unlike most other built-up places where they're almost always abundant. Perhaps the kites keep their numbers low, or maybe the climate's not good for pigeons. The old controversy about the regulation of animal populations comes to mind, and I have to work hard to remember the names of the most famous protagonists: Nicholson I remember easily, but I struggle to eventually recall the names Andrewartha and Birch. My own dabbling in the field as part of my work all seems so long ago now and brings to mind my own career -- if it could be called that -- as a scientist. Almost nothing of that time now seems worthwhile from the point of view of a direct contribution to science; what little might be considered worthwhile was largely a result of supporting the work of colleagues. Was that time wasted? Maybe, but the past is irretrievable and inaccessible. Perhaps not irredeemable, though, and I wonder sometimes if what I do now is in some way an attempt to redeem time I might have spent better. The less time that remains, of course, the more urgent this becomes, which is why I wonder why I don't feel a greater sense of urgency -- in fact, any sense of urgency.

The Gakyi restaurant's already open at 7.30 a.m. and I'm the first customer. I order a bowl of porridge with banana and honey, and black tea, having drunk enough more than enough lemon honey ginger over the last several days. I think about how I might photograph Mrs Dickyi if she turns up before the restaurant starts to fill with customers -- and, of course, if she's agreeable. The light's low in here; even at ISO 400 and f2.8 the shutter speed's a mere 1/30s. As I write, though, the sunlight strengthens on the rough brick wall on the far side of the narrow road, and the light inside the restaurant brightens a little accordingly.

A few days ago the ghost of the Last Imperial Eunuch passed by, going down the road to the past; this morning the doppelganger of Pete Garrett strides past, going up the road and also into the past. He glances inside, catches my eye for an instant, then looks away and carries on.

Let me explain. On Thursday I looked up from my usual seat in the Gakyi to see a small, shrivelled monk with a woollen cap pass by. His resemblance to the subject of Henri Cartier-Bresson's famous photograph of the Last Imperial Eunuch was so striking I felt momentarily displaced, as if in a different country and a different time, but later I thought the sense of fleeting disconnection from the present to be at odds with the nature of life, which is mostly concerned with connections. I've long felt the linear metaphor of a life -- as, for example, a fuse burning inexorably to final destruction -- to be unsatisfactory. Life, it seems to me, is a process of enrichment, a process not of using up but of adding, and the more connections we make, the richer the life. When I saw the ghost of the Last Imperial Eunuch tripping down Jogiwara Road , swaying slightly as he went, my life became slightly richer not just because I'd accumulated another vivid memory but because that memory connected McLeod Ganj, the Gakyi restaurant, and a particular moment in my life with the art of Cartier-Bresson's photography. Yes, life imitates art at times and art enriches life -- it's almost a truism to make that claim -- but, perhaps less obviously, life can enrich art: I hope it's not too grand a claim to say Cartier-Bresson's photograph now has an additional connection.

Perhaps, too, this is a characteristic of great art -- that it can accept these connections without being overwhelmed by them.

…

The small, whiskery French man who comes here regularly arrives, this time accompanied by a woman who might be Tibetan or Chinese. She says hello then corrects herself and says 'Bonjour,' then laughs and explains how she's always mixing up her languages.. She speaks good English with a US accent. Mrs Dickyi arrives but leaves shortly afterwards with her handbag tucked under her arm and prayer beads in hand. She returns soon and I can't quite pluck up the courage to ask if I might photograph her. If there's a trick to this, I think it might be to relax and not think about it too much -- just switch off and ask, then concentrate on doing justice to the person.

I order another black tea, partly because I want to keep writing, partly because, well, I simply want the tea. The pen runs out of ink; I switch to the yellow Safari. Snippets of conversation between the French man and the multi-lingual woman (I heard her say she speaks nine languages) drift across. Much, it seems, concerns buddhism, and I feel an unreasonable, unwarranted sense of -- what? It's not quite cynicism -- I'd like to think I'm more respectful than that (although maybe I'm not) -- nor is it entirely a kind of disillusionment (which true buddhists might approve of, given their apparent belief that all is illusion). If anything, it might be a kind of shame at the way, back in New Zealand, I've referred to aspects of buddhism as if I knew something about it (and as I've just done), but here everyone seems either to have much greater knowledge or actually practises these beliefs. Here, ironically, I feel far more distant from these beliefs which seemed to make so much sense to me; here I am an outsider, the other, a simple observer. Perhaps I don't belong here, although I feel comfortable in Dharamsala. This might be akin to the feeling of the perpetual guest, made welcome, treated hospitably, but always apart. The simplest description might be that here, where most visitors seem to be seeking something -- some kind of instruction or enlightenment or a furthering of their understanding -- I doubt I'm seeking anything, at least not until I find it.

Another regular customer arrives -- the French woman with shoulder-length, wavy, dark blonde hair. She smiles, says hello, joins the other two, and I return to my writing. More customers arrive, and Mrs Dickyi calls to a Tibetan woman passing by. She's obviously a friend, and the two sit to have breakfast together. I'm still trying to muster the courage to ask for a photograph when I pay my bill, but she seems distracted and I wimp out. Besides, I've thanked her for the time I've spent here, explaining this is the last time, and I don't want her to think I'm just buttering her up to get her to agree to a photograph. This sounds like a rationalisation of my wimping out, and it is.

 ...

On the way to the Tibetan Mandala Cafe: a monk stands outside a shop, looking into the street; he seems weary, as if the burden of negotiating the world of samsara to make his way back to the refuge of his monastery is too great. He holds a tray of white eggs, tied with thin, orange, plastic twine, in his left hand.

Outside the cafe, the valley lies behind a blank wall of white mist and even the cedars as close as the far side of the road have turned almost to silhouettes. Rain might not be far off, which is why I've chosen to sit inside at one of the western-style (and very comfortable) booths rather than outside on the cooler patio. My Assam tea arrives -- a pot with a strainer but only one glass. I ask for another glass, which the waiter brings just in time for me to salvage the rest of the pot. The rain holds off, the mist draws back a little, and the little housefly on my table goes about its exploration, looking for something it can't find, oblivious to the changing weather outside, and unaware that here in this buddhist stronghold it might live in one of the world's safest places for houseflies.

...

On the evening of the last day in Dharamsala, mist comes and goes; from my table at the window of the Kunga's restaurant I see the cedars on the opposite hillside in silhouette, the tiered buildings with their colourful roofs below -- then the mist closes in. The valley vanished a long time ago. One of these views will be the last I'll see of McLeod Ganj; when I leave, the mists of memory will begin to roll in, and all that will remain will be parts of these scenes, fragments of these events, the ruins of the moment.

---

Notes: 
1. 'Dharamsala' most often refers to Mcleod Ganj, the upper part of the town and the seat of the Tibetan Government in exile.

Photos: 
1. Evening forest on the Dharamkot Road above McLeod Ganj.
2. The main chowk of McLeod Ganj in the evening. It gets much more chaotic than this.
3. One of the most disconcerting things I've seen in a long time -- the cadaver of a macaque.
4. A happier sight.
5. I photographed this common myna in Manali, but they're abundant in Dharamsala too. Actually, they're abundant everywhere I've been so far.

Photos and original text © 2014 Pete McGregor

Amritsar to Dharamsala

I rise early and go downstairs to use the wifi in the lobby. The ferocious female manager asks if I want tea. Yes, thank you, I say, so she yells aggressive instructions to someone out the back. Soon after, a deferent young man arrives with a full-sized cup of tea. The Volga might lack reliable electricity, but the staff do look after their guests.

Later I ask if any a/c buses go to Dharamsala. She shakes her head, confers with a man sitting nearby, and they both say no, no a/c buses.
 'Only State buses?'
They both nod. I check out soon after and negotiate a 20 rupee ride to the bus station, where the platform for the Dharamsala bus proves simple to locate. A ticket seller at the adjacent platform says the bus leaves around midday -- over four hours to wait. Four hours in 40 degree heat? I'll never survive.
 'Bus to Pathankot?'
 'This bus,' he says, indicating this platform.
  'When does it leave?'

In half an hour, apparently. I buy a ticket and he explains I have to change buses at Pathankot to catch the bus on to Dharamsala. That's fine; I already knew the deal, and I'm happy to find a seat that suits me well -- right at the back in the corner, where my bags are safe and I can gaze out the open window while the slipstream cools me nicely, or at least adequately. For most of the three hours I sit there, contented, relaxed, letting my thoughts drift, and enjoying the feeling of being on the move, knowing that for the next few hours I won't have to do anything and will be responsible for nothing. The only downside is the inability to scribble anything legible; even on the newly-paved sections of road we encounter from time to time, the bus bounces and bumps so badly it seems the wheels have been beaten by incessant pounding into some irregular and definitely non-circular shape.

So, with nothing to do but think and enjoy the view, I relax into the journey. Thoughts go unrecorded and, as I write up these notes later, are mostly unremembered save for one or two -- for example, the realisation that being appalled or even offended by the filth and squalor of much of India is pointless or worse; it's just a fact, and not the most important one either, unless you think it so. Or, the way birds have a freedom denied to us, and how this is particularly evident in India where escape from everything except the shriek of the streets is no further away than the few wing beats needed to lift into the air above it all. Birds can look down on us in more ways than one.

Or, a related thought, when I wondered how or whether I'd survive if I knew I'd never leave India: I realised I wanted to be a bird for precisely that reason, for exactly that freedom.

I'm still lost in thoughts like these when I hear someone calling to me. The conductor beckons from the street, calling 'Dharamsala!' and urging me out through the back door. I drag my bags up from beneath the seat, past the men crammed beside me, and out of the bus. Later I realise I've forgotten to retrieve the small pad of blue closed-cell foam on which I've been sitting, but after a momentary pang of loss, I let it go, hoping it will serve whoever claims it as faithfully as it served me. Of course the loss is tempered by the knowledge I have a second pad in my daypack.

The conductor confirms I want to go to Dharamsala then indicates an attractive, immaculately dressed woman in her late twenties (I guess) standing nearby.
 'Go with her,' he says.
She smiles and says 'Please, follow me,' and leads me across the street to a rickshaw, which takes us to the bus station. As I reach for my pocket to pay for the two of us, she waves my hand away; 'No,' she says, shaking her head and swiftly peeling off two 50-rupee notes and handing them to the driver. She gets out of the rickshaw and leads me into the station. I ask where she's going and she says, 'Too my work,' adding something I might have misheard; she says, I think, that she works for the Punjab Police.

She finds the bus to Dharamsala, checks what time it leaves -- in half an hour -- then smiles beautifully and gently shakes my hand. I thank her sincerely and she walks off, very upright, head bowed slightly, graceful and self-assured. I can't quite believe I've been so lucky but mentally berate myself for not having thought quickly enough to have given her one of my cards or thought of some other token of appreciation. Still, if I can't repay her generosity, I'll pay it on; I'll do my best back in New Zealand to treat some visitor with similar grace and generosity.

Chai in a little bus station dhaba, under a mostly ineffective fan; a purchase of a bottle of cold pani (water) for the bus, where a Chinese woman with golden silk Ali Baba pants and a yellow T-shirt stands with a pile of bags. As I approach she smiles and holds out her hand and introduces herself.
 'I'm Suri,' she says and, soon after, her husband William arrives. We board the bus, where I score the prime window seat by the front door.

The bus begins the gradual ascent into the hills. The first Euphorbia slips past the window, then the first macaque; cattle become numerous. The traffic veers around a cow and a calf sitting relaxed, chewing the cud, in the middle of the lane and no one honks their horn. Much lantana, and the forest grows more jungle-like. The first pines appear as the bus continues to climb, and I'm astonised to realise I can smell their resiny scent even from inside the bus. I buy two bananas from a wallah and eat them immediately, finding their scungy skins belie their firm, clean, delicious interiors.

At a brief stop to wait for a roadworks queue to clear, dragonflies flit and hover around the roadside ditch. Of all animals, are we the only that have any comprehension of related lives beyond our immediate experience? These dragonflies know only their own lives, not those of other dragonflies on the far side of the mountains the bus climbs, and they certainly have no idea that other dragonflies live in the Pohangina Valley.

With apparently only 20 km to go, the driver takes a 20-minute break. However, as the bus pulls out of the small village where we stopped, another sign says 39 km to Dharamsala -- the previous sign, three quarters of an hour before we stopped, had said 42 km. Then, a kilometre or two later, another sign says we suddenly have just 25 km to go.

The first prickle of rain arrives during the final 8 km uphill crawl to Dharamsala, but the higher I get the better I feel. We arrive at 3.10 p.m. and, after a short wait, transfer to the bus to McLeod Ganj, where we arrive in a torrential downpour. After waiting for the rain to abate and finding it doesn't, I pull on my parka, unfurl my umbrella, and set off in search of a rickshaw. I return to tell William and Sarah I've found the rickshaws, but William says the Green Hotel's only a hundred metres up the road, and he leads us there through the rain. Apparently he's been here before. They get a double room with a view; I opt for the cheapest room I can get: a double with no view and a fusty smell, for 800 rupees. Free wifi, though.

We eat together in the evening, and during the conversation I get to see some of William's photographs. Not only is he a buddhist, as I discover when he refuses to kill the pestering mosquito, he's also an outstanding photographer. I like these new friends a great deal, and hope to see more of them from time to time over the next few days. Of all the joys of travelling, these meetings and encounters, with which I've been so fortunate today, are among the greatest.

---

Notes: 
1. Despite reassurances that the photographs look O.K., they don't on my tablet -- they're enlarged, so they look soft and pixelated. 

Photos: 
1. Samtin, one of the people I met after I reached Dharamsala.
2, 3. Scenes from Naddi village, on a visit there with Suri, William, Bombom, and Samtin. The motor cycle's a Royal Enfield, the classic Indian bike. This one was in particularly good condition.
4. A typical street scene -- this was photographed from the bus between Amritsar and Pathankot.

Photos and original text © 2014 Pete McGregor

Notes from the Golden Temple

Up early, away shortly after seven, and already the heat's building. If I'd been more motivated I'd have been up before dawn and at the temple by sunrise, but this will have to do. I take a detour through the back streets to avoid the chaos of the main route--a good move and much more enjoyable; a glimpse into a more genuine Amritsar, largely free of the trinket and souvenir hawkers--and, as it turns out, a detour that takes me almost directly to the main entrance. I already have my head covered with the Buff, and I slip my scuffs off and put them in my backpack before walking barefoot through the footbath. This, I'd heard, was a thick, slimy soup, but that's far from the truth; when I walk through, the clean, cool water feels delightful. If I'm going to catch anything unpleasant, I doubt it'll be from that welcome to the Golden Temple.

The number of people visiting almost defies belief, particularly in light of the knowledge that this is still early in the day and is neither peak hour nor peak season. I don't know whether to think the crowd awe-inspiring or appalling. Thousands circle the great pool--the Amrit Sarovar; the Pool of Nectar--where the Golden Temple stands in the centre at the end of a causeway and devotees bathe at the edge. As the bathers emerge, they carry water in cupped hands and drink it when they've stepped a few paces from the edge. This would poison me for sure, but is it simply the adaptation to local water that means these people are apparently unaffected, or does their devotion, their belief, protect them? This devotion makes me acutely conscious of my own lack of belief, but at least I respect theirs.

The enormous queue waiting to enter the temple itself puts me off, though. Even if I could swelter for long enough without suffering heat stroke, the ordeal would ruin the visit for me. Also, I have mixed feelings about visiting holy places as a spectator, so I'm happy to admire from a distance. What does strike me, though, is that the temple looks much smaller than I'd imagined: still brilliant in both senses, and I'm never again likely to look at hundreds of kilos of gold, but the edifice isn't the vast structure I'd expected. It doesn't matter.

A huge carp cruises through the bathing area; further out, a fish jumps. The presence of such obvious life in this pool gladdens me; it feels fitting in a place that seems imbued with respect. Shortly after I entered, an elderly Sikh man came up to me and asked me in poor English whether I would like cold milk. He gestured to the nearby stand where several people were dispensing small steel dishes of milk to a large crowd. I declined as graciously as I could and he smiled. Any place where generosity and hospitality are so evident touches me; even now, remembering that brief encounter, I think this is truly one of India's great places. Perhaps partly that's because, unlike the Taj Mahal for example, its primary purpose hasn't changed and has nothing to do with tourism.

In the whole time I was there, I saw just one other obviously foreign visitor.

At a flight of steps, I climb a short way to look out over the crowd and frame another photograph. A young, turbanned man comes over and asks me to 'snap him'. At first I'm wary, wondering whether I'll be asked for payment. Eventually I say O.K. and photograph him with his two friends, then show them the photograph on the LCD. They seem pleased. 'O.K., thank you,' he says, and they leave, leaving me feeling too suspicious, as if I've been slightly disrespectful. Nevertheless, some caution is in order: the big red LED issues warnings to take care with purses, handbags and jewelry, and not to give something (I don't remember the word) to unknown persons. Holy places attract huge numbers of people; huge numbers of people also attract unholy people.

…

After the Golden Temple I take refuge in my air-conditioned room for a while, until I've recovered enough to venture out again. This time I make it most of the way to the railway station before giving up and taking a rickshaw to the Grand Hotel. I like the way the driver moves through the chaos--careful but efficient, not aggressive. At the Grand, he asks me where I'm from. 'Beautiful country,' he says, beaming.

The Grand Hotel, however, has no budget rooms available, only an excessively expensive one. The rickshaw driver takes me a hundred metres down the road to the Volga and follows me in. Yes, they have a room: 800 rupees, a/c, free wifi. I check it out and it looks good: spacious and clean. I sign up and get the rickshaw man to take me back to the Bharawan da dhaba, a landmark he'll probably know (he does) and won't confuse with the Golden Temple. I've learned quickly that when any rickshaw driver here doesn't understand me, he'll assume I want to go to the Golden Temple--apparently, all English words translate to 'Golden Temple'.

I'm almost sad to say goodbye to my helpful, amiable driver. Sure, he's had a profitable morning's work, but on the way to the dhaba he took pains to point out places of interest and help me get my orientation (unsuccessfully).  'Hall Market', he said at one point, turning to smile and explain to me something I couldn't understand. At least the traffic was light then and he had several metres of clear space before running into anything. At the dhaba we shake hands and I walk the few hundred metres back to my hotel, feeling as if I'm leaving behind a friend.

---

Notes: 
1. Again, this is just an edited selection of more extensive writing.

Photos: 
1, 2. Two views of the temple itself.
3. The edge of the Amrit Sarovar, the 'Pool of Nectar'.

Photos and original text © 2014 Pete McGregor

First days in India

At the rooftop restaurant on the roof of the Lord Krishna Inn: memories of eight years ago. Could it really be so long? Little seems to have changed, though, other than the terrific heat and a few new, electric rickshaws that look just as battered as the old CNG versions. Other travellers seem less evident, too, although that's hard to judge from just a day here in Delhi.

A pigeon speeds past, high up above the teeming bazaar in a grey, hazy sky, travelling faster than its few deliberate wingbeats suggest; the screens shading much of the cafe sway and flap in the breeze, which is augmented by the wind from a furiously-spinning fan directly overhead so I have to weight the pages of the notebook with a salt shaker to keep them flat as I write. I sip the best mango lassi I've ever had -- bright yellow, the colour of my pen, and intensely flavoured, as if the essence of mango-ness has been distilled and concentrated into this rich, thick drink. All it needs to be perfect is the ice I dare not risk.

...

This morning I walked along Main Bazaar to see if the Sikh tea-seller still had his shop (he didn't; the roller door, covered in dust, still had his name in faded print but clearly hadn't been opened for a long time). A rickshaw driver greeted me and fell into step beside me. I knew the deal -- strike up a conversation, find out what I wanted to do, offer to help me -- but I didn't mind; I hadn't yet been jaded by constant ploys, perhaps because surprisingly few had tried it on or had given up easily. I let him show me the abandoned tea shop then lead me to another tea seller, who sold mostly spices rather than tea and offered only a limited and disappointing range of teas: generic first flush Darjeeling, generic second flush Darjeeling, generic Assam.

Raju the rickshaw driver then led me down the road to show me the CCCI supermarket. On the way, he showed me small photographs of his 6-year old son and 4-year old daughter. I asked where he was from.

 'Delhi,' he said. 'All my life in Delhi.' He gestured, indicating all of Delhi. 

We arrived near the CCCI store. 'Anything is possible there,' Raju said. 'Anything. Cheap.'

He then pointed to a set of big glass doors. 'Government tourist office,' he said. Right, I thought, a government tourist office. This means two things: first, it's meaningless -- every other shop in Delhi seems to be a government tourist office -- and second, with the exception of the one true government tourist office, the term 'government' means 'government approved'. This is also meaningless.

Nevertheless, I walked into the government tourist office and was instantly overwhelmed -- by relief at entering an air-conditioned room, and by several young guys apparently delighted to find their long-lost friend. I explained I wanted to go to Ladakh and after being transferred among several consultants finally ended up talking with Ahmad. Ahmad liked me instantly, even before knowing anything about me. Very quickly he told me how my attitude reminded me of his grandfather, a wonderful man who had taken Ahmad off the street (Ahmad was an orphan) and raised him. Within ten minutes he'd shaken my hand several times; eventually he explained how, when his family felt comfortable with someone, they hug them three times, and he embraced me and delivered three bear hugs. 

He planned an itinerary, quickly and in minute detail but insisting everything was flexible. The usual stuff: houseboat in Srinagar, trekking with 'gypsies', homestays, etc. In fact, he said, he'd be trekking in the area at the same time, with his fiance, an American yoga teacher who, by selling yoga mats, raised tens of thousands of dollars to support the orphanages Ahmad was setting up in three regions of India. Jennifer would be happy to have a complete stranger from New Zealand join them on their month-long trek, he insisted.

He offered three budgets. The deluxe budget amounted to more than I earn in a good year; the least expensive exceeded my budget for the entire four months of my travel. Pointing this out didn't faze him.

 'Tell me your budget and I'll work out an itinerary for you,' he said. Presumably this would take care of the entire sum. Despite his outrageous approach, I couldn't help liking him -- not enough to accept his offer, though.

...

Back at the hostel, I dropped off my gear and visited the nearby barber for a meticulous, expert shave by a guy seemingly too young to need a shave. At four o'clock I met Raju and got him to drive me through the insane chaos of Delhi traffic --and this wasn't even peak hour -- to one of Delhi's famous tourist attractions: Humayan's Tomb. Delhi traffic operates by no apparent rules; if any exist, I saw no evidence. Instead, the apparent anarchy seemed to operate according to some underlying law of nature less obvious than that of schooling fish, which seem in comparison to be of one mind; Delhi drivers seem to be more like swarming ants, often in conflict but somehow achieving the desired result. During the drive there and back, I saw no accidents, which seemed impossible. The rear of many rickshaws exhorted other drivers to 'Keep distance', which I took to mean they should come no closer than the thickness of a coat of paint. The same distance applied in every direction and was tested to its limit.

In contrast, the tomb itself could have been an oasis. The place felt like a refuge: tranquil; a few people wandering about slowly, some photographing the monuments, others photographing themselves; leafy trees providing shade for a few panting dogs with bright, intelligent eyes and surprisingly few signs of mange or malnutrition. Mynas gasping; black kites circling in the grey, shimmering sky; crows calling. I heard a palm squirrel chirring from a well-trimmed, knee-high hedge and later saw one stretched out partway up a palm trunk -- the first palm squirrel so far. The sight felt like a welcome back to another aspect of India.

I spoke with the man whisking the floor of the main tomb. 

 'You look after this?'

He nodded, with the characteristic Indian head wobble that can mean anything the listener wants. He showed me the tombs, pointing out which belonged to whom. The whole family lay here -- had lain here for four hundred years, and given the obvious care with which the complex was being looked after, would continue to lie here for hundreds more.

Later I asked if I might photograph him with his broom. He head-wobbled, picked up his broom, whisked a few strokes, looked at me -- glowered would be a better term but I think his expression arose from anxiety about whether he was posing correctly -- and whisked a little more.

Then he took me over to the grating in the wall and pointed out the Sikh temple gleaming in the distance, and I understood he meant me to frame the temple in one of the gaps in the grating. I obliged. When I thanked him and turned to leave, he said something -- something about 'something', then, 'teep'. Fair enough, so I gave him a small tip and left him to his whisking.

...

I returned to the rooftop restaurant late in the evening, hoping it would be cooler. It wasn't. I ordered aloo mattar with a plain naan and another mango lassi, but the heat had killed my appetite and I managed to force myself to eat only half the meal; the lassi, however, went down just as well. I kept thinking of a beer in a cool, air-conditioned bar, but that seemed like admitting defeat. Perhaps, though, it was simple common sense.

---

Notes: 
1. This is just a selection to give a flavour of life in this part of Delhi. Much more has happened, but you'll have to wait for the book (ha ha!)
2. Please excuse any errors of formatting -- I'm trying to produce this on an android tablet and don't want to waste time trying (probably unsuccessfully) to deal with the idiosyncracies of an operating system obviously designed to 'consume' rather than create.
3. I'm also worried about the quality of the photographs, which, try as I might with the only android app that processes RAW files, seem to fall well short of the quality of those I process back in New Zealand in Lightroom on my Windows desktop. In particular, they seem consistently unsharp, although the originals are definitely up to scratch. Sorry.

Photos: 
1 & 3. The tomb-whisker.
2. One of the other monuments at the Humayun's Tomb complex.
3. The view at night from the rooftop restaurant.

Photos and original text © 2014 Pete McGregor

Walking the No. 1 Line track

“The way to pay tribute to a place is not always to go there and wear it down, and capture it, and make pictures of it, and describe it.”

— Nicolas Rothwell

“Maybe the best journeys are the ones that are worth repeating, and are repeated.”

— Rebecca Solnit

Late in the afternoon I sat again at the top of the No. 1 Line track and waited for the water to boil. A heavy overcast sky hung low, dimming the light on the mountainsides, turning them dull and flat; a long way out over the Manawatu plains, grim grey cloud obscured the horizon. No view of Kapiti; certainly no view of the distant South Island which just a day earlier had floated, hazy and silhouetted but distinct, above the dull shine of the midwinter ocean. I hadn’t stayed long then, partly because the cold wind had made sitting uncomfortable, but mostly because I’d forgotten the tea. I’d scribbled a few notes, tried to photograph the little male miromiro who’d appeared almost the instant I’d sat down, mentally kicked myself for also forgetting the binoculars—was I really so distracted by imminent travel that I could forget such essential items as tea and binoculars?—and soon started back down the track into the dusk.

Now I sat sipping Lapsang Souchong tea, cupping the blue tin bowl in my hands and every so often jotting down another thought. A blackbird sang quietly a long way below in the steep gully; a pair of hedge sparrows called to one another nearby; otherwise only the sound of occasional gusts of half-hearted wind sighing through the pepperwood and a few distant shotgun blasts broke the silence. I realised I missed the insects of summer. Nothing buzzed past; no crane flies bumbled around in the bush rice grass below the seat; nothing crawled or scuttled along the seat or over the damp cold ground or up the old stump reaching into the sky. The worst of the winter cold hadn’t yet arrived—that might not be far off, with the forecast saying snow below a thousand metres in the next few days—but already the small lives that animate this place in summer had shut down, or died, or changed into some other, possibly even more alien, form.

Life existed in abundance all around me, but the impossibly slow lives of plants can’t replace the intensity of insects. Trees may outlive us but we burn brighter; we, if we’re lucky, outlive all insects but they burn like arrows on fire. This raises the question: which is the better life—slow but long, or intense but short?

I’ve heard it said that what counts isn’t the length of a life but its quality, but that has never seemed satisfactory to me. A short, intense life might be wonderful but, barring bad luck, a long, wonderful life must surely be possible and just as surely more desirable; after all, the longer you live, the more opportunities you have. What you do with those opportunities—more accurately, how you respond to them—is up to you, but even if you stumble and waste some, or struggle to make the most of circumstances that seem on the face of it to be those you’d rather have done without, a life of 97 years, say, offers many more opportunities than one of, say, 23. For example, not the least of the advantages of a long life is the ability to develop what we usually call wisdom—the application of a life’s experiences to help interpret, tolerate, and appreciate life’s events; and to use those experiences and a lifetime of accumulated knowledge to grow, to help others, and to make the world better for the fact we’ve lived in it.

I walked back down No. 1 Line, sometimes inadvertently glissading on the mud that constituted much of the upper part of the track and wondering whether this might become a new winter sport particularly suited to the Tararua Range, that often-disparaged but popular range of mountains immediately south of the Ruahine and notorious for its weather and mud. Where the track made its way through the bush, so little light remained that I packed the camera away and enjoyed the freedom of having both hands free. I negotiated the bog at the top of the Copper Glade, passed quietly through the Possum Bones Clearing, took the usual detour past the Stinkhorn Step, and paused at the lower lookout. A tui warbled and coughed from the miro; the volcanoes of the Central Plateau hid behind a pall of dark, hazy cloud; the familiar farmland below looked bruised and worn out in the cold dusk.

How many times had I stood here and studied the same but not-quite-the-same view? I wondered about people who return to the same place, over and over—the same mountain, the same hut, the same wild little beach, the same swimming hole in the same river—the people who return year after year and sometimes become so associated with that place that it becomes part of their identity. Does this represent a lack of imagination, a lack of curiosity about other places? Or, does it indicate a love for the place, the gradual building of a relationship with it so, finally, it becomes home?

Both, I suspect, and to varying degrees depending on personality, but I like to think my own inclination to return to places like No. 1 Line and the headwaters of the Pohangina reflects a deepening love for those places; that the more I come to know them the more they come to know me and welcome me back. What I try hard to avoid, though, is any sense of ownership of those places—the kind of attitude I’ve encountered (fortunately, rarely) where a person who’s made a habit of of returning to a place projects an air of superiority, of knowing more about it than anyone else—a kind of verbal marking out of territory. This can be a subtle trap because the more you know about a place, the greater the temptation to share that knowledge, and that can be analogous to name-dropping—a particularly tempting and objectionable tendency that probably arises from insecurity. This knowledge-dropping—most noticeable among blokes, who seem unable to resist the challenge of competitive storytelling—might be well-intentioned, but that makes it no less distasteful for the listener. I’m guilty; I’ve done this far too often. Now I understand the trap I hope to avoid it, but habits die hard; in fact, habits are almost impossible to kill—the way to defeat them, I think, is to replace them.

…

Below the lookout I picked my way down the steepest part of the track, into the gathering dark. I tried as always to walk as quietly as possible, an effort made easier by the damp ground and harder by the silence. The breeze higher up had died away and nothing disturbed that silence other than the occasional fall of something small—a twig or berry, a leaf, or a flake of bark—and the shuffle of a large bird roosting, probably a kereru; intermittent rifle shots from somewhere down the No. 1 Line road; and my own quiet tread. When sight begins to fail the first sense to take over is hearing, and the snap of a small twig made me pause and listen harder. Nothing more, though. Possibly the first possum; perhaps even a deer; probably just the land adjusting to the approach of night.

I walked on, enjoying the thought that, in my camo bush shirt and dull green longs, I might be almost invisible. To come to know something well—some person, some place, some event—you have to interact with it, but to interact with something is to change it, and sometimes the change affects the characteristics you most love. Sometimes those changes might be for the better; too often they’re not; most often we don’t know whether they’re good or bad, and the very concept of good and bad might be irrelevant or meaningless. If my presence here, moving through the dark under the trees along a rough track, changes this place, I want those changes to be for the better, but I have no way of knowing. The best I can do, then, is to have as little effect on the place as I can, and that means moving quietly, disturbing nothing, leaving no trace, and resisting the urge to take anything. Sometimes, even photographs seem too intrusive.

But when the land seems to offer something, I’m not strong enough to resist, nor, I think, should I resist. When a miromiro flies to a perch a few metres away and eats its caterpillar there, brazenly, right in front of you when your camera’s sitting next to you with the right lens on, what should you do?

Here’s my answer.

---

Notes:

1. The introductory quotation by Nicolas Rothwell is from page 172 of The Red Highway, Collingwood, Australia: Blank Inc., (2010). ISBN 9781863954938. The one by Rebecca Solnit is from her essay ‘The art of arrival: On movement, stillness, and the arc of a life’, in Orion 33(3): 58—63.

Photos:

1. Kapiti Island from the top of the No. 1 Line track. June 2014.

2. Jacob’s Ladder (‘God beam’) over the Pohangina Valley. April 2014.

3. Popokatea (Whitehead) on the No. 1 Line track. May 2014

4. Miromiro at the top lookout on the No. 1 Line track. June 2014.

Photos and original text © 2014 Pete McGregor