|
Alcesti de Righi Diary Entry Tuesday, 8 August 1905
At last everything is ready, the morning is fine, the rain holds off an hour or two, the coolies have turned up to time and are struggling to find the lightest load.
From six o'clock to nine we are all busy putting the finishing touches to our labours. All runs smoothly, and by nine o'clock every cooly is on the march to our first stage, Jorepakry. We snatched a hurried breakfast and entered our train. Ghoom is reached without any misadventure. As we wend our way from the station through the Gap and up through the Ghoom busti all the people turn out to have a peep at us, and as some of the coolies live here I notice a good deal of liquor as a parting glass being given them. I leave them and push along as I know the rear guard will bring them on. A little further on I pass the site of little Buddhist Temple. We are now practically in the forest with its giant gnarled oaks, rhododendrons, and hydrangeas, all covered with velvety moss, spangled with creepers and orchids. Butterflies are flying around us everywhere in spite of the rain. Every turn of the road reveals a pretty scene. Now an enormous rock dominates the road, or a woodman's little hut nestles close to a streamlet, then quite a little crowd of children appear, lustily claiming toll in the shape of bachsheesh from the passing stranger. At the sixth mile the famous Ghoom rock looms in view through the mist. A few miles further on Sukiapuwry ("the dried up tarn") is reached. The bazar is quite empty, a great contrast to the busy scene it is on a fine day. I notice the mission people have built a neat school house. Through the village I strike the road to the rest house. A winding path a mile long eventually lands me at my first stage, a trim whitewashed bungalow. Soon the chowkidar appears, and in a few minutes a cheery wood fire is lighted and most of my wet things are steaming around it. My companions will appreciate its comforts as they will like myself be wet through.
About an hour after my arrival the first of the porters turns up, and I check their numbers, as the first twelve who arrive are to receive a packet of cigarettes as a reward. This we are going to do every day, as it will show who are the best among the porters, and will enable us to choose the men we shall take on the glacier. To my great surprise, after seeing their send off from Ghoom busti, only one man arrives drunk and just manages to drop his load on the verandah steps. All the members of the Expedition are now in sight and only a few coolies, those with the heaviest loads have not yet showed up, but by five all are in, and a little after the rations are served out and we sit down to our evening meal. A policeman now turns up and claims one of our men on a charge of criminal breach of trust, another example of the long reach of the law. We ask him to show us his warrant, but as it is late and he has it not with him he returns the next morning and brings the accuser who has come out from Darjeeling for identification. All is right so far, but who is going to indemnify us for the five rupees advance this man has received from us before leaving? This is soon solved by the claimant giving us one of his large silver and turquoise earrings which he will claim from us on our return, so he is going to insist on his pound of flesh and means to have it. After a few games of chess, and our journals written, one by one we seek a well earned rest.
|