Activity Week (3)

The following morning, we packed our bags because we were leaving Camp Bear Stream. We had plans to drive to another area for a short hike to a temple and then to another camp where we would do some bike riding. After the cycling, we were to head to Camp Panther, where we would be spending our final two nights. The drive to our temple hike was a bit wild. The last half-hour was on a poorly-paved jungle "road." Most of us were in a bus, so the ride was very bumpy. Beth was in the back and nearly hit her head on the ceiling a few times. In the end, we stopped near the stream pictured below. If you look closely, you can see our bus and the two jeeps that we took.

To get to the temple, we had to walk through the stream. We were all prepared with our sandals and had our pants rolled up to our knees.

Eventually, we made it to the top of the hill and the temple. It was quite small, but we got a nice explanation from the resident priest of the goddess that was being honored. We spent some time walking around and looking across the valley. We even saw a mountain goat or two in the distance. Apparently, there are seven temples in a row in these hills each dedicated to a different deity. Every April, devout Hindus make a pilgrimage walking to all seven to honor the gods.


After we left the temple, we made our way back through the stream to the bus. We gave the students some time to play in the stream. Some had fun splashing around in the water while others made a game of collecting as many frogs or crabs as they could. Hopefully, all of these prisoners were released before the bus pulled away.

The next stop was Camp Tusker for a couple hours of cycling. This was one of our favorite parts of the week. We do not have bikes in Chicago, so we don't get a chance to ride very often. It was great to zip around the paths looking for birds, elephants, and other wildlife. We ended at another small stream where elephants are known to get their water, but there were none there when we stopped. We did see some leopard footprints in the sand, though. We didn't take our camera along with us on the bike-riding trip because we didn't want to risk a fall along the way. We both made it through safely, but you'll just have to imagine what it was like.

Our final stop for the day was going to be our home for the next two nights. It's hard to believe, but Camp Panther was even nicer than our last camp. Here we got a nightly visit from a staff member to turn down our beds and put a mint on our pillows.

You can see that we even had a fan in our "tent" in case it got too hot for us. It didn't, but it was nice to know that it was there.

Dave and Beth