Mountain biking: Sojha - Jalori pass - Phagupul (5

Today was quite easy when compared to our ordeal yesterday. We walked up 5km a hill and reached Jalori pass early in the morning. Since our movement was restricted by the time we had in hand, we decided to descend back within a couple of hours. Post lunch, our journey down to the Phagupul camp started. It was all downhill from now, both topographically and otherwise. Just a matter of two days and this wonderful trip would be over. Going down the slopes was risky. Two in the team had accident, one of whom had to get some medical attention to his wounds. With deep gorges on one side and rocky hills on the other, I let my bike roll freely down the steep slopes and hairpin turns. With my brakes not working very well, it was scary but exciting at the same time. In no time, I hit the camp. A couple of hours later, we were cooling ourselves in the river stream. As expected, the water was ice-cold and to top it up, it started raining. We couldn't have asked for more. I let my soul get soaked in the mountain stream and the rain for a few minutes before picking up all my dry clothes and running for shelter.
Later part of the day was spent strolling in the village market and paying a visit to the lady shopkeeper (a promise is a promise!). The women in the hills are very pretty, specially the young girls in their early teens. And they are not the shy kind. They would meet you right in the eye and wont hesitate to pass that mischief smile. I don't know if there's something in the water or the air which makes their skin glow and spirits resonate. Got talking to some locals and came to know about some interesting stories of infidelity in the locality, most of which were of course, extra-marital :) So even in such pristine lap of nature, man is not untouched by the very vices of mankind. On second thoughts, having such pretty women around definitely adds to the cause!

contd...