Spectacular sunrise

Today day is Gita's birthday – the baby that was delivered into my hands 19 years ago. Her birthday present was to take all the family paragliding and she and Raju were really gung ho about it all while Sanja was downright nervous and Ajamburi excited but not showing it. I went to meet them at the landing strip – Raju came in first, full of smiles but then told me he had been sick. Gita came next and when she looked up for a photo she was pea green and has been comatose ever since. Ajamburi and Sanja both flew in and landed all smiles and happiness and Sanja thrilled he overcame his qualms. Video and stills have been bought of all their flights and hopefully Raju and Gita will see there were times when they were enjoying themselves.

After my hurried posting of a blip yesterday afternoon Raju and I set off for the foothills on Sanja's motorbike. The roads got so rough I had to cling like a limpet to the pillion rack and there was no way I could have ridden side saddle as a maiden should. We were off to stay the night with a mate of his who is running the rather beautiful, if basic, set of rooms for people wanting to see both the sunset and sunrise on the mountains. And beautiful they both were even though I had to arise at 5.45 to see this morning's glory. On the way down this morning we had a puncture so Raju hailed a passing truck driven by a friend and they heaved the bike on board and the mate took it to a repair shop close to our house. Raju got a lift to the paragliding site and I hitched a lift back home – the inevitable hand was out for money when we arrived and well spent it was. The bike is now repaired and on the road again – everything is possible in this country!

I will reply to those that gave me hearts for Kevin the Vulture but bear with me - we have power shedding to India again and I'm running out of battery

If you can bear it there are lots more pics on picasaweb.google.com/pricebelinda