The daily trek to Tekhla was meant to condition us for the mountains. The rucksack weighed about 10-13 kgs and as we made our way through the town towards Tekhla, it was quite a sight for the locals. We were initially 92 trainees and about a dozen instructors. The 8.6 km took us 2 hours with a break of 10 minutes thrown in. Slowly we reduced the time taken and the stragglers reduced in number.
Climbing the rocks was a thrill, specially the longer pitches. Slowly we mastered the art of belaying each other up the rock faces and rappelling down. We were served breakfast and lunch at Tekhla with a juice break thrown in. The juice was really diluted squash and two biscuits, but anything was welcome in the hot weather.
Handling the mess tin was also something we learnt quickly. It was an aluminum contraption shaped like an oblong tiffin in two halves making a pan each, one slightly larger than the other. Both parts had a prong like (U shaped) handle which could fold back into the pan. Now the smaller pan with folded handle went into the larger half and voila! you had a folded mess tin which could be opened out with some difficulty and you had two pans to get food in. Handling two pans with hinged handles, a spoon and a steel mug took some adjustments. We queued up for breakfast and got an omelette (supposed to be 2 eggs, but the size varied), 2 pieces of bread with butter in between, two more bread slices with jam in between, some cereal (daliya/ cornflakes) and lot of tea. Occasional change was paranthas and bhature.
The return journey was in 2 buses and an ambulance, belonging to the institute. On returning, we had some more classes and films, to keep us busy till 8 pm. We were already looking forward to the move to the mountains.
Climbing the rocks was a thrill, specially the longer pitches. Slowly we mastered the art of belaying each other up the rock faces and rappelling down. We were served breakfast and lunch at Tekhla with a juice break thrown in. The juice was really diluted squash and two biscuits, but anything was welcome in the hot weather.
Handling the mess tin was also something we learnt quickly. It was an aluminum contraption shaped like an oblong tiffin in two halves making a pan each, one slightly larger than the other. Both parts had a prong like (U shaped) handle which could fold back into the pan. Now the smaller pan with folded handle went into the larger half and voila! you had a folded mess tin which could be opened out with some difficulty and you had two pans to get food in. Handling two pans with hinged handles, a spoon and a steel mug took some adjustments. We queued up for breakfast and got an omelette (supposed to be 2 eggs, but the size varied), 2 pieces of bread with butter in between, two more bread slices with jam in between, some cereal (daliya/ cornflakes) and lot of tea. Occasional change was paranthas and bhature.
The return journey was in 2 buses and an ambulance, belonging to the institute. On returning, we had some more classes and films, to keep us busy till 8 pm. We were already looking forward to the move to the mountains.
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