Martin: But your car wont be able to reach my house..
Me: Oh.. why not ? I have a VW Touran – its an MPV”
Martin: I live in the mountains and there are no roads that take you all the way.
Me: OH WOW – you live in the mountains ? awesome.. I always wanted to do that.
Martin: Yea ? you are welcome home anytime – and you can meet my wife and daughter..
Me: Thanks. I think I’d like that.
This is where I found Martin, infront of a shop close to the church.
So we set off to the mountains.. Of course there is a bit of risk involved with going off to the mountains with some stranger gypsy I had met an hour or so ago.. hmm.. but I always had a bit of “living on the edge” in me :-) It was a wonderful drive with the Perynees on my left..and we drove up to the mountains to as far as the MPV would take us which wasn’t much because the ground was muddy and wet from the rains and the car was skidding all around. Then we set off on foot following the narrow pathway through the mountains, We came across a natural lake and a waterfall.. We sat there for a while and emptied a can of local beer we bought at a store at the gas station, and talked for a long time about life and world and music and women and African slaves and many other things I don’t recall. We continued for another 40 mins uphill and I loved every moment of it, the fresh air, Martins stories about survival in the mountains, natural beauty of the perynnees etc.
The beautiful lake we passed by on the way to the settlement.
Finally we reach his “settlement” where there were four families living.. His wife came out running to greet him – he had been gone for four days to earn money. Later in the week they would take their donkeys to the market and load them with their supplies for the next month. This was their routine. But on the other hand they also grew vegetables and tapped in fresh water from the mountain streams. So the only supplies they required were just rice and flour and meds and few other handy items for the camp. They even brewed their own beer which was amazing.
We sat around in their open air kitchen, drank, ate and danced to the music they played. It was awesome! Later they made me sing a Hindi song and I struggled with “papa kehte hain bada naam ..” from QSQT. I suck at singing so had to give up soon. We all sat around and talked a lot more and I also played with Josephine their one year old daughter.. she was so chubby and cute and she was born in the mountains in their little camp.
Long after my visit I still think of Martin and his family and life in the mountains.. and how happy they were to see me :-)
Wonder if they still remember my visit to their little camp??
2 comments:
dude, u sure live on the edge. That was super cool I say- and totally worth it. Sometimes i wish too, we could just live a nomad's life and go about learning from life..but that soudns good in writing :). But you sure are a richer man with that experience- good decision, pal, to go see them. But be careful :). Dont u carry a tiny digi cam...do that you'll treasure good quality pics...these pics are priceless..and i assume u took them with your phone?
Yes - I had a great time, and YES I have to be careful too - been told that a lot of times.
These pics were taken with a digi cam - but its not little one sizewise. I bought it in 2002 and I still use it. I hate throwing away stuff just because they arent savvy enough. So my digi cam is the butt of the all jokes among friends whenever we go on a holiday etc :p
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