Thur 15. July 15.] hunger had been more or less appeared we set out in a Tonga??? with the bearers & the luggage following behind in another one. About 4 minutes or so from Debra it began to rain & our driver got out to tie the side flap over the luggage. The two ponies seemed to think it silly waiting and tried to make off.
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However by leaning over to the front I managed to get hold of the reins & so pulled them up before we had gone 10 yds. Even then they were a little bit of a job to hold. Still we reached Rajpur without mishap though by this time it was raining in torrents. [Thur 15 Jul 15. We pulled up at Chapmans hotel and waited for the rain to stop. Rajpur is a the foot of the hills & from there one has to go on either in a dandy or on a pony. As the rain stopped we decided on ponies. The 2 1/2 hrs ride was an experience one has never had before. Up, up, up always up along a path that twists & jerks itself up the side of the mountains. the average gradient is 1 in 4 I should think and on the corners decidely worse - or so it seems. On one side one has the mountain rising up & on the other a drop to the valley below varying from 20 to 7 or 800 ft.