aussiegnu: Year 12 Camp - Getting to the Top

This is not a picture of one of the Year 12's nor is it Yoda visiting us to offer words of wisdom. It is from day 2 of our adventure that we will get to a bit later.

Anyway here we go with the three day adventure to Kodaikanal. Sitting back at the school on Sunday morning it seems more like an ordeal that an adventure. The time spent there was great but getting there saps you of all energy to really enjoy it and then you know you are faced with the journey home again.

To get there the plan was to leave the school by school bus, with the 12 Hostel girls who were attending, by 7:30 pm on Wednesday night to get us to the train station for a 9:30 pm departure. Bit early we thought as it is only 20 minutes to the station and who wants a 90+ minute wait with 85 excited sixteen year old girls on the platform with all their families plus the other 100,000 people who appeared to be travelling with us on the 'Pandyan Express'.

Of course the 7:30 departure did not occur. We had the kids ready but what we did not know was that four teachers were coming on the bus as well and they certainly did not want to spend 90+ minutes more than they had to with the girls.

So in Indian fashion we sat and waited for the teachers. Everyone was quite relaxed, there were no frantic phone calls just a calm air of expectancy. I wanted to start running 'a book' on what time we would depart but none of the kids could understand the concept. We departed at about 8:15 pm, arrived at Egmore Station at 8:45, in plenty of time to get to the platform and wait for all the day scholars and their families to arrive.

Happy Hostel Girls at the start of the adventure

It is a fully ticketed train with compartments of eights seats that convert to two triple decker bunks and a double decker. I am not a specialist on trains, but this has got to be the longest passenger train in the world. I assume this because by the time I had reached S7 (my carriage) I had consumed all my overnight water and had to have two rest breaks.

We were then informed by The Deputy Principal (Mrs Wesley) that we would not be sitting in S7 but should come to S10 with them. What seemed like an eternity later we arrived at S10 and followed the teachers in and sat where we were instructed to. It was an Indian train, very old, very dirty and now with our girls on board very loud.

The train was as full as .... I was going to say as full as an Indian train can get but I do not believe that the exact number that constitutes a full Indian train will ever be found. Somehow Mrs Wesley convinced two people that they should walk all the way to S7 and sit in our seats so that we could all sit together.

We are hopping off this train at a small station called Kodai Road at 5:06 am the next morning. Mrs Wesley informs us that the train only stops for 1 minute so it is a major exercise to get all the girls off the train.

I sit and ponder at this statement. If Mrs Wesley can get two people who are already sitting on a train to pick up their bags and walk two kilometres to another carriage surely she can get the train to stop a bit longer at the station. I mean, punctuality and Indian Rail are not usually mentioned in the same sentence.

After some chat Lynn and I are offered the double decker which Lynn is ecstatic about. The thought of having to scale the side to the top of a triple decker (which is what our original berth in S7 would have been) with no safety harness was quite scary. Although the carriage was not air-conditioned there was quite a breeze from the continual procession of girls running back and forward followed by Mrs Wesley yelling at them to be quiet (the three ceiling-mounted fans and the 60 mile an hour wind blowing through the window also helped but did nothing for the hairstyle).

I again sat and pondered at how you get someone to be quiet by making more noise than four of them together could possibly make. The girls laughed, Mrs Wesley laughed, the game continued and IW and I "slept" sporadically.

Twenty minutes before our arrival at Kodai Road Station Mrs Wesley sprang into action. She was up barking orders to the girls who responded magnificently. The train arrived, all alighted safely, and the train departed on its journey.

Kodaikanal is one of the Hill Stations of India. A Hill Station is a high-altitude town, used especially by European colonialists, as a place of refuge from the Indian summer heat and tropical diseases.

We knew we were being transported by bus from the Station to the Hotel. The one minor fact missed in this message was that it was an 85 kilometer trip that went from 250 metres above sea level (820 feet) to 2133 metres (6998 feet). The buses were 21 seaters with the luggage tied on the roof. On our bus were our hostel girls plus day scholars to fill it to capacity.

So the scenario is an 85 kilometre winding mountain road rising 1883 metres (6178 feet) and a group of girls who had rarely seen a hill let alone drive up one. It all adds up to 2.5 hours of unimaginable excitement. The Wallis travel experience had us with a backpack that had a plastic bag with some fruit in it, a plastic bag with a wet washer, a plastic bag for scraps and a plastic bag with spare plastic bags.

Some would say we had an excess of plastic bags and on most occasions you would be correct but by the 30 minute stage of the trip, with the Indian music video blaring full blast, the first plastic bag was used. A lot of my friends would say that I am prone to exaggeration, but as I sit at home with a calm mind I can quite comfortably say that the bus trip up the mountain was one of the most trying things I have experienced.

We used all our plastic bags, we used the washer, we used all our water and the biggest miracle of all was that we managed to retain the contents of our stomachs. Not all girls got sick but those who did (about seven) were quite ill.

All in all it is a great recipe:

Overnight train ride +
No sleep +
Plenty of junk food +
Overcrowded bus +
Inexperienced travellers
= TECHNICOLOUR PLASTIC BAGS

As the four buses reached the top we found out there were only a couple of cases of slight sickness on the other buses because the teachers had given those girls motion sickness tablets before the climb began. We're not sure why our bus was missed.

Not so happy girls at the top