With time up our sleeves from our botched plans to be part of an Indian wedding we took some local advice and headed to the mountains. Shimla was the summer retreat of the British viceroy during the British occupation. It’s seated at 2180m perched on a ridge above very deep valleys looking out onto the Himalayas. It is an exceedingly beautiful place and definitely worth a visit to the surrounding areas in summer. We took a day trip Tattapani, a beautiful village nestled on the banks of the raging … river. Natural hot springs trickle into the river here. Kahlia and I constructed our own bath with river stones allowing the scolding hot spring water to mix with the ice cold river. Definitely one of highlights so far and an adventure sadly not to be repeated as the town is scheduled to be flooded. A dam is to be built not 100m downstream. Our guide tells us the locals are happy as they are getting heavily compensated for the inconvenience; Lonely Planet tells a different story.

Shimla is home to a large number of grey langurs as well as the ever present macaque. This is our first sighting of the grey langur and was very cool. I watched the younger ones swing up onto rooves of cars and slide down the slick windscreens. Apparently this doesn’t please the owners as a number of cars have thorny branches strewn on their rooves.

It is here that we part ways with Sarah and Reagan. We may run into them at Rathombore Nature Reserve but otherwise we are on our own till February. We have just got off our Toy train back down to the plains and are on our way back to Delhi.