Tuesday 25 November 2008
Saturday 1 November 2008
From Pushkar
Sorry for being slow in updating, I spent a day gathering myself together and since then have been helping out at TOLFA.I last saw the hospital three years ago when it was just opening and under construction and now it's really impressive. Loads of dogs, quite a few cows, only two donkeys and a goat. I was surprised to find out that often in Ajmer people throw hydrocholric acid on cows and bulls to deter them from going in their neighbourhood! They end up with acid burns that are both painful and slow to heal. There isn't as much use of petrol on wounds here although abuse of phenyl as a wound cleaner is as rampant here as in Udaipur. Phenyl is a disinfectant, often used as a floor cleaner and highly toxic to cats. Another use for it is killing maggots which can begin establishing themselves in a wound from as little as 6 hours after the flies lay their eggs. While it kills the maggots it also burns the inside of the wound making it much larger and more irritated. Not really a good wound ointment then....
Anyways back to the ride. Well I'll work in reverse, day 10: Raipur to Bothaliya and back to Bar. Bar is 6 kms from Raipur, although it turns out that that is via a highway, now Chandra has developed some courage and no longer sees all vehicles as scary lions that will kill him but riding for an hour wihle being overtaken by heavy goods vehicles honking their horns isn't really my idea of a good time. Whenever I asked people where there was a quiet road to Bar they looked at me as if I was insane: "but there is a highway, and it goes straight to Bar, if you go another way the road is longer and there won't be people". Em yes that's the point, my horse is not a vehicle and is afraid of trucks weighing a couple of tonnes bearing down on him. "Madam, you do one thing, you get rid of this stupid horse"..... So I saw a dirt track and thought "fuck it it's going north-east so it's the general direction I'm heading in" and it was, nice sandy planes, flat, no people, no village, just two kms of cantering happily along with the highway within hearing distance acting as a guide. Then a village started, "no road here! Only jungle! Go on the Highway! You can't go there, there's no paved road" but I managed for a few kms of a winding route before I had to get off and walk Chandra in hand for the last 2 kms to Bar which was almost enough to induce a nervous breakdown in the pair of us, that and while riding on an infected leg is painful at the best of times, walking on my legs was much more painful.
Once in Bar I managed to buy myself iodine, bandages and amoxicillin. In all my fussing my first aid kit only contained animal medicines and I foolishly left the rider part of the equation out of my plans. The road from Bur to Babra, where I planned to stay the night was quieter and again quite barren meaning I was able to ride in the area by the road, keeping it in sight as a guide. After 6kms I arrived in Bhotaliya and after talking with John realised that my stubborn wish to ride on wasn't worth risking losing a leg over if the infection spread. So I arranged for a truck from Ajmer to come pick us up and waited by a chai shop.
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