First thing you notice is how close you are from the precipice. Every turn , every bend in the road is fraught with danger . There are concrete railings , usual rad markers and special cautionary messages .
The air becomes rapidly rarefied. Cool , clean and crisp.
The vales are full of greenery . Fir , pine , birch , silver oak , who's who of mountainous flora. Brits revelled here. Poor chaps . It reminded them of home . Moss clings to rocky hillsides , in large velvety swathes . Unseen birds chirp. Swooping in and out of the dense foliage . Larks , swifts , martins .
Some where a mountain stream gurgles onto the road . Clear glacier water, running over cobblestones , falling down in a gay abandon of watery spray, trickling between gigantic moss covered trunks .
Years later , I would recount this scenic route to a person from that place , a local , under very different circumstances. I would be the patient , he , the attendant .
He would nod smilingly , then add- "do you know , at this place , you can have the first pick of strawberries for free , at so-and -so time of the year ?"
And I , wide eyed , would say -"No, I didn't know that ."
Trying in vain to recall , which season we paid a visit .
The air becomes rapidly rarefied. Cool , clean and crisp.
The vales are full of greenery . Fir , pine , birch , silver oak , who's who of mountainous flora. Brits revelled here. Poor chaps . It reminded them of home . Moss clings to rocky hillsides , in large velvety swathes . Unseen birds chirp. Swooping in and out of the dense foliage . Larks , swifts , martins .
Some where a mountain stream gurgles onto the road . Clear glacier water, running over cobblestones , falling down in a gay abandon of watery spray, trickling between gigantic moss covered trunks .
Years later , I would recount this scenic route to a person from that place , a local , under very different circumstances. I would be the patient , he , the attendant .
He would nod smilingly , then add- "do you know , at this place , you can have the first pick of strawberries for free , at so-and -so time of the year ?"
And I , wide eyed , would say -"No, I didn't know that ."
Trying in vain to recall , which season we paid a visit .
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