useless motorbikes, lakes, and temples

I wasnt planning on writing so often, but it has been a busy few days. good and bad. ill start with the bad- most of the guys were trying this really hard boulder with a dyno at the top (i may have mentioned it before). Flavius tried it and nearly touched the top, but fell and landed awkwardly on his knee and was clearly in agony. we had to improvise a splint and Alberto and Garath carried him down to a waiting tuk tuk and took him to hospital. He is back already with a splint on, but it is a torn ligament, and has to rest for 3 weeks, then not sure after that. So im not sure what he will do as he is inly on the trip until Dehli, which is about a month away. He is so frustrated and we can all sympathise, but feel helpless. i think it has made people think about how easy it is to get injured, so we will be extra careful now.
on to a happier note- yesterday was great fun! in the morning we did some really good bouldering, then in the afternoon, Samora and I hired a motorbike and went to find a nearby lake. the bike was the last one left, and the owner said it may struggle up hills! what we didnt realise was he meant any kind of slope would reduce us to getting off and pushing the bike up! we did start to get the hang of picking up momentum on a downward hill to get up the other side, but this was a bit scary when i was sat on the back going over pot-holes and around cows! we found the lake after getting lost and going up unnecessary hills! the first sign we saw said 'no swimming, beware of crocodiles'. so we were a bit tentative to go in the water as it was very murky! but there were locals in other parts of the lake, so we had a swim, which was lovely. we then headed back via the monkey temple. this involved a LOt of steps to reach it! it is pearched on top of a hill and is inhabited by lots of monkeys, who seemed quite friendly. we were invited into the temple and given some dried fruit and red paint on our foreheads (for good luck i think), then as we were leaving, we were invited into a house that was built into a rock and sat down on the floor while the owner started making chai. he spoke little English. then other locals joined us. it was a bit strange! all in all a good day!
I am hoping to have some kind of party tonight for my birthday tomorrow. we were thinking fancy dress as there is a fancy dress box in the truck.
we move on to Badami tomorrow, for sandstone (kinder on the fingers), sports, and trad.

useless motorbikes, lakes, and temples

Hampi, India