Hiking up Mt. Arunachala

Mom and I hiked part of the way up Mt. Arunachala two days ago, barefoot! It was rather exhilarating at first, as new experiences tend to be. In fact the way up was quite delightful because I love the feel of sand squishing between my toes and the way my foot can curl around a rock and grip it. The thorns I stepped on were less pleasant. The way back down, however, was not so pleasurable. The sun had risen in the sky, eliminating shade and heating the rocks to burning point. Mom and I were sometimes forced to hurry from shady spot to shady spot: no easy feat while barefoot on a rocky mountain trail, even a well-trodden trail. We found a little creek which I bathed my feet in, but this was definitely a mixed blessing. There had been no such creek on the way up, which meant we had made a wrong turn somewhere and had to backtrack. By the time we reached the Ashram, I was limping, because I had somehow managed to stick more thorns in my left foot than my right, and parched from lack of water. Despite this, however, I decided that the hike was, overall, a success. The view was lovely. We got high enough that we could hear only the loudest of the car horns, and the air was filled with that heady perfume of flowers attributed to India.
Yesterday, the family hiked up to the cave in which Sri Ramana Maharshi lived for twenty years. The one I went into was filled witha beautiful, peaceful presance. Unfortunately, I could not hike any further because my feet still hurt from the day before even though I wore shoes on that hike, because I was having asthma, and because I had not eaten breakfast. So I planned on hiking all the way to the top the next day, which I did.
Today, we hiked all the way up to the top of Mt. Arunachala. It was quite a scramble. “We” includes Mom, Patrick, me, this Indian boy who we met the other day who wanted to hike to the top, and a woman named Layla. Layla, it turns out, is an old acquaintance. She is a friend of a friend and had dinner at our house 10 years ago! It is a smaller world than I previously thought. The hike was lovely. It was quite foggy for almost the entire time, which I liked. It blocked the city from our view and isolated us. There were also fewer hikers. The downside was that the rocks were very slippery in some places, but we managed. After about an 1 ½ hours (I think) we made it to the top. It was wonderful! There were three or four Sadus at the top. Sadus are men who live in religious poverty, depend on charity, and devote their lives to the god Shiva. They gave us chai and led us around the top of the mountain. I was grateful for this because the top was smeared all over with ghee (clarified butter) as an offering and was very slippery. There was always a helpful hand if I started losing my balance, which was regularly. I don’t know how they did it, but they were completely stable; I saw one running to chase some monkeys away from their rice. Dad said he saw one leaping from rock to rock, running headlong down the mountain, by way of descent. I would have fallen down after five seconds, but I suppose that if you live on a mountain for ten years, climbing up and down every few days for supplies, you get used to it.