Lots of GVs today, Marc and I paid a courtesy visit to the local chief of police armed with a tin of shortbread biscuits which went down well; so whilst permissions for town shooting were cleared at a local level, unfortunately the secret police patrolling outside the Ashram (due to high security alert from terrorist bomb threats) had other ideas so we had to cut that a bit short. Driving the truck through the town was an experience to say the least! There are no rules other than honk your horn and go for gold! Marc is immensely pleased with himself because the policeman told him how much he liked his beard and that he looked like a Hero (to my villain of course).

Marc, Adam and Nathan headed back to base after the interviews whilst I hopped on the back of Narenda’s motorbike for a trip to treat some donkeys Clementien was worried about. These animals head off into the forest each day and come laden back with huge amounts of sticks strapped on the backs. The sticks rub then raw and some were in a bad way. They weren’t exactly in the best part of town – the donkeys were being ‘hidden’ from thieves behind the cemetery, just through the rubbish tip by the open drainage to a small ‘lake’ of sewage. Grim doesn’t come close.

It was a great visit because it seemed to go down well with the community there. They are the poorest people about – they have absolutely nothing. It was nice to help out in a small way and I’m quite pleased the cameras weren;t there for this one as we could race around and get through most of the animals without me messing up any lines or having to explain everything I was doing.

None of the vets at Karuna have much donkey experience so it was nice to contribute to their amazing work. Having said that, I’m certain Clementien would have been there next week donkey vet or no donkey vet as she isn’t frightened of taking on any challenges when it comes to animal welfare!