Once we rode away for longer than usual, we sent the donkeys carrying our sleeping bags and food. The first and only time we did this, the men and mule went down the mountainside ahead of us. They did not wait for us and when we arrived at the bottom of the gorge, it was nearly dark. We had no tents or sleeping bags or food. We had to sleep on a threshing floor and tried to use the straw as a mattress, but it was much too prickly. We ended up using our sleeping bags on the hard ground. I melted some chocolate bars in a tin to give us a hot drink. The next morning our muleteers appeared, they had gone too far and what’s more had slept in our sleeping bags… we learnt our lesson and after that we made sure we all travelled together.