uring the lunch stop I took my eyes off the bus for a minute, and when I looked back it had begun crawling away into the mouth of the valley ahead. The bus conductor hung out the door waving cheerfully, as I ran and fell over and yelled and ran, my chest burning in the thin air.

riving up, driving down, scraping rock walls, getting bogged, exchanging balding tyres for bald ones: ours was the only noise in the world.

e drove on into a gathering darkness that pinned the mountains against the sky. The fires of shepherds glowed on the hillsides, and their sheep moved in flickering arcs around the light. We slept in tents and in the morning the bus began climbing again. There was a rhythm going.

hen the axle snapped. If we could hail a helpful vehicle, and if they picked up the right part and brought it back to the disabled bus, and if it could then be fitted with the tools at hand, the bus might move again in two days. It didn't take long to figure out that we needed another way to get down the mountain.