Trek Experience Part-6

Day6(Hanumanchatti to Dharwadhar range - camp seema)

The day started with the irritating ‘good morning ji’call made by our games faculty to wake us up.. I couldn’t understand what he was upto… for last 5 days we had been managing quite well and without support from anybody… anyways I came out to the lobby, the day was about to break and I could see yamuna flowing just few metres away.It was mesmerizing.( if someone travels from Delhi to Haridwar by road can appreiciate the importance of the gangetic system for the Indian civilisation.. The lush green fields of western UP rather, the entire northen plains can be termed as gift of the Himalayan rivers.. and we are such a grateful civilisation that we recognise this fact and worship rivers!!!)

I told the attendant for a bucket of hot water which I fortunately got… There were 2 toilets attached to our room, so it wasn’t a problem for us… I took bath and got ready.. I came out for breakfast but to my surprise found nobody at dhaba.. I was told by some locals that people have already started and we would be given breakfast on the way.. after few minutes I came across the games faculty, He told me that some nice place he had seen for us to have our breakfast which is just some distance away.. I was having my rucksack on my back.. We were supposed to walk few kms with our rucksack on and then only we could load them on khachhars.. some rules made by faculty!!!.. it was so funny that we were walking on the same path with khachhars with our bags on.. passerbys gave us smiles, some even told why don’t you put your bags on the khachhars??? What to say???  The term ‘why’doesn’t exist in FC dictionary.

We kept on walking but the breakfast point never came.. It was almost over an hour without breakfast and we were really pissed off by that time.. the games faculty was seen busy giving instructions to some local guys who he had given job for arranging breakfast- instruction like chanch(butter milk) ready ho gaya na?? aur paranthe??, ladoos rakh liye??.. he was behaving as if doing logistic arrangement for Indo-china war…

We kept on walking and waiting for breakfast… I was content that anyways we had covered some substantial distance.. By that time our teacher was also fed up with the wait for food… It was he only who had ordered for that extra ‘besan ke laddoo’…  We were happy thinking about those laddoos..

After some time, we were asked to halt at a place for breakfast- a small kasba kind of thing with many buffalos around.. the place was stinking and we couldn’t even found a decent place to sit as it was full of dung!!… probably He chose this place to provide us fresh butter milk!!!.. The wait continued… We tried to contact the games faculty through our ham instrument..

He appeared after sometime with food but without laddoos. He told laddoos are coming with khachhars in the next lot.. the wait for laddoos continued… The last lot of khachhars also arrived but laddoo packets were no where to be seen.. finally we gave up and strated planning for next journey..( later we were given excuses that “ladoo khachhar kha gaye!!!!!!!")

We unloaded our bags.. there were two paths from that place to dhawa top- one was longer and other was shorter but steeper… confusion persisted for some time but later we decided to go the shorter path.. The games faculty bid us ‘good bye’ there.

After a while we came across a steep hill. It was almost like a wall with rocky path. To make it worse hailstorm which had fallen previous day were still there… The ultimate ‘team spirit’came to action. We helped each other out…( We were given’solitude’and ‘group dynamics’as our theme for our trek presentation which we were to present post trek). So we got quite a few opportunities to click pics showing group dynamics. In between our teacher who was accompanying us to dharwa top kept speaking. He was carrying his rucksack where everybody else had given their to khachhars!!! He has a superb quality of interpersonal skill - he can easily transverse from one topic to another and can communicate with 2/3 groups talking differet topics at the same time!!!

By that time Rakhee had again twisted her ankle. Our game faculty asked her to stay back and not to trek but she decided to come with us for obvious reasons!!( of course how can she live without us, particularly Irina!!!). We made Rakhee as our pace setter. We walked slow but steady(interestingly that day only we reached on time!!!).. So it’s a lesson, while trekking, speed doesn’t matter- it is the consistency that pays.. It is some what applicable to day to day life too..

The uphill trek was tough but as we moved up more and more, the scenery was becoming more and more beautiful… Sun was playing with the clouds which were present in patches and lumps. From one of the point we observed that some hills were under shadow and some were shining gold, some were under snow at far along the horizon and some were not.

Finally we reached at Dharwa top at around 1.30 pm- bang on time. We were welcome with ‘neembu pani’ by the mess people. We could see 4 colourful tents ready at some distance. They had made those along a stream. We occupied one of the tents as group3 were also supposed to reach that place by evening and we had to keep one for them. We had our lunch- with typical mess plates, spoons and forks.

It was very cold outside- we were at an altitude of around 4000 metres( more than highest peaks of couple of continents!!!). I got inside the tent after lunch… It was too small for 17+2 people. By that time people had already selected their places.. I found a corner place for myself. Tent was smelling bad because of stinking shocks of people- but those things are immaterial during trekking. I tried to have a nap. After sometimes hails started pouring in.

We were called for tea in the evening. Pakoda was also thr (right now also I am having pakoda with my room mate post classes- best time of day!!!).  We heard the teacher cribbing that we get so good facilities now a days unlike their time… In India- seniors can’t see the happiness of their juniors, you take any profession and it will be there.

Evening was very serene.We could see the majestic ‘bandarpunch’ massif from dharwa top. Shutter bugs came into action… We have quite a few nice clicks of that day… darkness strated descending but the group3 guys were nowhere to be seen(apart from 2 people who reached early!!! Every group had their own set of fast trekkers I suppose!!)… The faculty started worrying and we had almost formed one rescue group. But before that team strated, we could see some people at the top of the adjoining hill… In half an hour time group3 people reached. Again the ‘bharat milaap’ scene. They had trekked one of the most difficult one- from Dodital to Dharwa top which we were supoosed to do next day..

After sometime, it became dark and by that time the mess boys along with ITBP guys and few OTs(Gaurang bhai and Abhijit) had already done the arrangement for a big bonfire… We were standing as close as possible to the bonfire… daaru-saaru started and our teacher also joined…

The sky was clear. I had never seen so many stars in my life. We could see the constellations too. Interestingly mobile network was available there. I called home and few other important persons in life… The mess people had made mutton and kheer too- no less than a feast, the best night so far during the trek… After a while I went inside the tent to sleep but it was overflowing with people. I found a place in between two fat snoring people- its good to be short and thin sometimes!!!