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!!!