Day 5: Trekking from Chikha to Balu-Ka-Gera
It seemed, I had gone into a limbo. It was a while before I realized where I was. Am wrapped up in a Sleeping Bag inside a small 3 men tent with all our luggage lying around. And it was raining cats and dogs outside. Raindrops pounding hard on the tent's Nylon rain cover.
What was I doing here?
I could barely move, I was so tightly packed in the warm clothes and sleeping bag. But something was moving beside me. Almost stirring me awake. It was Dhanno's hand. And now everything came into focus. As if someone had turned on the Autofocus of my mind.
. I sensed her voice too. "Aniket, uth na.. Mujhe jana hai..". And I sleepily replied, "Aj bahut baarish ho rai hai, kal jana.."
She wanted to go out to attend "call of nature". That too, when nature outside was having its own call!!
. But that wasn't her problem. Her problem was fear of dark. "Gals!!"
. Meanwhile Ashwini got up too and she too felt an urge to go out. Problem solved.. I asked both of them to carry a torch and attend their alleged call. Once they were back, I felt, I need to go too..
. Lesson learnt : Diamox should be accompanied by an Antacid!!
Nevertheless, while I was out I realized the hard way that it had been raining constantly. The question looming in my head was, whether we will be able to trek in such rains tomm.? Infact, the question was "Will I get any pictures in such rains?". The sleep was hard to come after that.
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I woke up by voices from other Tent. It was 6 AM already. And it had stopped raining.
. Dhanno and Ashwini were awake too. Voices from the other tent of Sandy sledging Swasti meant that other three were awake too. I stepped out of my sleeping bag and tent and had a waft at the fresh air. It was unbelievable. It was unbelievable to have slept in open in such heavy rains. The tents were really good!!
And since the rain had stopped I had a go with my Lens:
Indra Dev's Fort (As per local legends)
Well, this was the only moment in the complete day or should I say in next 2 days that I got some sunlight. But at least, we are good to proceed for the trek. All daily chores done, Buddhi ji came up with awesome Aloo Parathe as breakfast and Bread-Jam/Butter plus Boiled eggs as packed lunch to be carried with us for the day. We relished on Parathas and packed up our Bags and tents. We were ready for Day 2 Trek.
We start the day by crossing the stream following Buddhi Ji's instructions "Cheetah ki tarah cross karo..":
We had to gradually trek uphill today. But I was not bothered by that at all. I was looking at the surroundings. We were surrounded by a large variety of flowers all around. It was amic the famed Valley of Flowers. Light was not great, and rain kept on and off. But I kept on clicking whatever I could. Here are a few shots (none reflect the actual galore though):
While I was capturing these, we realized that uphill was growing steeper.. And Ashwini had started facing breathing problems already. Heavy bags on our shoulders and constant rain were adding to the difficulties. Not to mention, the path was also slippery at places. It had become more of a Monsoon Trek. The uphill was gradual. We pit stopped at frequent intervals and I kept taking photos whenever rain allowed me to:
Soon we reached a plateau. We could see the complete valley from this point. Also, I pointed out Horses carrying our tents and kitchen coming from a distance. I could speculate that we still have a long way to go as these horses will cross us and reach the next campsite before us. And this definitely will take some time. Ashwini was already very tired. We all were worried for her and were pushing her at every point.
Up ahead, we had to descend for some time until we cross a waterfall. Yes, you read it right. There was a narrow edge which we had to cross by walking along the face of a mountain and there was a small waterfall falling from the top of that mountain. I was transported to childhood
Tilasmani stories where all powers/shields are lost when the Hero crosses a waterfall with magical properties. There indeed was something magical about the waterfall though. It energized us all. It’s all in the head actually. If water had any such properties, we had been walking amidst a downpour since morning.
While crossing the waterfall, I was wondering, how horses will cross these narrow edges, full of slippery rocks. Answer was not far away. We reached a point (can be termed a plateau) from where we could see the narrow edge and waterfall that we had crossed. And I waited there to see the horses cross it.
Here is what I saw:
We took some more rest here and had a part of our packed lunch and other dry-fruits etc. Tranquility of the place was unquestionable. A stream (Rani Nalla) was gushing through the rocks and we were all surrounded by beautiful flowers all around. I just wished for a little sunshine.
We all in our lives keep wishing for sunshine when it is raining hard. And for rains when the sun is burning hot. I think, some things are better when they are incomplete by some means, at least we have a scope for wishing. Soaking in this incomplete tranquility, we marched ahead to seek completeness.
I was trying to capture a red colored unique flower and when I saw the picture in my camera's Screen I spotted a beautiful butterfly sitting right behind the flower I just captured. I wasted no time and focused my 300 mm Lens on the butterfly and captured it beautifully:
After walking for what seemed like eternity, we reached the much talked about river stream which we had to cross by walking through it. Are you kidding me? That was the expression when people tested the temperature of stream water by dipping a hand. Shoes and socks cannot be allowed to get wet (As if they were dry
). So, the best way was cross it barefooted with shoes tied by lace around the neck or thrown the other side with a risk of getting flown away as a result of a miscalculated aim..
I chose Option 1. There was another group too led by Poluram. Both our guides Polu and Budhhi Ji insisted on forming human chain to cross this stream without getting toppled over by force of flow accompanied by freezing water. I also had an overhead of saving my camera from getting wet by any means. Well, I wouldn't say how cold the water was, because I do not have a word apt enough to describe it. And actually, does it matter? After crossing half of the stream, the legs become numb enough to feel anything thereafter. It was ELECTRIC!!!
Let Swasti's and Sandy's expressions speak the rest:
This also became a point where the horses overtook us. Advantage being, I was able to capture them crossing the stream, which they did very effortlessly:
One amazing thing happened after crossing the stream, Ashwini recovered completely from here breathing problem. Only explanation that we could think of was that freezing water had sped up the blood circulation in her body thereby reducing the oxygen demand.
It was thick waist length thorny bushes after that. Also, horses had really been easy at shitting after crossing the stream. The trick was to find the path not traversed by Horses. Flowers and stream were still all around us. We also spotted some local people camping in these bushes possibly on "Herb Hunting". Some captures:
The locals camping for Herb Hunting
According to our guide, we had to reach some glacier and camp very near to it. After walking endlessly, sometimes on plain terrain and sometimes a slight uphill, we spotted a glacier from some distance. I used my 300 MM lens to get a zoomed in picture:
But it was still at least an hour's trek away. I had lost track of time by now. Clothes were all damp due to constant on-off rains despite all the rain-coats. Horses might have reached and all I could think of was hot maggi and soup prepared by Buddhi ji. He had gone ahead with the horses to setup the camp. Roshan(the junior trek guide) was the one along. Some steep uphills later, I could feel the heaviness of my sack. It was getting weary now. Mainly due to rains. Photos kept coming:
In some time Roshan told us that it was merely a 15 minute trek now. Those 15 minutes took 30 minutes for us and lo, the camp site was finally in eyesight. The location was more beautiful than the last one. Only, the tiredness and rains didn’t allow us to soak in the beauty of the place. It started raining heavily by the time we reached the tents which were all pitched and ready with our sleeping bags. Most parts of our sacks were wet despite all the rain covers. This was the last picture I could get before stepping in the tent, never to come out after that.
Buddhi Ji welcomed us with hot tea and maggi. We were hungry.. We were tired.. We were soaked. So weary that even hot, sumptuous maggi couldn’t cheer us up much. Ashwini was in bad state. She needed rest. Cold, Rain, Less Oxygen, heavy sack (Though it was carried by Roshan almost half the way) and the terrain all had taken a toll on her. A lot of time was spent in making an effort to dry our wet belongings and making our tents ready to dwell in for the night.
The rain was unstoppable. Buddhiji served us Soup in some time, which we drank wholeheartedly. I had given cough syrup to Ashwini and made her sleep. I caught some sleep too. Dhanno was in another tent while we slept. I got up around 6 PM and went to the other tent. Nothing warms you up more than cozy chit-chats that happen in such conditions. Only talking to each other makes us forget all the weariness. The talks went on till 9 in the night. Later Ashwini also joined us. We actually woke her up on a pretext that she wouldn't get sleep in the night if she overslept now. We all had dinner in the same tent. All 6 of us in a 3 men tent..
. Some extra warmth is always welcome. We didn’t eat much, or better to say, we couldn't eat much.
Finally it was bed-time. Everyone had a bit of fever due to altitude. We had our dose of Diamox (with an antacid today). Kapil was adamant on not taking any medicine. He was heard quoting "Meri body apne aap adjust karegi, mai nai lunga dawai..".. We forced him to take it though. We moved to our tent. Dhanno and I continued our chit chat till late in the night. Ashwini woke up whenever we took her name in our conversations
and slept again when we didn’t tell her what we were talking about. Sleep finally fell over, to be broken in a few hours again. It was Dhanno and her fear of dark again!!
