Mesmerizing Himalayas

Har Ki Dun

Who willingly gives up their time and precious energy to go climbing up a mountain’s incline, go un-showered for days and devoid of their precious mobile network all the while alongside strangers?

But then again, who would be crazy not to do just that if it puts a bigger smile on your face than anything else in the world?

So, for this love for the unpredictable mountains- I found myself in the back of a jeep, hurtling through the Himalayas to our trailhead for the Stunning Har Ki Dun Trek.

Our journey to Sankri finally started, our driver was good. We drove through the curvaceous roads of the Shivalik Himalayas. It was spectacular. We had a young group of 5 friends in our team along with Joshua. A nice pleasant group all together.

• 

We reached Sankri and were taken to our rooms. It was pitch dark. Due to the rains there was no power and so no hot water to shower. It was very cold. We tried to freshen up as best as we could in the dark and with the ice water. We then had to walk down for a km in the rain to the cafeteria. We were served tea and biscuits, documents were collected and we were briefed about the Do’s and Don’ts. The dinner was awesome and hot. Everyone was happy but we were not looking forward to going back to our dark rooms.

• 

Next morning we had breakfast of bread omelet, then got into the vans. We had a 12km drive from Sankri to Taluka. We noticed that the dog we befriended had started to run in front of the van and was leading the way to Taluka. Amazing.

The views were spectacular. We reached Taluka in an hour. There were other groups there ready to start the trek. Everyone was all energized and ready to go.  Pictures, good lucks all done we finally opened our trekking poles and started down. Today we would be trekking for 14 kms from Taluka to Osla. Everything was going well everyone was being careful and fascinated by the views. We met a few trekkers who were returning. Our team stayed together and tried to stay away from the other group. One of the groups were of two girls, they were also from Hyderabad. The biggest coincidence was that. One on them was sitting beside me on the flight from Hyderabad to Delhi, and also they were on the same metro to Kashmiri gate. It’s a small world really. We chatted for a while then we started walking again. We were soon ahead of them. We walked over bridges and climbed over mountains.

We had two guides one in the front Sarabjeet and one behind Altaf. We stopped to wear our ponchos as it had started raining again. The weather kept changing and soon we stopped at a tea stall. We were given our packed lunches of roti’s and potato. It food was really cold. I ordered for a Maggie and we all had tea too.it suddenly started raining really heavy with hail. The moment it stopped, we all stared walking again

Finally we reached our campsite, we were hungry and tired. But we did have enough energy to end the night with Mafia.

Something mysterious and wonderful happens when you trek. Everything you eat tastes like it’s from heaven.

It’s true that the best dining room is outdoors alongside nature. A nice rock, a fabulous view and the sweat to prove that you have earned every delicious bite. Soon hot soup was served then dinner. Oh my it was really delicious. We had roti’s, dal, rice, veg curry, papad, pickle and sweet. We all ate well as everyone was hungry. We then all went to our tents to sleep as it was getting really cold. All four layers of clothing came on and deep inside the sleeping bag it was really cozy.

We woke up early as we were to start by 630 am. We freshened up and went for  breakfast. Upma!! It never tasted so good at home. Finally we got ready to start. Our packed lunches were handed over to us. Today was going to be a higher altitude so we needed all the energy and we wanted to start before it became hot.

Today we trek for around 14 kms to Osla Village. There is a unique temple of Bheema of Mahabharata in Osla village situated at an altitude of 2650m. Along the trek route we cross bridges over Tons river, lush green valleys covered with wild orchids of the Himalayas and if we got lucky then we could probably encounter the rich wild life of Himalayas like barking deer, Blue Sheep, Bear or Leopard too. We had our fingers crossed and our eyes open. We all started off and the weather was fine also. We climbed up a steep mountain and walked with few stops along the way. We then stopped at a tea stall. Everyone caught up, our team as well as the others. We had something cold to drink. We just lay there on the grass. Our dog who we had named BOSS had also appeared out of nowhere. We started on our way again. It was pretty easy so far. We walked on over the bridges. Our mules passed us by. We climbed up, climbed down and finally we stopped at a quaint little tea stall on a mountain for lunch. Everyone sat down to eat our packed lunches. Aloo paratha!!!! It was cold and not at all appetizing.

As we were resting another group who were returning had stopped to rest. We chatted and asked them about the path ahead. The other group who had started with us had also caught up by this time. As the path was getting steep and narrow and it was getting really crowded, our team decided to start climbing

It had started to drizzle and was beginning to snow. We climbed up and by this time I was beginning to tire. I was getting really slow. We walked on chatting, stopping and catching our breath and trying to figure out how far more we had. Altaf kept saying we would reach our base camp by 3.30 so that kept us going. By now I was really exhausted. I told Altaf to walk ahead and we would catch up. We continued walking really slowly my friend kept encouraging me and stayed close. All the while I walked I told myself and my friend that I would join the gym. That was the one thing on my mind, The Gym 🙂 we walked on it was 4pm no sign of the base camp or anyone else. The other team had set up their base camp way below and we could only see that from up above. My friend was getting really nervous as it was beginning to snow again and we were alone up there, we kept walking. Suddenly our first guide appeared and we were really glad to see him. He told us that the rest of the group had already reached our base camp and that he had come back to pick us up. We were really happy because that meant we were near the camp, so we continued on with renewed strength.  We kept walking but could not see any camp, I was really upset and kept checking with the guide. Finally we saw a tea stall and there was our team, but no sign of any base camp. Turns out that there was no water so they had to move the camp another 2kms from there. We sat there really tired, the others started walking on, finally we started, I was extremely slow and every step was difficult, we kept going finally up ahead we could see our base camp, everyone were so excited then one of the helpers who had also come back to check on us said, its looks close but it would take atleast half an hour to get there,

The others ran ahead we walked slowly and it took us atleast an hour to see the camp in front of us, at that moment nothing could probably have made us happier, it was already 5.30. We saw our tents, got in and just lay there. We could not even get up due to fatigue. After some time the helpers came to call us for snacks and tea. But we were just not able to move. We just lay in our bags so tired and exhausted, we were called again for dinner but we said we were not hungry. All we needed was sleep.

We woke up at 5 am totally refreshed. We looked around the base camp as we did not see anything the previous evening. It looked as if there had a camp fire. We freshened up and joined the team for tea. The conversation was only about the long trek. Everyone was annoyed because it was very long and tiring. We waited for our breakfast and it was Gobi paratha. Today we were to walk up to Har Ki Dun around 6 to 7kms and then relax for lunch and then our exploration day those who wanted to enjoy the most exotic book reading session could relax in the camp and the rest could trek up to Jaundhar Glacier which was around 4 Kms from there and takes around 3 Hrs. to reach but the view of the glacier is to die for. After that we were to return to the base camp. That was the plan.

We decided to start early, after the previous day we were sure we would need a head start. So we told our guides that we would be starting early and they agreed as it was a straight path and they were sure that they would catch up with us. Today we had no luggage to carry just water and our ponchos. We got out of the camp and suddenly one of the mule guys started walking up with us we were really fascinated because he was climbing up the mountain in rubber slippers.

We walked on it was so very pleasant. We chatted with this guy, and stopped to click pics in the snow,

the others caught up with us. At one point the cold got to me and I had severe cramps in my knees. Tears of pain  just flowed down my cheeks and I gave up, I sat there and refused to go on up. I asked my friends to pick me up on  the way down, they were trying hard to make me go with them when this old man carrying a heavy load passed by, he looked at us and checked what was up. He said it’s just there behind those trees, its 10 minutes away. You came this far how can you miss it. He said take my hand I’ll take you there. Well that did it. I got up and started walking not because of a miracle but just pure will power.

We followed the path and came to a fork in the road. We looked up we were about to start climbing the right side when we looked down and saw a X mark drawn in the sand. The other path Had Renoke and a tick sign. It was obvious our team had left this for us. We were so glad that someone had thought of doing this. We started climbing and after 15 minutes of climbing we saw Sarabjeet coming down he told us that this was not the path we had to climb but had to go down and go to the other mountain, he said that two members from our team had gone up this mountain and they were also returning. So we climbed down and climbed up the other path. At the top we did not find anyone from our team, we asked Sarabjeet but he told us to wait and take pictures and the others would join for lunch.

We clicked some pictures and waited. We saw the other two who went up coming back, we called out to them and they joined us, we waited for an hour it was already 1pm and no signs of the others.

The lunch had arrived and soon Altaf had also joined. It had started to get really cold and I looked around and saw a small kitchen type of place where there was a small fire burning, it was so warm there, I took a stool and sat in there, soon the other three also came in. at around 2.30 our lunch was served to us as we could not wait for the others. It turned out that the helper had guided the rest of the team up towards a lake. This was not even in the itinerary. We thought of starting back to the base camp. At around 4pm they finally returned very tired and hungry. They had exciting stories

It was an enjoyable walk down, no stress at all. We met a lot of people coming up. To our surprise we saw many elderly people also doing the trek. We finally reached base camp and freshened up it was around 5pm we had some snacks and chatted about the trek.

A campfire was setup outside so we went and sat around it. We had a lot of fun with the team and the helpers. The peak discussion was the helper who led the team. Yes everyone was happy and relaxed now that the trek was over, we were to start back early in the morning we stayed for a while then dinner was served. Everyone was looking forwarded to go back to Sankri.

We woke up around 5.30 am to a really pleasant day, We went for breakfast and were served paratha. We were given our packed lunch. We packed our bags and decided to leave and get a head start as we were slow walkers. We walked along, Joshua caught up with us, We enjoyed the view and took pictures we remembered the day we walked up and the difficult time we had climbing.

We kept walking then stopped at the tea stall and some of the others caught up my leg was beginning to ache again. We started walking again, as we were climbing down a mountain my leg started to pain again this time it looked more severe. And I was unable to walk at all. I just sat there while other trekkers were climbing up. Finally our team caught up with us. Altaf massaged the leg. It felt ok but it was difficult to walk I asked the team to walk on and I would walk down slowly so Altaf agreed. We climbed down for abit then the path was straight for a while. We walked slowly we could see the team ahead of us. Slowly they disappeared ahead as we were getting even slower.

It was getting really cloudy and we were not even ready to stop and have lunch as we wanted to reach base before it started raining. We walked slowly on. It was really painful for me but there was no other option but to walk on. As we were walking Sarabjeet suddenly appeared, seeing him we felt better. He stayed with us. As we walked we came to a small stream and noticed something which we had missed on the way up. A small flour mill functioning without electricity just by the force of the water.

It was really fascinating. I stopped and clicked some pictures.  We continued walking through the stream, we remembered this way. From where we were above we could see our team on the bridge down below they looked so far away,

Finally we reached the top of the mountain where the bridge was. I remember it took us just 15 mins to climb up this mountain. Now it looked really scary for me because by now I was dragging my feet. We slowly climbed step by step the never ending mountain, the bridge not getting closer. Finally we reached the bridge, it had taken us nearly 45 mins to climb down, now we relaxed a bit because on the other side of the bridge was the Osla Village and the base camp would be a little ahead of that. So with a renewed strength we crossed the bridge, we saw a tea stall in the village and decided to finally stop for lunch it was already 3pm. We had Maggie as we did not feel like having the cold packed lunch, after that we walked on, Sarabjeet told us we would reach in half an hour. It had started to drizzle and we tried to rush. Finally we saw the base camp right in front of us, we rushed there and looked for our tent. The team came around happy that we made it back safely. We got into our tent and immediately as we closed the tent it started pouring.

We rested for a while, we could hear the others playing games in the other tent but I was feeling too lazy to join them, we rested for some time and around 5.30pm when the rain stopped  we joined the others in the dinning tent, We all chatted and had fun, then the helpers set up a small fire so we went and stood around it. Dinner was ready by 7pm. We enjoyed the hot food, Prashanth was at his best, service with a smile. We stood by the fire again for some time and then went back to our tent. We wanted to leave early in the morning because of today’s slow trek. We fell asleep and suddenly we were woken up with a loud sound, it was thundering and lightning, it was very loud and bright we were afraid it would touch us. We could do nothing but lie there and hope it would stop soon. We soon fell asleep again.

We woke up early. We were determined to start early. We got out packed lunch it was veg palao we thought we would eat it later when we were hungry and have Maggie for lunch. We looked around for Sarabjeet and told him we were starting, the others were still getting. We took our bag and started down everything was pleasant but and nice just abit messy due to the rain. Joshua passed us on the way. We walked slowly as we had plenty of time to reach Taluka. We met other trekkers on the way, we walked ahead we took it slowly but tried to move ahead without breaks because we were not sure how fast I could walk. At around 10am we saw Sarabjeet running behind us he looked really worried, behind him came Sid. He was worried because he did not think we would have walked so far ahead. He thought we were probably lost. He was quite relieved to see us. We walked on. We were not hungry at all, the others slowly caught up and all stayed together. At around 1.30pm we came to a bridge and climbed down to the water side our team except for Joshua (who was nowhere to be seen) had gathered there for lunch.

We took out the packs and ate the palao it was still warm surprisingly. We then went down to the water and had a wash, another 3kms more to go we decided to start trekking again, everyone were together. As we got nearer to Taluka it started getting hot and everyone felt the change in weather, everyone was waiting to get to the hotel in Sankri We soon reached Taluka and waited for the luggage to be loaded in the van, we got in and finally started on the way to Sankri, it took us atleast an hour to get there, we were all praying for the current to be there so that we could have hot water for much needed showers. Our van reached first, we quickly collected our bags and headed for the rooms. We requested for hot water and after a long wait we finally got it. We showered. It never felt better. We were quite hungry it was already 5pm we looked for a place to have chicken. There was a very old lady sitting there, I asked her to come talk with us. Even though there was a communication gap we had a small conversation. We chatted about her family and her work and she was telling us that she climbs Har Ki Dun and back in few hours. She was laughing as it took us 5 days to do the same.

Finally the chicken arrived. It looked amazing and a big portion was served. The others had not yet come up for dinner so we decided to go back and pack our bags for the journey tomorrow. Altaf came and called us he said there was supposed to be a briefing and also our certificates would be given to us. We all walked back up to the dining room we waited for the others to catch up. We discussed the trip and gave our feedback. Then the certificates were handed over to us. Everyone was excited, pictures were clicked.

the support staff were thanked and now time for dinner. The much awaited chicken, it was good but not as good as the earlier one. Finally we were done and it was around 9pm we all decided to go to bed and get an early start in the morning. Everyone settled down and we fell asleep, suddenly we were woken up at around 1 in the morning. Someone was banging the washroom door, it seems like it was a common washroom, and we refused to open the door and settled down again only to be woken up again with dogs barking. It was quite a disturbing night and even though we were tired after the trek we could not get proper sleep.

We woke up early and got ready as we planned to leave for Dehra Dun. After eating we got into the van and soon we started on our way after many farewells to the support team. Everyone was getting restless and we wanted to leave as soon as possible.

You see, treks have a funny way of sneaking up on you like that. You go in ready to take on the mountain. But what you don’t realize until you’ve come back down and are enjoying the feeling of sitting still for the first time all week- is that actually you took on yourself. And you won.

And suddenly you’re sad it’s over. You can’t wait to do it again, because it was wonderful, painful and amazing experience.

An experience which no photograph could ever capture.