Day 9, 16 Jun 08

Back to Hrishikesh

6.00 am, Rajo’s call ensures that we are ready for the long return trip back to Hrishikesh. Last night we’d asked Rana, Pratap Rana to help us get a taxi back to Hrishikesh. Around 7.00 Rana calls and says he can’t make it. He was unable to get this taxi in the union’s queue for the Uttarkashi-Hrishikesh trip. But he has arranged another fellow. He makes his presence at 8, and helps us host all the luggage on the carrier and drives the Maxx to the market area where he introduces us to ‘Bharat Gonsai’, our driver for the 5-6 hr long journey. He is a slim person with a typical gharwali skin, fair but pale, bony face with brown eyes. As we leave the Uttarkashi hills, the beautiful early morning just got better with the calm Sun being overshadowed by clouds which start to pour easily. Sun rays, Glowing rainfall, green backdrop, twisting roads and Himalayas, Beauty!!!

Almost half hour into the journey or more, the rains have started to fall hard. We’ve reached Dharasu band and all are hungry, and we pull the taxi near a road side shack. A typical North indian joint, Food items and its creation all at display. We have a heavy breakfast of chhole and Samosa, popularly called as ‘Chaat’ in many parts of India, But just a staple morning food here. With everybody gulping 2 plates each, energy replenished! In the car, everybody was enthusiastic about our future endeavours. We decided to have some conversation with the driver, Gonsai. But as opposed to yesterdays’ cabin crew, Rana, who was a dashing, street smart, well dressed fellow, today’s personnel wasn’t that great. Just a simple villager. He didn’t even answer our questions correctly, forget correctly in the right direction. I was just curious about the Car’s engine capacity,

इंजन कितने cc का है?

to which he replied

चार सिलिंडर का इंजन है

Me and Mallik were looking at eachother wondering if we should laugh, or not. We did in the end knowing that even our laughter wouldn’t put any questions in the driver’s mind. The long winding roads of NH 94 through the beautiful Himalayas make me feel bad as I’m not sure when would I be able to experience it again. A lot of last snaps of the ever towering hills and valleys keeps most of us busy for the first hour or so. After which the journey begins to grow monotonous. But soon we are amidst the ‘New Tehri’ region overlooking the deep blue catchment waters of mighty Bhagirathi. The catchment water view is well over a kilometre. The great expanse of the area, the beige coloured mountains, the eroded soil that creates a vast banks along the catchment, the huge blue water and all of that encompassed by tall hills of the Himalayas. Its a sight that one can’t just miss.

Hrishikesh

2.15 pm, We finally reach Hrishikesh, the climate had changed from cool 18-20 °C to around 21-23 °C. The taxi parked near the ST stand. Mallik had been here before, So we had a destination and a guide already. First was to look get into a Vikram to lead us to Ram zhula or the swaying bridge, we were to cross the Ganga and then have some food and go looking for accomodation in the Dharamshalas or the ashrams. We somehow get into a Vikram with all our big backpacks and the vikram’s 3 min. long journey comes to a halt near the bridge’s foundation. The bridge is steel cabled bridge with bindings only at the very ends. The plying area of bridge is just about 5-6 feet in width, with huge steel cables empowering the bridge. The whole structure reminds me of the Geometric figures in which two perpendicular lines were joined by set of lines. Our first steps on the bridge, and we knew why it was called a ‘jhula’ or a ‘sway’. Everytime it just vibrated with the heavy footsteps and at times swayed laterally. I was astonished to see 2wheelers making through the crowded 5 feet wide bridge in the crowd. When we were at the dead center of the bridge, we stood there while we witnessed the Ganga, or the Bhagirathi (name changed after Devprayag’s confluence with Alakhnanda) breezing past below our feet. Beige colored with the color of the rocks of the himalayas that it has been eroding from its journey from the Gomukh, Gangotri and so on. The monkeys at the bridge made sure that nobody is careless with belongings. The monkeys come down pick, snatch food items and climb back along the cables to the top of the bridge.

Around 2.30 we get to the otherside and into a very crowded, noisy restaurant, ‘Chotiram’. Even though its a Monday, its extremely crowded, We had to wait for few minutes before we could get a seat to sit. I was amazed to look at the Menu card. The rates were as high as a decent Mumbai hotel, which means that for a localite this hotel was way to expensive. Or perhaps it was not meant for the localite but just for the visiting tourists and foreigners. We had a thali, and we moved quickly from the choking place, out on the narrow streets of Rishikesh. Outside the hotel there was a ‘chotiram’ mascot, a fat, bald man with lots of makeup sitting right at the entrance gate. Man !!! this hotel knew how business was done in the Metros!! Our next aim was to find accomodation. Every ashram or dharamshala that we visited was way to crowded, which also meant Mallik and Vijay came back with ‘no vacancy’ response. We failed in our first 3 targets, all these ashrams were lined up parallely long the banks of the Ganga, the road about 12-15 feet wide dividing the Ashrams’ boundries and the ‘ghat’ on the banks of Ganga. We were not too worried about accommodation, we had a lot of problem while trekking related to sound and dry sleep. So we knew we could manage anywhere. But ‘Parmarth Niketan’ didn’t disappoint us. It was almost 4.30 when we finally made an entry into the rooms. We had booked 2 rooms with 2 beds each. One person in each room was extra and we had to manage. But the neatly laid soft bed with bedsheets, pillows was like heaven to all of us who had endured wet, cold nights in Bebra and Manjhi sleeping in wet sleeping bags. We got fresh, washed many clothes and moved out for ‘Hrishikesh Discovery’.

Our first stop was to see Laxman Jhula the first bridge @ Rishikesh. We took a Jeep to laxman jhula. Mallik was disappointed at the sight. He said the Laxman Jhula too was now made of Concrete and steel cables. Initial it was made of wood and cables which made it sway even more. It now was similar to the Ram jhula. We made sure we didn’t lose any opportunity of snaps on the bridge. At the other end we saw a vendor selling ‘shikanjhi’ or lemon juice with the added attraction of ‘Goti Soda’ (that was just for us!). Goti Soda is a Soda in glass bottle which is sealed with a use of a marble or a ‘goti’. The idea is that the air pressure within the bottle pushes the marble otwards to the nozzle, but since the diameter of the marble is more than that of the nozzle, the air pressure locks the marble at the nozzle. To break the seal is just to push the ‘goti’ inside with a thumb, which creates an odd sound, that like plucking a finger from the cheeks.

Next up was a gem shop, none of us wanted to purchase any but.. we were tourists and had to behave like wise, so window shopping. The shop boasted of Gems, Rubys, Turquoises, and many more, even that of a single headed ‘Rudrasksha’, I didn’t even know what ‘single headed rudraksha’ means till Amey explained it to me. I and Mallik were now interested by this cyber cafe, It was Euro 2008 and just like every Euro competition I was missing it. 10 days had past and I hadn’t made any match. So Mallik and I were browsing at this ‘broadband’ cyber cafe, checking emails, etc. While Vj, Rajo, amey and nikhil moved ahead into the streets and promised to be back at the cafe by another hour. There seemed to be another set of bad news, The train problem was still on, Gujjars making sure that we couldn’t sleep easy. Yet again we were considering Flight options.

An hour later we were back crossing the Laxman Jhula and on the streets window shopping, it was taking away lot of our time. We had to make sure we were back in Parmarth Niketan by 10.30. Another shop of shawls gobbles away more than an a hour. Rajo, Nikhil, Mallik, Vj all busy checking whats good in Shawls, kurtas, and host of other ‘khadi’ items. By the time we were again on streets it was almost 10.15. Which meant that there wasn’t enough time for food, So we decided to have sweetlime juice, each one of us had 2 glasses full of the juice, and on our way back even purchased biscuits, 4 packets of maggi, etc for a quick meal. At the ashram, me and Vj get out our eating apparatus and people cook maggi. I don’t feel like eating so sleep is next till our next day’s venture of Mussoorie.

Day 8, 15 Jun 08

To Gangotri

3.00 am, Its a curse, the alarm is a god-damn curse on the human race. Nobody is really interested to getup and be ready for the great Gangotri trip, one of the चार धाम places. I’m unable to download anything, how on earth will bowels work at 3.30am in the morning. By 4.30 we’re partially ready when the driver knocks at the door. Everybody is extremely slow to move ahead, but finally by 4.45am we are in the Maxx Jeep and heading towards Gangotri. Pratap Rana, our driver moves the vehicle inside the Uttarkashi market place and moves his pawn by saying, he is getting a ‘savari’ or another person in the cab. Mallik is fumed, he doesn’t not wont anyone else in here. There is a lot of heated discussion between us and Rana. He suggests that he can give back the advance and drop us by the market taxi stand. But somehow we continue. But he is rash in his driving, moving hard on turns, on potholes. That irks all of us. But we stay quiet, Amey does not he starts another argument with him on his driving. Rana backfires, that this is the only place where he can swiftly move his jeep, ’cause in the ghats it has to be slow and steady.

7.00 am, We are still climbing through NH 108, moving through hilly villages overlooking the valley in which Bhagirathi is raging like a mad river. I recollect my mother’s stories about some place where the river flow is so hard that it can break anything in its path. We try to gauge the speed of the river it could be more than 40kmph. That means its an extremely heavy slope towards Uttarkashi and the river does not spare anything in its way. The mountains themselves are big, overpowering, strong and hard. Even though they are beautiful there is something hideous about them, something like ‘Get off my way’ attitude. Another hour or later we are near Bhatwari. And there seems to be a massive jam. Rains and day’s sun are the miscreants. There has been a lot of landslide further in the distance, hence blocking the traffic on either ends. Just if the natural forces were not enough for the problem, there was rock drilling continuing in the rock for better roads. The vibrations just help the brittle rock to dislocate. We get down and walk on foot to see how far is the jam. It could more than a km. long. We still walk ahead and find the actual place where the landslide has occurred. The landslide has taken off 20-30% of the road into the valley. The road around too is very mucky, slushy. No firm grip around. There are still small pebbles falling down. A brave truck driver helps push big boulders on the road with his Truck, and we have some space to move. Rana calls us and we all run back. Rana, true to the character of a local driver in the Himalayan ghats, manoeuvres his jeep through the jam, quickly getting ahead of big buses and other lazy cars. He says its important to get ahead, cause another jam and we would be late. It is necessary for us to leave early from Gangotri as well and clear through these ghats in the sunlight. We had moved a little ahead of the problem and there was another minor jam, thanks to a Maruti 800 which was unable to move the puddle of soil, gravel. The driver was trying hard to move the vehicle, but his efforts were in vain, A young local driver jumped off from his cab and offered to drive the car through the muck, and asked some others for a push at specific places. And brilliantly he got the small-tired car from foot deep soil.

Harsil

Its close to 10.30 and we are now close to Harsil, a beautiful hilly village before Gangotri, no other human settlement between Harsil and Gangotri, except for ITBP or the Indo Tibet Border Police checkposts. Harsil is beautiful, amidst the cool weather, High himalayas and lovely Apple Orchids that it harvests. We halted at a local ‘tapri’ for some food and chai. Most have ‘chole’ and ‘bun-pav’. Rnana urges us to be quick, so after a sip of tea, we are moving again. The climb continues and we spot our first snow-capped mountain in this area. They seem to be towering above us, the rain clouds trying to cover the snow. It was an amazing experience being in such a place and all cameras went snapping.

Its 11.00, and we are on a bridge, joining tow mountains, some 600m a river is flowing. Pratap Rana stops and narrates that this is the highest bridge over here, we are near Nelong Kopang, the Indo Tibet Border which is just few minutes away from here. Below the bridge he continues is the rivulet that is coming from China/Tibet which further joins the Bhagirathi coming from Gangotri, and he points to a far corner where the two rivers met. We continue from the place and soon we spot cars parked on either side of the road. The familiar parking problem in pilgrimage spots is no stranger here. We move on close to the actual place where Rana parks and says we should be running back by 1.30. It has taken us well over 4.5 hrs from Uttarkashi to Gangotri which is about 96km by roads. 99% of which are in high in Ghats.

Gangotri

The street leading to the temple is a typical one, with shops selling religious clothes, puja equipment and more. Mallik, Vj buy some yellow-saffron colored ‘gamcha’. The pressure inside my stomach is now building. As we enter the main area, we can hear water falling from somewhere, excited we move ahead towards Surya Kund, Where a small off-rivulet of Bhagirathi is jumping from a vertical cliff from about 30m and making a small pool below, the Surya Kund. The pressure, water flow is so much that it creates a mist of water in the surroundings. Videos and photos never far away from such places. We move towards the right climbing ahead on the path which has many aashrams, and other religious installations. Now I’m not really interested in all those, all I need is a toilet ! We cross through a wooden bridge to the other side, after I reached the other side of the bridge, we see a simple sign near the edge of bridge, कमज़ोर ब्रिज ! the whole troop now moves towards the ghats where people are trying to take a dip into the holy or rather chilly water. Even though Mallik has some fever, he decides that he’ll take a dip. Its close to noon and Vj joins him in the chill-party and we then head towards the temple. After a brief visit to the temple we are back on the main street. My friends are now finding a place to put more stuff inside their stomach, while I’m trying to find a place to do the exact opposite. Its now uncontrollable, while they settle for a hotel, I go ahead in search for a toilet, luckily I find a decently clean ‘Pay and Use Sulab Shochalay’. Aaaaa…hhh !!! I managed a Vartak Memorial at Gangotri. Light as a bird I join others for lunch.

Its 1.30-1.45, and we’ve started to head back towards Uttarkashi. Mallik is really sick, dives his head down and goes to sleep. Just close to Gangotri Rana shows us ‘Pandav gufa’. I wonder where all did Pandav visit during their ‘Karavas’ and ‘Agyatvas’. We find Pandav places from Nasik to Himalayas, 50% of India in length covered !? The ride back now seems tiring with the thought of 5 hrs of travelling back to Uttarkashi on the bad roads. We all doze off, intermittently getting up to check the spots, trying to store our memories.

Pilot Baba Ahram, Maneri

4.30 pm, Sign boards show Maneri and Rana asks us if we want to see Pilot Baba Ashram. We all are ready. The Ashram is a beautiful place loaded with flowers and statues. There are various flowers, roses, sunflowers, lilies and so on. Rajoba is quick to show us the flowers and various other plantations. He gets nostalgic remembering his Sangli garden and how it was destroyed. There are various statues of Indian dieties, Ram, Hanuman, etc. We spend almost an hour when I hear shouts, Rana wants to get back soon and we hop in the jeep and are back heading towards Uttarkashi.

Uttarkashi

We reached Uttarkashi somewhere around 6.15, at Devlok we feel exhausted with the day’s travel not more than 200kms but in those bad roads and the twisting and turning ghats, it was tiring. Mallik needs to go to a Dr., we find a local Dr. Bhandary and take him there. He gives Mallik all drugs for Stomach infection. Around 8.30 we leave Devlok for food, But we are not interested in Bhandary hotel’s meal so try to find alternatives. Luckily we find a juice store, where we jam-in various juices, purchase some Lichi. We come back to the room and start packing our bags for the next day’s long distance jeep travel to Hrishikesh.

Day 7, 14 Jun 08

Bebra Ghat

My stomach is grumbling, I feel bad, need to go to the loo, I wake up, Its dark, everybody is sleeping. Probably its still night. I need to go. The loo I remember is not in the room, I need to get down walk and there is something built over there. I don’t have time to find a torch, I wake up Vj and aks for a torch. I get down the stairs, and walk towards the toilet scared of leeches jumping on my foot. Its liquid ! I return back and get into the bag, its around 2.00am. I’ve added myself to upset stomach list with Mallik and Vj.

6.00 am, Sound sleep in a nice warm rest house always has enemies. Rajo’s alarm, heartless. We somehow manage to fight our sleep and start getting ready. Viki will never start the day without some food in our stomach, ‘Daliya’ is the morning’s breakfast after a request by Mallik. We come outside all geared up for the last day’s walk, the owner of the house has a air-gun that we play around with and finally bid Bebra Ghat a final goodbye around 8.45. Down the hill and up again changing mountains for Agora. At Agora we gave a small halt as Viki returned the mattresses. Agora was yet again shining the early morning sun, with a lovely valley in the front, and itself being on a terrace field, Agora was one of the most beautiful places I’ve seen. There were many flowers that had blossomed and none missed an opportunity to captivate the nature.

Along the way, Viki showed us the Bhang plants, and various flora. At Agora he said, is a split for Bugiya Dayal, which on route towards Gangotri and Valley of Flowers. The Valley of Flowers blossoms best in August. Viki continued on his trek-adventure-talk, that during the peak season of Valley of Flowers the smell is so intoxicating that someone can get dizzy and fall. So to prevent that they keep smelling Garlic and chew it, just to fade of that fragrance of flowers. On our way I saw an Apple tree for the first time in my life. The apples were small and green in color, with just a haze of red pushing through.

My legs were tiring, and it felt I was climbing down with more than 20kgs. I now felt that a little climb could do some good for the legs. But what goes up must come down, so did we, kept descending… Finally around 11.00am we saw the Asi Ganga the rivulet that joins Bhagirathi at Sangamchatti, which meant Sangamchatti wasn’t far enough. 15 minutes later we were there, back in the civilization, roads, motor vehicles for transport, dry shelter, tapri for chai and more. We crossed the road and waited, Soon enough Viki came running, he had arranged for a Commander/Jeep to take us to Uttarkashi. We were moving through the jeep along the Bhagirathi river, for the first time since 5 days, we were travelling and yet not walking or climbing. The Bhagirathi continued to flow, shaping up people’s lives around it.

Uttarkashi

12.30 pm, The town was familiar, It was just a few days since we’d left from here, but felt like a year or more. We waded through the civilized world’s hassles, traffic jams, Bad roads, dirt, etc. We kept looking for an ‘affordable’ hotel/lodge, but didn’t find it easily. Finally we settled for one called ‘Devlok’. Had a ‘clean’ bath after many days, all these days it had been just a fast water flowing, I had a neat shave. And the last bath had been at Bebra Ghat while we were climbing towards Dodital. A neat dry set of clothes and we felt fresh instantly. We sent Nikhil with Viki to arrange for a cab for the next day’s Gangotri visit.

4.30 pm, Most of them are ready and we leave for food. We go to Bhandary hotel and have omelette bread and tea. Mallik has a slight fever. The omelette is wonderful ! Vj didn’t come and is busy washing clothes. We get back to the room with Paneer pulav and Dahi. I went to the top of the hotel, was just a concrete roof, with no boundaries. It was a splendid view from there, the towering hills on the left side with Bhagirathi and the ‘Zula’ or the bridge on it. I waited there for almost 2 hours till Rajoba came and got online with his phone and many others came up and were online.. While just stared in the hills. Viki sincerely called back, We had asked him if he could accompany us to Gangotri the next day, But he said it could be difficult for him, as he has to prepare for another big trek with group of army men.

We came downstairs, and started watching the snaps, it was close to 7.30pm, we didn’t realize how time passed and it was 10.00pm and we yet had to have our dinner. we rushed back to Bhandari hotel and have Dal, Paneer bhurzi and roti. Back at the hotel, we went to sleep on the bed, something I hadn’t done since leaving home. But while we slept we had next day’s alarm already ringing at 3.30am for Gangotri.

Day 6, 13 Jun 08

Dodital

6.00 am, Rajo’s alarm is sickening. We get up and find a place for a food-dump. The guard again points that do not do it near the stream that feeds the pool. We find some good place, after that, I was feeling a lot better. Others too finish off, and start doing the ‘packing’ business. With a big backpack and loads of things to carry, the whole packing takes around 5 minutes or more. Viki as usual was up and running, around 8.00 we have our breakfast of Rice and Dal, Viki encourages us to push in as much as we can, as there is a lot to climb and so lot of energy to be consumed. Vijay is feeling nauseatic and drinks two glasses of Salt water, but that doesn’t help him vomit. The strange feeling continues to spoil his morning.

9.30 am, We finally leave for Darwatop. That was our first night halt between Dodital and Hanuman-chatti. Within 1/2 km in our route, and the rain plays spoil sport. It had been so sunny all morning, and now !!!! We stop under a big rock, The rains make it worse for trekkers, with the water in the bags, its even more weight to carry. 15 minutes into our first break, and the rain still hasn’t stopped, but worsened. We discuss the plan of a trek in these rains. We decide against the porters’ wishes and continue in the rain. Me, Vj and Mallik are still apprehensive, but Amey is fixed on the plan. So we continue ahead in the hard rains, Its not even a minute after we’ve moved ahead, and Viki finally calls for a stop. This time he orders that we should not move ahead. He continues that It would be too risky ahead in the rains, There is no stop from now right till the Darwatop. So we have no place for a break. The ration too would get spoilt and there would be nothing for food right until Hanumanchatti, So we’d be left with no food and shelter ! .. and we decide to return back. Its raining cats, dogs, elephants, aligators !! We got back to Dodital in 15-20 minutes, I headed straight for the tapari for some tea, while others went to the temple. The porters soon followed, one of them was drenched. He quickly came to the fire and started drying himself. I too followed.

Manjhi

12.30 am, I’m still at the fire, the rain is till bad, Rajo comes to call me and I follow him with my sack to the temple where everyone is busy drying themselves and packing their bags. Soon we had put the foot on the accelerator and heading downwards in the direction of Manjhi. Somewhere around 2.30 its Manjhi, the hazy, chilly Manjhi. The rains had disappeared as we descended. Probably they just didn’t want us to go further ahead. Our stomachs were crying for food, so Maggi was on the menu. Vj got out his wax stove and prepared maggi. While he did that we had some hot tea at Premsingh Ranwat’s tapri, it was the same place where we’d stopped for the night the previous day. There were some kids helping him, on of them was Manisha, she was from Agora village and had come here for vacations. We were discussing whether these kids came here for some work. The kids almost all girls were named like heroines, Priyanka, Rita, Sonam and more. We take snaps of our bags all lined up, our dirty and mucky shoes and leave Manjhi by 3.45pm towards Bebra ghat, which was going to be the night halt.

Bebra Ghat

Coming down from Manjhi we had to change mountains which meant some climbing, our mind was now set on ‘Rest – Go back’ mode. So a little climb was uneasy for us, but we continued through the rainy coniferous forests. Kacheru was on the way by 4.20pm, We discussed the correct pronunciation of the place, Kacheru, Kachori and so on. We halted for few minutes refilled our water bottles and floored the pedal again. Bebra village’s boundary invited us close to 6.00pm. We descended a little further in the village and found a rest-house 2 rooms Rs. 300 a night. Viki was asked to prepare everything tonite, Dal, Roti, Tomato chatni, all that he could manage. We didn’t have any other night halt now, so the ration could be used away.

10.30 pm, No food yet, we were already resting, planning our future tip details, arguing over whether we should stay in Mussoorie or not, etc. We had finally come back to the civilization mode, planning trips in Buses, cars, taxis etc. Viki finally came calling for food, but we were now too lazy to easily jump off our sleeping bags and beds, Yes the hut even had 3 beds ! quite a luxury. We forced Viki to tell some ‘bhoot ki kahaniyan’, something that Viki had himself promised but never implemented. At food, everybody was relaxed, noramlly the porters always seemed strenuous after the days’ porting and thinking about the next day, but today everyone was joking, enjoying. After food we went back to ‘our’ room and laid back. Viki came back again, with his Sherpa smile of his on the face.

आप लोगोंको कहानी सुननी थी ना !

And he narrated two incidents of his, one when he was carrying a cylinder on his back to his home, when the cylinder suddenly swayed and he felt that somebody had put a foot on his slipper. He is still recovering from change in motion when he feels a thorny hand on his back. He turns back to see nobody around. Another one he passed us was about his walk back to his home, which he feels is full of ghosts. He was walking through the ‘Shamshanghat’ when he saw a Bear-Man like creature on the corner, He tries to look properly in the dark but is dazed by the bright red eyes of the creature. He is scared to death and runs back. After that the every curious Vijay keeps asking Viki a zillion questions on ‘Bhoot’, ‘pret-aatma’. Viki finally departs and we fall asleep by 11.00pm.

Day 5, 12 Jun 08

Off from Manjhi

7.00 am,
After a treacherous and strenuous trek last day, its going to be a relatively easy walk to Dodital from Manjhi. We don’t get up before 7.00 and slowly gather courage to repack our sacks and muster enough strength to load it on our backs. Even the night’s sleep is not without effort. Every move that I made in the sleeping bag made me pant for breath! Thats how I got through the night. Viki had made Aloo paratha and we had those and left around 11.15. The trek was more of a walk on a slope, sometimes ascending and othertimes just flat. At times when we crossed two mountains, the slope divided towards the base, and we were just happy enough for the descend as we were for more climb. Along the route Viki kept informing us about the various trees, mosses and how even the mosses are loaded full in trucks and sold off. We came across 2-3 bridges on streams which were in construction phase. Viki knew some of the labourers. The streams in Himalayas are endless. In Western India people are desparate for waterfalls and streams in the mountains, over here, its just another natural feature.

Dodital

1.45 pm
A board read “Dodital”, But a lake was nowhere to be seen. All I could see was the normal greenery, hills and the valley behind. But a turn and the water body manifested, like a scene from Mahabharata or Ramayana. A lake goddess suddenly appearing in front of its worshippers!

The whole scene was serene and cold. There was no direct sunlight, just diffused light, making the whole place even colder. The ‘Dodital’ lake in Hindi means the lake of Dodi or lake of Ganesha. It was surrounded by small hills on three sides and the other side by the valley from where we had entered the area. The hills were full with Coniferous trees, a small cloud hanging low in one of the hills, another side getting a light drizzle, it was very mystical. With the lawns in bright green color, the water in a dark shade of blue and gray surrounded by dark green tall trees. This is Dodital, the place visitors can only reach by a trek, no vehicles no clumsy tourists, just pure nature lovers are found here.

We decide to roam around, Taking a lot of snaps and videos. there was a small wall around the lake, just to keep people off. We climbed the wall and there was a gaurd making sure that we didn’t get into the lake. Swimming, Angling/Fishing, bathing is not allowed inside the lake. The locals gaurd it like a deity. We circled the lake in an anti-clockwise direction, moving through puddles, small streams that added fresh water to the lake from all the sides. When we reached towards the entrance side of the lake and worshipped in the Ganesha temple we reailized, that people worship first and then make a प्रदक्षिणा around the lake in a clockwise direction.

I and Vj are not entirely feeling good, both of us are nauseatic. We decide we’ll sleep off in one of the huts (an octagonal hut) which was for tourists. I had Pudinhara and we cosily slipped into our sleeping bags. We were woken by the noise Rajo, Mallik and others were making when they had returned from a more adventurous trip around the lake. They had been climbing one of the hills around with a porter and while descending both of them had slipped. Each of them trying to hold eachother for grip and both sliding hands held together, just like from a hindi movie where the hero and the heroine slide on snow, the difference here was no heroine and the snow was actually transformed into pebbles and rocks that just kept hurting the bums.

7.00pm, It was dark and raining heavily, when Viki called us for food. We had Dal and Roti. I was still a little nauseatic but better managed 1 1/2 thick rotis. The rain was just getting worse when we were inside. And after food we had to wait to commute to the other hut where we were planning to sleep. The kitchen or the other hut where we had our food, was to be used by porters and Viki.

8.30pm, We finally managed to get back to ‘our’ hut. But the rains were hard and had taken its toll on the roofs of our huts. With our engg brains and headlights, we were trying to find a dry place. But there was none. Everytime we thought that there was some space and we moved the 3-legged bed, a helpful drop would make our efforts go away. Mallik was even trying to draw a wet line around the dripping hole that would make the water flow to the other side, thanks to something called as surface tension. But the rains were hard and were not to be tamed. We finally decide that we had to put the tents inside the hut to make our night sleep dry and cosy. We had spent more than and hour and a half on this task of finding a dry place. Viki came in and started to arrange the nets. When we were getting into our sleeping bags, we were apprehensive of any leeches in our bags. Around 9.30-10.00 we finally managed to settle and bid adieu to the day, for the next day we had a difficult climb to Darwa top.