In
the early morning, we reached Pathankot and hired a taxi to the base
camp @ Youth hostel, Banikhet. The taxi driver was a nice gentleman
and showed us good places on the way. Places like Jammu-Kashmir
border, a govt. recognized wine shot, etc. :). On the way to
Banikhet, 4 of us were filling like vomiting due to hilly route and
closed car windows.
Finally, we reached our magical destination
(Banikhet base camp) and performed our registration process. A batch
was about to leave from the hostel at that time. So Mr. Parvinder
Chauhan (Chauhan sir) was explaining them the details to take care
and beauties to experience while trekking.
Out
of many necessary things listed on the YHAI site, we missed out to
buy lunch box as it was required to keep the packed lunch. So we went
to buy it from the market. Later, all other candidates (now our nice
group friends) started arriving at the hostel. We requested Parul mam
(our base camp leader – from Bhavnagar) to allocate a separate room
to us as we were 7 people. After a long Yes/No, finally she accepted
our request. It was a nice room with 8 sleeping bags. Entire side of
the room was filled with our luggage. After doing all arrangements,
we went for lunch which was included in the trekking package. It was
a army training like experience where we have to obey all the YHAI
rules.
Later
in evening, we went to the camp fire (however, it wasn't a fire but a
little candle fire as YHAI is environment friendly) where all of us
had to introduce ourselves as informed by Chauhan sir. We finally
realized that there were many Gujjus in our group. We learnt a lot of
new things and tour experiences during the camp fire introduction.
Chauhan sir informed and explained major things which were new to us.
We then were told to get up at 5 am in the morning and go for a long
jog and exercise at a big football ground.
 |
| @ Football ground for exercise |
In
the morning, a very high sound whistle was blown in all rooms which
forced us to wake up and be ready for the loooong jog to the ground
in the dark morning. There, we first saw the glimpse of snow over the
surface of grass. We were told to do too much exercise and all of us
were sweating even in chilled atmosphere. After exercise and
breakfast, it was finally the time to begin our trek. After a long
and detailed explanation by Chauhan sir, all of us lined up with our
YHAI trekking bags and rest of the luggage was kept by the hostel
safely. Sirji had specially ordered all of the Gujjus not to take any
food along with us to keep the weight of bag minimum. But we took
some sweets and specialties to enjoy on the way.
A
group leader, deputy group leader and environment leader were
selected by Sirji from our group (DW-E) of 50 friends. Finally, our
walk towards Dalhousie (6-7 kms on hilly road) started. 2 policeman
(1 leading us and 1 trailing us) were assigned to each group as our
tour guides. We requested him to select a short and difficult path
between mountain and trees to reach early and have initial trekking
experience instead of just walking on highway.
He agreed and we
changed our route to move towards a completely natural and difficult
but awesome path away from traffic and between the trees. After
trekking for a long time and enjoying a rest on the way, we finally
reached Dalhousie Army camp border from which our Dalhousie Youth
Hostel was near.
Near
the border, there was a mesmerizing view of the mountain range
covered with snow at peaks. Some of us went to have a better view of
the mountain range while others were enjoying the group enjoyments.
After clicking some pics, all were ready and we headed towards the
hostel.
After a tiring walk for a long time, finally we arrived to
the Dalhousie camp hostel which had very nice facilities. All of us
were distributed in different rooms but here, we were in the room of
30 people. There were double decker bedsteads and I selected the
upper bed to have a different experience. I and my friend were too
tired. So we skipped the evening breakfast and went to sleep after
massaging each other on back, legs and shoulders with a pain relief
ointment. All others went to gather outside, some of them went to
visit Dalhousie excursions while others went for a local city visit.
After
rest, we went to the ground outside our room to enjoy watching the
kitchen staff playing cricket in the sunset time. Then, it was the
camp fire time inside the main hall of the hostel. We decided to
enjoy the silence in the darkness at the ground and listen to calm
music instead of attending the camp fire. After listening to music,
me and Kandarp went for a short walk around the campus. Later, after
having our dinner we slept early to wake up early in the morning for
exercise. In the night, the hot topic of our room conversation was
about too much exercise done at Banikhet. Majority of us were facing
some pain in shoulders, back and legs. So some of us decided not to
attend morning exercise to save energy as we had to cover 12 km
distance on a full day trek towards Kalatop. One of our friend from
Surat was badly injured during the trek so he had to leave the
further trek but he and one of his friend decided to complete the
tour in a car. In the night everyone were searching for vacant plug
to charge their cams and mobiles. Luckily, we had planned to take an
extension board with 4-5 plugs along with us which helped many of us
in the 30 people room.
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