Very
early in the morning, I woke up to complete my morning activities so
that I don't disturb others and later I again went to sleep for
sometime till I hear a big sound of the whistle :). After the
whistle, all got up and started their tasks. My friend Kandarp heard that hot water was available and he decided to have a bath in -1 degree temperature
outside. It was advised to us that not to bath in such chilled
atmosphere. After bathing, he went out wearing towel to experience a
chilled atmosphere and have talk with his father (who called him
almost 5-6 times a day as he was on the long journey for the first time
in life). I then decided to have some exercise to free my jammed legs
and back. It was then break fast time. A very nice breakfast was
provided to us. We had our breakfast, washed our plates and gathered
on the ground to leave for the day 2 trek after packing our lunch.
After
a group counting, we all started our trek following the policeman and
leaders. Walking from the streets of Dalhousie, we reached Mahatma
Gandhi chowk had some rest there. Then, it was a completely jungled
path with mountain on one side and a deep valley on the other. This
was the real beginning of our trek route. After a long walk, gap
between different sub groups started to increase as some people were
fast walkers while others were enjoying and clicking pics of each
other and having full fun of the trek. On the curved path, people too
far ahead clicked our photos from there and we clicked their pics.
Then we saw an institute above a high hill. Guide informed us that it
was the institute where shooting of the painting competition scene of
the movie "Taare zameen par" had took place. Then, after
covering long distance, we had to go downwards toward a valley in the
jungle in order to go to cross the valley. As we were trekking, a dog
overtook us who had joined us from Dalhousie. He was a cool and calm
dog who joined us just to reach at his destination. He neither barked
at us, nor ate our food. Walk in the valley was difficult and we had
to cross sleepy rocks and other big obstacles. Seeing the valley, I
just imagined that what a nice scenery it would appear in monsoons
when water from the waterfalls above would be flowing here.
After
crossing the valley, we had a halt there for rest near a old
constructed house. We ate some breakfast provided as leaving gift by
YHAI from Banikhet campus which contained oranges, candies, biscuits,
etc. All of us (even the dog :) ) enjoyed the gr8 view of valley and a
line of pine trees on the top of mountain. As we trekked ahead, I
received a call from my cousin with whom I conversed about my amazing
experience. He also knew that as he had already trekked long time
before. While we were walking at a normal speed in different groups,
we went ahead and some groups were lagging way behind us, as they
were enjoying too much, and were out of our sight. Also, the jungle
contained bears, so we decided to wait for them. They arrived after a
long time and the leader had a small altercation with the police
guide. The guide was right as it was really needed to walk fast to
reach Kalatop before evening due to risk of jungle and also to view a
great sunset from the potato fields at Kalatop.
Now,
the path was more amazing as we had Deodhar trees everywhere around
us. Even the sun was difficult to be viewed clearly. This is the
reason for the name Kala-top (dark peak). As we moved upward from the
jungle to reach towards the road, the 2 police guides got confused
regarding the proper direction of path and had to wait for each other
to decide the right path. Finally, path of front guide was correct
and we followed him and finally reached the road after trekking
upwards on a stiff inclined path. On reaching road, me and my friends
(2 KDs, Kumar, Nileshbhai, Mori saheb, etc) started dancing on the
road on the Ramleela garba songs played on cell phones. Now, the road
walk towards our lunch point was seeming more hard than the jungle
trek. After covering a very very long walk (tiring 1 km), we reached
our decided lunch point place 5 kms before Kalatop YHAI campus.
We
ate the packed lunch, of Chana-puri and bought tea, wafers and maggi,
protecting it from the monkeys. We then started our trek to Kalatop.
It was the downward path after inclining upwards till now. Body of
all of us was now used to walking continuously and we were no more
tiring now. After a non-stop walk of 5 kms moving downwards towards
Kalatop, we finally reached the campus where Sir was welcoming
everyone. We gathered in a circle on the ground of Kalatop forest
rest house along with the dog who was still with us :). Sir
instructed us to divide ourselves between 2 hut like homes. The
accommodated place was way down walking on a slippery downward path.
It was a old structured hut like house which was appearing like a
1850 AD structured big hut. We occupied our sleeping bags and places
to sleep. There were two 12*12 rooms inside a hut. We had to
accommodate 8-9 people in each room. After some rest, we went to the
stepped potato field to have a gr8 sunset view and returned to room
after clicking pics and enjoying for a long time.
This
day too, me and Kandarp had decided to skip the camp fire gathered.
Instead, we had fixed a conversation meeting with a local kid (8-10
years age) who was managing the campus requirements like hut
repairings, providing hot water in the morning, etc.
In
the night, when all were enjoying the camp fire, we were enjoying the
talk with him. He ate tobacco, so we offered him Gujarati MAVO (tobacco) to him
and he enjoyed chewing it. He was now one of our close friend and
shared all his talks with us. It was a completely silent environment
which I had not experienced for a long long time. The chilled breeze
in -1 degree centigrade was strongly heard by us in silence and
darkness as we were sitting in his small room with lights switched
off. From the window, we could see small light source very far away
and he told that there is a small temple of Mataji there and it is a
magical place.
He
then told that bears visit just down of the house often in the night
as they used to store the collected potatoes in the store room below
the house and also, they used to throw the garbage in the valley just
beside the house. He then told that, entire area would be covered
with 4-5 feet of snow few weeks later and the he often jumps from the
gallery into the snow.
He
also told that his big brother who is in the army once accidentally
came in front of a bear just half a km when he was arriving from his
village to this house. Luckily, he was survived from the bear. Then,
we forced him to sing his favorite song in his local language. He
sang the song very nicely and we recorded it for future memories.
This
night was the best part of my journey !!!
Next
early morning, we gathered for the breakfast with our packed bags so
that we don't have to come back for it. We packed our lunch,
completed the counting process and moved ahead for the 3rd
day of the trek towards Khajjiar. Kalatop to Khajjiar was the
toughest trek of around 15 kms. Half of the route declination and the
remaining was inclined path. It was a single path so we didn't had to
wait for others groups. So all of us were walking in separate friend
groups according to their speeds.
It was a long walk downwards where
we had to reach to a small waterfall which was our lunch point. On
the way, there were so many picture perfect locations where it
becomes mandatory to wait and enjoy. After long walk crossing the
fallen trees in the path and trekking downwards above the slippery
rocks, we finally reached to a bridge. Below the bridge was a
heavenly place with complete nature all around us. And it was our
lunch point. What a great place to have a lunch !!! It can only be
possible in our dreams and now it was real. After a long photo
session, we ate our packed lunch on the rocks surrounded by water.
We
then proceeded for the inclined path towards Khajjiar. While going up
from the lunch point, the rocky path was completely covered with the
fallen dry leaves. The moisture on the leaves made the path too
slippery and we had to move ahead carefully. On the way, we saluted a
newly married couple (Niravbhai and his wife). Niravbhai was
over-weighted but had more strength than many of us to cover a long
distance with a good pace. Finally, road appeared above us on the
right side and we finally hoped that Khajjiar was about to arrive. We
ate chana and bhel from a seller on the road. The experience was like
eating fast food after many years as we had been eating normal food
till now.
While
having a tiry walk on the road looking downwards, suddenly the
heavenly view of long Grasslands of Khajjiar came in front of my
eyes. I was speechless and just viewed the magic of the God's created
nature. It was dried grass of mini Switzerland appearing everywhere
till my sight reached completed by range of mountains covered with
huge and long Deodhar trees everywhere. A frozen small lake appeared
in the center of the ground where many of us had already reached but
I was exhausted and decided to visit on the next day and just enjoy
the beauty for sometime before going to the YHAI hotel.
We
then reached the hotel half a km from the Khajjiar ground.
Surprisingly, the dog who came with us made other dogs as friends
after some settlement and barks. As we reached the hotel, me and
Kandarp rushed to capture a hotel room so that all of us can stay
together in a occupied room. We were 7 and had to accomodate 9 in a
room. So 2 people of the group who were from Pune joined us. They
were Imran and Piyush who then became our close friends. We learnt
many things from them and they too learnt some things from us about
our local living and culture. They both were very nice friends by
nature and we just enjoyed their company. Again, me, Kandarp and
Imran skipped the camp fire after dinner and stayed in the room to
rest and talk with each other. I decided to have a bath in the night
so that I don't disturb others in the morning. We 8 had to manage in
a single bathroom. I then took out my journey surprise (The Water
Heater) out and had a nice bath with warm water after 3 long days.
Then, after massaging each other, we waited for other to arrive and
slept in the night.
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