I was writing this blog in a word document and I dint expect this blog to turn
out into a 6 pager document. So, just writing the highlights of the trip in the
beginning. This blog is just a remembrance of our awesome trip. I don’t expect
people to read through the entire blog as I myself dint read it after writing.
If interested can go through this, get inspired to plan another trip like this
and if so please do call me :P
(Pics to be inserted on the way and bad English
editing on the way)
Highlights of the Trip:
- Awesome
views of mountain ranges from Auli
- Walking in
Hailstorm rain for 2 hrs
- Staying in
Tents at -5degree centigrade temperature
- Crazy
walks in steep slopes and heights and awesome pictures
- Stone age
life: No phone No Connectivity No pollution and Blank state of mind.
- Snow
formation just in front of eyes.
- Climbing
the Pangarchula Peak
- Lots and
Lots of Tea and Soup
- Badrinath
trip and darshan of Lord Narayan
- The GIO
team’s support throughout the trip
Pre – preparation:
Out of the vexed up office routine and a long
planning of a long holiday, we decided on a Himalayan trek. The trekking group
was the one where I know only 1 or 2 of them and all others were mutual
friends. So, decided and booked a date which is 1.5 months from then. Had to go
through all taking permissions from parents, shuntings from relatives and some
of the friends as it would be difficult to breathe and as there were recent
earthquakes, encouragement from some of the frnds and ppl as it was an awesome
idea. As the date approached, started preparation of the Trekking by toning the
body with physical body activities buying trekking material shoes, rucksack,
jackets, sun glasses and all petty things needed.
The Trip Begins:
Day 0 – Hyderabad to Delhi to Haridwar
Started from Hyd to Delhi as usual with my crazy
friend Pavani. Any trip with her would be something different say it
crazy/stupid/ awesome. As we reached Delhi caught the metro to NDLS and met the
rest of the troupe there for train journey to Haridwar. As it was late night,
we dint even introduce properly with each other.
Day1- Haridwar Railway station to Auli
In the waiting room, got freshened up,
introduced with each other’s and were waiting for the GIO team co-ord to start
the Trek. Had the first typical north Indian breakfast with Aloo
Parata and chole bature and started the journey. It was an 8-9 hrs
journey, but it did not seem so. The ghat road always had a river stream at one
side of us all the way. We went through Rishikesh, saw the 5 different prayagas
Pancha Prayag (Vishnu prayag, nanda prayag, karna prayag, rudra prayag, dev
prayag) on the way, and were looking at the beautiful river sangams
(Alakananda, Dhauliganga, Mandakini, Pindar and Bhagirathi), the Ram jhoola and
Lakshman Jhoola. We stopped at many places taking pictures. We had lunch and
again the journey continued. As we were approaching Auli, we could see
different Mountains of our Himalayas. We saw the Elephant Mountain (hathi
pahad), Trishul Mountain, Nandadevi Mountain, and Mountain near valley of
flowers (don’t remember all names). We saw the Joshimath, Tapovan, Bhavishy
Badri on the way.
We reached Auli around 6pm. The GIO team was
ready with an awesome tea and pakora, which made all our journey tiredness to
just disappear in one spot. The rooms were too good, had very good dinner and
sleep.
Day2 - Auli to Tali
The early morning in Auli with all the
snowcapped mountains around and had a beautiful view of sunrise from a garden
with all flowers. It is a very peaceful place and a good place to spend holiday
time. After a good breakfast of puri, cornflakes, egg burji, bread butter and tea
we started… A small journey of 15 mins in the tempo, we reached the starting
point of the Trek. We are geared up with our Rucksacks, walking sticks, cap,
water bottles, we started our trek with Ropeway.
This was an open ropeway with only support for
the legs and this was my first ropeway experience and that too open it. It was
soo exciting sliding in the air and taking selfies in Ropeway with Pavani :P.
We started walking, walking, and climbing. We were not aware of destiny also.
We walked through the roads, hills, meadows, rocks.. There was already a good
lunch prepared for us and was served in the middle of the trek. Again walking,
walking… the route was turning out more and more beautiful. The mountain ranges
just beside, the green grass and hills around. There was a narrow path where
only 1 person can go through it and it was so dangerous that one wrong step, we
fall so down and we are gone. The climate was sunny till then and suddenly it
started raining, we all wrapped ourselves in raincoats. Initially we thought it
was rain, but immediately it turned into a hailstorm rain. The force of
hailstorms was too much and soon all the ground was filled up with white
colored ice balls. We walked through it very fast, the meadows looked more
beautiful in the rain and walking in it was exciting too. We could see the
formation of snow then and there itself.. J we walked more in the
rain and finally reached the place (Thali) were tents were setup. We were all
shivering with sudden drop of temperature to 0 degree. The team has given us
required material to warm up ourselves and also served hot tea. The team setup
a bon-fire, it was too good to warm us up and our clothes too :P . We had a
good Soup (many glasses of soups) and had dinner. We all went to our tents and put
ourselves into the sleeping bags. I and Pavani in one tent started our stupid
talks, previous tent experience in dandeli, jokes on variety of topics, Intra
tent communication and disturbing others in the other tents. :P
Day 3 - Tali to Khulara
Waking up in the morning, we looked around the
place where all the snow in the previous evening has disappeared and enjoyed
the good sun. We were praying there should not be any rain that
day J and yea stopped singing ( Barso re megha megha song ). We had a
good hot breakfast and all the other tent people teasing us with the jokes and
talk pavani and I had the previous night. (kada manasa…. Hhihihi). As per the
team our today’s path is better and was lesser trek compared to yesterday to
reach the next camp ( Khurala). So, we started walking again…: P. Glucovita
helped us in regaining energy where ever possible. We had an awesome view of
Pangarchula peak from long, the sheep in the meadows and various viewpoints
where we had awesome pics. We all kept 2 letter shortnames which we were using
to encourage to while climbing up.. It was soo funny calling each other with
jhaaa, geeee, vaaa, paaa…. We were dancing on the hill with random songs. We
had a long way through the rocks and we had to climb down to the rocks to reach
our base camp. We had a good lunch and just went to tents to have a small nap,
but the climate did not allow us to come out of tent again till dinnertime. It
was raining continuously; the temperature was around -5 degrees centrigrade. We
had dinner in the rain and were checking out the possibilities on the next day
plan if it rains again L. We all hoped for a good clear climate the next
day so that our main most difficult hike to Pangarchula peak would be possible
Day 4 - Khulara – Kauri Pass – Pangarchula -
Khulara
Luckily we had a clear sky and so geared up as
early as possible with minimum daypack possible to go to Kauri Pass and climb
the Pangarchula peak. We again started walking and walking through the rocks.
Today we had too much of climbing. We climbed and reached mini pangarchula
point, which was a very nice view point and again continued to walk walk.. Our
first sight of long block of snow filled in a lot of enthusiasm in us and
started snow fighting.. :D. We went on, we had a point where we have to cross
through the snow to reach the top. The team taught us how to walk through the
snow and made us through it. The team also made us slide through it on legs and
it was too good balancing on foot and sliding through it. We walked and
crossing snow became easier, we made a path by ourselves like football kicking
and walking with heels, toes, sideways as per the snow. We had different
awesome crazy pictures in the snow. We continued walking through the view of
valley on oneside, the peak on other side. The oxygen levels were becoming
lower, the snow started to increase, the way we walked and when we just looked
back at it, it turned into snow. We were amazed just seeing the flow of water
turning into snow in front of our eyes. The place seemed more dangerous as we
were unable to see the people just infront of us as the fog covered them off.
Coming down of the hill was too easy and fun. We all did snow sliding and our
backs and hands became numb. We slided a lot and lot and realized all the
climbing effort we did and just got down so fast. We reached down had our lunch
with very nice leg pains :P. We had a bonfire again and sat around it sharing
our experiences, jokes, seeing pictures. Had a sound sleep that day because of
too much tiredness. The main most imp day of the trek was over and next is to
return back.
Day 5 - Khulara – Auli
We decided to start early as possible so that we
can go to badrinath that day. We all had a good breakfast with upma, oats,
bread butter jam and started. We all had too much confidence this day and today
was only getting down and no climbing. It became so easy for us today and none
of us were taking the actual path and started taking shortcuts through the
rocks. The climate was too hot today, the way was easier but since most of it
was getting down, there was a lot of pressure on the toes and knees. We
continued walking and reached a small village and had to cross that village,
walk more. We also walked through the way that had landslides. The sun made us
more tired and there was a temperature change of –ve to too much sun. We all
reached a point where tempo picked us up and reached Auli. The picture of our
trekking team after the trek was so funny. All of us were very tired, tanned
faces, leg pains, sleepy and happy :D. We could not go to Badrinath as it was
already late and we all sat in a room playing Mafia. The game turned out to be
too addictive and we continued it till dinner. :) We all decided to getup at
3am next day to cover Badrinath and reach Auli the next day.
Day 6: Auli – Badrinath – Auli – Haridwar
As planned for target time of 4am to start, I
started like a warden calling out ppl, waking them up and finally started at
4:30am. The path to badrinath was too dangerous. We could see all the damaged
hills and road because of the floods. Our driver was an awesome one who drove
very well where there were sharp turns. We reached badrinath, it was soo cold
and had good pictured again :P and went to darshan of Lord Narayan. We had
breakfast and started back. We again played mafia in the bus, shared our
experiences, had farewell speeches and so on. Got new names for me as:
EnthuCutlet, energetic candidate :D We all departed and each of us had
different plans and so me and pavani reached Haridwar, had dinner and again to
Haridwar railway station :)
Day 7: Haridwar - Delhi – Hyderabad
With all tiredness and sleeplessness, waiting in
Haridwar station for that train, almost sleeping at wherever possible. The
train arrived we setup things asap and had a sound sleep. Reached Delhi, got
freshened up. We went to Jurassic Park 2 movie, as there was time for the
flight, next to Delhi’s Deloitte office and then to airport. I was so sleepy
that I slept whenever found place and time. We reached Hyd and Pg at 8pm and
then immediately slept off.
Finally our adventurous trip turned out awesome with different experiences
with:
Awesome friend of mine Pavani, the cool sweet Geethanjali, my partner Vani, caring and
helping Jahnavi, the co-ord Sai Krishna, the two bros and photographers of the
trip Aditya and Jagan, the GIO main team: Jaichand, Ameen, Bhuvan and Vijay
