Sunday, November 27, 2016

On the roads of heaven


In spite of having a lot of hindrance, knee pain, heel pain, I decided to go Har Ki Dun trek. It’s a challenge to my physical and mental strength.
From the sea level, I reach the chilling cold village Sankri, a base camp, in Utterakhand. The village is surrounded by apple orchid and dense forest of Himalaya. Sleep disappeared from our eyes in the dream of trekking. A group of 17 trekkers and 7 staff of India Hikes started trek on 16th of October.
Taluka. a beautiful village on the bank of Supin river.
In company with a river:-
It’s a unique experience to walk along the a river side which flows light greenish in colour, having stones all along. It’s like meditating.
Yamuna
In the bumpy road traveled through dense forest to reach taluka, a small village. Icy cold breeze welcomed us. I was thrilled by the road which was slide some where. We have to cross a big stream on big stones. As we reach taluka, briefing was taken by our team leader. A local guy welcomed I to his house and showed his house.
       
Walking along Supin river.
         Greenish Supine River accompanied with us. Song of birds filled our ear in the dense pine forest of Govind Wild Life Sanctuary. Pine trees were glittering against blue sky looks pretty. I was totally mesmerized by its beauty. After few decents and some assents we saw a village called Datmir. Its looks like hanging from a mountain. A snow boy, Ranbir Singh, a villager from Gangad, who is returning to Dehradum to complete his M.A... We were astonished by his words. He had to walk 25 km and go by bus 196 k.m to reach Dehradun!
       
Gangad village on a mountain.
           
Gangad village.


A traditional house in Gangad village.

          As we moved, a narrow wooden bridge scarred us of down fall. It seems to be bridge to two heavens. In between we had our food, Chapathi, near a beautiful stream. I prayed the nature god and sipped the first Himalayan sweat fantastic water. An old man from Datmir village who served tea to us. After steep climb of two mountains a village opened up, called Gangad. Twenty to Twenty five houses are on top of a mountain. Simple, straight forward behavior, made us to astonish. Shy children who were returned from school were asking chocolates from every trekker. I shared some chocolates with them. The villagers were returning from their ‘Chauli’ field. Soft clinking of cows was everywhere. There is a Primary School in Gangad village where 200 students and 8 teachers are working. A shepherd, Suresh, whom I talked with, shared this information.  
'Chauli' A local crop near the camp site.
Our first campsite in Pauni Garaat
After 5 hours of decent walk, we enjoyed fragrance of tea in chilling cold, in a tea point near Gangad. After seven hours of long walk I reached our first comp site Pauni Garaat. The snow caped mountains make a perfect back drop for our campsite .The local red Chauli crop given an amazing contrast to snow peaks ahead. All the adjectives fall short to describe this camp site. Supin river flows here ferocious. By the Hot tea and Pakoda, evaporated our fatigue of walking. The Pakoda made with different smelly leaves of Himalaya which gives it a heavenly taste to it!
As the night falls, I saw the sky, such a clear and stelliferous it was! I was so dumbfounded and haven’t seen such a clear sky throughout my life. It was unimaginary. The cool lamp of sky appeared and made our tents looks like made up of milk. As the night enveloped, we had thrown ourselves early in the tents, after having lip-smacking dinner. ...
                                                                                      to be continued.

ವಾರೆ ನೋಟ

ಲೋಚನ ದ ತುಂಬಾ ಚಂದ್ರ ತಾಲದ ಬಿಂಬ

( Chandra tal lake .... Himachal pradesh) ನೀಲಾಕಾಶದ ಭಿತ್ತಿಯಲಿ ಹೂ ಚೆಲ್ಲಿದಂತೆ ಹರಡಿದ ಮೋಡ. ರಸ್ತೆಯಲಿ ಅಜ್ಜನೊಬ್ಬ ಮಾತಿಗೆ ಅಂಟಿದ ಧೂಳನ್ನು ಉಜ್ಜುತ್ತಾ ಕುಳಿ...