Since I had some sleep in the afternoon I couldn’t sleep at night and hearing snores all over the place wasn’t helping. The sleeping bag was also small and maneuvering inside it was fairly difficult, so another sleepless night for me. Got up around 6 again and got ready by 7. The breakfast was ready and we had bread butter and bread jam which was gud as well.
I had more energy now and took some pics of the frozen talab which looked fabulous in the sunlight. After the breakfast we got along with the loosening up exercises and then everyone went around the camp looking for plastics and other stuff so that we don’t pollute the place. It was wonderful thing to do and I felt happy to help. I couldn’t have carried all of my stuff and I removed my slippers and one sweater and handed it to Arjun to be carried by the porters. I knew I wasn’t gonna use em and I didn’t want them for the rest of the trip.
It was a big relief and I was all set to make a move. 10 minutes into the hike, I was starting to feel the weight of the bag again, but what to do cant complain now J . Around half an hour later we reached a beautiful spot where we could see the snow covered mountains, it was a lovely site, we stopped and savored the view, clicked some pics and back on the trail.
Soon afterwards we were lost in the pine forest and its beauty, keep relishing the views and keep on moving. The atmosphere was great but the water was running out, almost all the bottles were empty in around one and half hours, and water was a priced commodity now. We reached a meadow for some welcome rest and Arjun showed us the KedarKantha peak, it looked beautiful, and the site was gud enuf to pump up energy in our bodies to start moving on.
Slowly and steadily we moved on and reached the KK Basecamp by afternoon. It was a nice sunshine but the temperatures were touching -3, everyone got there and started resting, it was a nice sunshine to njoi and the view was terrific. Ankur wasn’t feeling too well and he had a quick nap. We chatted for a while and it was time for lunch. To my surprise the lunch had Rajma (slurp ..) its always good to eat rajma and at an altitude of 11K feet with absolutely tired bodies, it was bliss, relished every byte I ate and was completely satisfied.
After the lunch Arjun collected us for a quick briefing and the point was “How to walk or climb on ice/ snow?” The instructions were clear, avoid ice at all times, it will be very slippery. Dig in with your front part while climbing up, body weight forward and dig with your heels and body weight backwards while coming down. And we were given a task to try what we learnt by climbing up, on a small part it wasn’t tough to climb up but coming down seemed like a problem, but all our fears were gone when we were asked to simply run and not think while coming down. Believe me it was fun J.
It was around 4:30 and the sun was setting down, and to my surprise we were served onion and potato pakodas with lemon tea, it was just the day for awesome food that I couldn’t resist. I desperately wanted to add on to my sunset collection of pics, but more important was to njoi the view. The beauty of the sunset is that every few minutes the colour of the landscape changes from yellow to orange to pink and I really wish I could capture exactly what our eyes could see, it would have been great. Everyone was clicking pics in every direction and it itself formed a great view.
By now Ashu bhai wasn’t feeling too well and he felt he had fever, we got him into the tent and he tried to sleep for a while. We gathered around a campfire to keep ourselves warm. When I returned to the camp Ashu bhais condition was deteriorating and I was feeling responsible in getting him into this. He asked what needs to be done and Arjun suggested him to have a Crocin and he had it and back to sleep.
We got into the tent as well but me and Kuldeep started talking about our life and Ashu bhai also started feeling better, I was glad to see that, soon he joined us and we chatted for a long time. It was a nice bonding session and everyone went to sleep.
nicely captured day 2! waiting for the next day. :-)
ReplyDelete