We had slept early and were supposed to be tired but I couldn’t sleep all that well and at 4 when Ankur asked for the time almost everyone answered implying no one had slept. We got up at 6 and started getting ready as there were 7 ppl with a single bathroom it was going to take time, but we were all ready by 7:30 and went down for breakfast. The breakfast was yummy gobhi paranthas and we hogged em.
After the breakfast Arjun gathered all of us and asjed us to do some loosening exercises, the exercises were gud for the body and I cud do all except the jumping jacks, which are supposed to be easy, but then I have been sleeping a long long time for the last 2 months. Then he divided us into 3 ropes, 3 groups of 6 persons each and we were to stay together.
I was part of the third rope Me, Aditya, shuvadeep, Kuldeep, Madhu and Ajay. Once we started our rope started very slowly and Shuvadeep’s taking pictures of everything on the way wasn’t helping. After 10 minutes of walk the bagpack started to take its toll, mine was actually excessively heavy and the burden had started to become a lot, But then it was just the starting. Another half an hour and I had forgotten all about the rope the more I tried to be with them, the more I felt that I was just standing carrying weight and it wont help my cause, so I started walking in the midst of other ropes and soon there were no ropes J ..
My strategy slowly developed into walking as close to the leader as possible and stop for small breaks when the bagpack could not be carried anymore. The funniest thing that happened was I used to move with full effort go up and always always found Ajay sitting in front of me relaxing, I used to cross him and after 10 mins he would be sitting, resting in front of me. Well then its gud to see just the funny side of it.
Laxmi and Aditya were the chirpiest of the lot and kept entertaining everyone. Some of the ppl really needed a boost. After two hours the bag had become a liability and I thot my habit of overpacking will break my back this time, but this was not the time to brood but to move on. We were walking almost the whole day in the pine forest and the new patch as Arjun told us was surrounded by Maple trees, the Maple leaves were spread all over the place. There was a stream of water flowing from where we refilled our bottles, the water was really gud to drink but it was really cold. It was a steady climb with regular stoppages and we finally reached Juda ka talab by 2. The first thing I did was to put the back pack down and rest, my back was really hurting and so were my calf and thigh muscles.
I had no energy left in me, the tents were being set up and we had chai and snacks, which gave me some energy to have a look around. The glimpse of Juda ka Talab didn’t impress me much, but when I went near it and saw it was completely frozen I was amazed. The temperature of the place at 3PM was -2 degrees. People were having fun crossing the frozen lake and going to the middle, but I was too tired and wanted my sleeping bag to straighten my back, we had lunch and soon I got into the sleeping bag. The back was really hurting and it was gud that I got in.
Ashu bhai, Kuldeep and myself were in the same tenet and both of them had lied down as well. We got up around 7 deciding it was enough to lie down and were presented with dinner straight away. I had a terrible headache and wasn’t feeling like having anything right now, and when I told about the headache to Arjun and also that I took a Combiflame to cure it, he got furious and wanted everyone to consult him before taking any medication, he asked me to drink a lot of water and take a Disprin. I knew disprin would cure me and felt ok after half an hour.
The important thing about water was that the ice was being taken from the talab and melted in the camp fire and that was the only source. Other than not being clear the problem with the water was the smell of smoke, it actually was Smoked Water, unusual taste but that was what was available, and no one complained.
Since I was feeling well now, we kept chattering, by the time we arrived actually everyone had dinner and went to sleep and we (myself, Ashu Bahi, Kuldeep, Amit, Ankur and Atul) were the only ones around. Atul and Ankur were also in problem of sorts and they needed some warmth besides the fire.
The sky was studded with stars and it we could actually see the milky way, I really wished we could captured as and what our eyes can see, and I tried with the max shutter speed of 15 secs and couldn’t gather much. We kept looking at the stars for more than an hour and decided to go to sleep by 10.
No comments:
Post a Comment