bushahr timestrek routes | bushahr times

Summer 08: Har-ki-Dun

Rohit Chaudhary — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:16:26 +0000

We went on a trek to Har-ki-Dun in May 2008. This is not a day by day account of how or what we did or didn’t do, that should interest you as a possible trekker to this place. Guide books can do a far better job; go buy one. Or to get high on one such account anyway, go read my ultra boring “spiti left bank trek” post (yes! a daily account).

This post contains personal experiences which I found interesting enough to write about (actually it’s been so long since this specific trek that these are the all I could think of to write, or remember). These are some of the memories that have still lingered on after all these years. They may or may not happen to you or might’ve or might not have already happened to you.

Route followed: Sankri (1450 mts.) – Taluka (1800 mts.) – Seema (2500 mts.) – Har-Ki-Dun (3566 mts.) – Jaumdar (jaundhar) glacier – Har-Ki-Dun – Osla (2559 mts.) – Taluka – Sankri

Day 1 (17^th May): Dehradun to Sankri (starting point of treks to Har-ki-dun)

If you plan to get to a remote place like Sankri where roads are just dug out mountain sides, and the taxi operator in Dehradun offers you an Ambassador as a ride, chances are you’ll be changing vehicles towards the end. Just ahead of Mori at Netwar, we stopped for what we thought to be a break. But it was essentially a negotiation time for our driver who went off to look for our new ride. And though we didn’t have to care about how the agreed upon cost to Sankri was split (a meagre 12-14 kms more), it still meant waiting for around half an hour. Our new ride? A Mahindra Maxx jeep with a capacity to seat around 14 people, but had to make do with just the 3 of us rolling in its insides!

Drive from Purola (1524 mts.) to Mori (1130 mts.) is one of the prettiest I have been on. Dense forests around Jormala (1800 mts.) make it quite scenic, and the traffic on this route is very less too.

Day 2 (18^th May): Sankri to Taluka in a jeep, Taluka to Seema on foot

Building of roads are bad for trek health, real bad. We were told that we could ‘save’ a day of our itinerary by skipping the walk between Sankri and Taluka (12 kilometres) thanks to a road connecting these two villages. And the road would get us within a kilometre of Taluka. So we agreed, not before realising what we missed out on. The forests between these two villages are just fantastic with an amazing bird life to be enjoyed. It felt so untouched and so old that we could have easily been in a place hundred times remoter than we were in.

Day 2: At Taluka

We had a stone thrown at us. Perhaps some sort of game for a couple of playing kids. And when we tried to scare them off by giving them dirty looks we were at the receiving end of verbal volleys of their granny. Hostile lands we thought.

We then ate in a dhaba; the best potato curry ever made (according to the then frame of mind) was consumed here. But the strangest sight of all was a BJP political meeting (locals in their traditional attire) on a rooftop that went on for the entire duration that we were there for. And weirdly we didn’t see participants talking a lot; it was more like a community sun soaking time out.

Day 2: First-day walks

‘First-days’ (umm, and last-days too) have to be the most notorious of all days’ walks. Not for any risk factor involved but for the insanely huge distances they make everyone walk right in the beginning. It’s as if they are rueing the fact that they are the very first day of a trek and have unfortunately nothing to offer in terms of grand vistas, and hence make sure the trekkers don’t forget them, by making them go on endlessly. So did we; kept on going, along the river, up and down, never actually gaining height, crossing a number of fallen trees as bridges over areas otherwise made impassable by thick undergrowth or landslides. We stopped at a spring for lunch which I secretly thought should have been the first day’s stop. Agreed I was quite overweight then and in no decent physical condition, but a while later I learnt that same thought had occurred to the other poor trekkers too.

When was the last time the attack-of-the-first-day-of-trek happened? The yuksom-tsokha trail on the dzongri trek; it was so long that we were walking with our head-torches on way past sun down, and were close to exhaustion.

Day 3 (19^th May:) at Har-Ki-Dun

We noticed that our porters and guide were getting a bit restless when we were about to reach our destination. So much so that the moment the GMVN guest house (our stay for the coming 3 nights) was in sight they shot off hurriedly showing us the route that remained. We thought maybe they were tired of having to deal with our pace. We were in for a quite a shock. 7 young boys (all guides and porters), our crew included, were playing cricket at an altitude of 3500 metres! So how do they deal with the bounciness of a cricket/tennis ball on such an undulating terrain? They don’t have to. They make their own ball by tying together pieces of cloths. This way they make sure the ball doesn’t shoot off to distances which would require a half day retrieval trek. So I tried my luck at batting with this kind of a ball. First delivery, I tapped the ball gently, and it landed just where it hit the bat. Having got an idea of the strength it would need for me to hit the ball to some distance, I infused all my energy into the next shot, only for the ball to land in a fielder’s hands at the short leg position. This wasn’t meant for me. We played on for a while and then preferred being spectators. The bat is a permanent fixture at the guest house though. Read more on this here.

Day 4 (20^th May): at Har-ki-Dun

It was interesting to see how different people had different priorities. An amusing contrast was noticed between a Bengali group (2 men) and a huge Gujarati group (8-10 members). On this day, we had the company of the former, and the only memory I have of them was that one of them was standing out in the porch holding a thermometer. He was apparently obsessed with knowing what minimum temperatures can be like at this place. The ritual was repeated the next morning. They left after breakfast and were replaced by the latter group by late noon. Cold was too much to bear for them and so most members decided to stay indoors, most of the time. And when they came out, it was to discuss the menu with the GMVN cook. “Thepla?” “Can you make Thepla?” Having figured out cook’s helplessness at the questions, they came down to inquiring about raw materials’ availability for themselves to make some. Obviously they ended up disappointed.

While on the topic of food, I must mention that rajma and spinach were the only two available food items. Apart from roti and chawal, of course.

Day 5 (21^st May): weather and the Jaumdar glacier

On this important day, we knew how badly we needed the weather to behave. Throughout the trek we had faced an inclement weather. We were sadly forced to shuttle between in and outdoors most of the time while at Har-ki-Dun. So on this day we set out with much hope, despite a grey sky overhead, and crossed the great meadows at Har-ki-Dun. The walk wasn’t challenging and we did it leisurely, occasionally stopping to click pictures of flowers, blooming all over the meadows. Towards the end of the meadow the route starts to ascend. We walked till a spot which would have offered a clean shot of the entire glacier with the Swargarohini peak, if the clouds cleared, and decided to wait here. Even an hour’s wait couldn’t help our cause. We would catch glimpses of parts of the glacier and the peak through openings in the ever moving and ever-regenerating smoke of clouds.

Day 6 (22^nd May): at Osla

Okay, so we could no longer hold back our thoughts. 5 days of going without any sweets meant we were day dreaming about our favourite sweets. And so we took it up with our crew. Our guide thought on it for a while and asked “kheer chalegi (Will rice pudding do)?” Our wide grinning faces at the sound of pudding must have given out a wrong message to him; for when we sat down to have lunch we were in for a shock, though we tried to restrain our emotions. Lunch was pudding, and pudding alone! In ‘Himalayan’ quantities! I can take in any amount of dessert, but for the rest two, it was one difficult meal.

Sometime later, after lunch, when it was time almost for the evening snacks, we ask our guide again “maggi milegi (Can we get noodles)?”

Day 7 (23^rd May): at Taluka

Playing cards is an amazingly captivating game. Not only for the player but onlookers as well. We bought a pack of cards in the beginning of the trek, and were glad we did that. Most of the evenings were spent playing cards with the three crew members. We were taught a new card game here, by these guys, called gadha patti (literal translation – donkey card). And we were so smitten by it that our last day of trek could pretty much sum up our obsession with it. We reached Taluka at around 2 in the afternoon, had lunch and waited for some vehicle to come by, which could drop us on its way back to Sankri. We walked a bit on the road and then decided to wait at a spot which offered views of the winding road for pretty much upto a kilometre, just outside the village. So all of us sat down (8 people, 2 locals tagged along for a ride), mixed 2 decks of cards, and started our game, spread out in the middle of the road! The game had to finally stop after around an hour when we had to give way to a pickup truck, which was to be our ride back to civilisation.

Not Another Dull Lake

sriparna.g — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 17:41:58 +0000

We altered the classic route to Dodital (Uttarakhand, India) and included Dayara bugyal to complete a 8 day trek from 23 April – 1 May 2011. The route we followed was: Barsu – Dayara – Morapara – Bebra – Dodi Tal – Agoda – Sangamchatti – Kuflon. Following is an account of it written for the M Magazine by Sriparna Ghosh (published in the June 2011 issue). The same article has been repeated here for your convenience. Scanned pages have also been included of the magazine along with some more photographs from the trek towards the end of the article.

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3 Delhiites walked to find the legend created by 80 meditating hermits, collapsed under unseasonal snow, forgot their mirrors and watches back home, came back sunburnt having happily lost track of time.

And then, there were three! We three are always the last ones standing on a list of potential trekkers for a forthcoming escape. Our plan was to get to a lake at the height of 3000 odd metres, a trek designed to reach the three D’s: Dayara Bugyal, Dodital and Darwa Top, in the mountainous state of Uttarakhand. Our trio would return with the finding that apart from Cricket and Bollywood, playing cards is the third biggest unifier in the remote reaches of this part of their country.

SATURDAY
Delhi – Haridwar – Barsu
There was much for us to be thrilled about, even in terms the departure from Delhi, which is usually sweat-soaked and hectic; a Shatabdi ticket, 9 days of imminent cold weather and the prospect of frolicking in the mountains by the same afternoon.

4.5 hours, a few sadhus, many beggars and a larger than life statue of Shiv later, we found our ride out of the still sweltering plains.

Our rest-point for the day, and the base for our trek, is far removed from the regular tourist and highway map. And just to prove that point, a 3km link road cuts away from the Gangotri highway to end at Barsu (2200 m). The next day, we would continue on foot.

SUNDAY
Barsu – Dayara (around 3300 m)
We woke up to tent-tea, a certain ritual we would get used to, over the next week. Having met the six crew members in the darkness of the previous night, we had to ask for a re-introduction to the team, which included Raja (the leader and cook), Harsh, Pathan, Viki, Ashish and Aryan. All, apart from Raja, are shy. As the trip unfolded, the crew abandoned its inhibitions as the trail got tough. But all ice was broken, literally and otherwise, when we fished out a pack of playing cards.

Post a muesli-and-eggs breakfast, the three of us departed ahead of the rest, knowing very well that they would soon catch up and overtake. We wandered for a bit in the village, which clung to side of the mountain, and waited for the rest to catch up. They did and so did the rain.

It was a zigzag uphill trudge. The first hour of our trek was a big test on my lungs. Clouds started pouring in like mist from all directions, and thanks to an oversized poncho and persistent rain, my glasses started to fog up. It was not an easy task to hold up a poncho daintily like an Armani gown and ever so often wiping glasses, and all this, while climbing.

The path remained stubbornly uphill and after about three hours of walking, some wet and some super wet, we turned pros at poncho-packing (imagine stuffing a cow in a handbag). We panted a bit less at the Barnala Meadows. Drooling at the possibility of some piping hot Maggi, we continued up, till we reached a pagoda (a sort of umbrella like shelter point), which offered views of a mini lake, MughdhaTal and wide swathes of rolling meadows. Slivers of sunshine managed to breakthrough a Teflon layer of pregnant clouds momentarily, both warming and teasing us.

And then there was more uphill and now, a new adversary, snow. And finally we reach our first night halt: Dayara Bugyal. The stretches of undulating white landscape still bore a look of winter. There was very little to cherish that evening, except the crackling warmth of our bonfire inside a shepherd’s hut. Snow fell soundlessly and thickly outside, as our tent sulked by itself 200 metres away.
Post dinner, we had to trudge reluctantly to the tent, which was by now buried under the snow and hard to find. And we spent the whole night slapping the tent from inside, hoping it doesn’t cave in.

MONDAY
Dayara – Ghagoru – Morapara
Tent tea and we zipped the tent open to see fresh snow all around. Scenes so incredible, I suppose, appear very rarely in one’s life. Everything was enveloped in snow. My feet were the first to squish through the virgin snow. And trees lazily dumped the snow on them in dull thuds. All this while, the Bandarpoonch range and the Swargarohini peak looked down mightily from their icy heights.

The second day’s trek will always reign at the top trek days of all time; in terms of danger, fear and intentions of giving up. The initial high spirits, thanks to a glorious morning, slowly started to give way as the path got steeper, narrower, and scarier. And the shoes got wetter. Keeping Bandarpoonch company on a crystal clear day, we conquered paths we never thought possible. Two steep ascents, and two similar descents later, we felt like we had been punched in our stomachs. My compatriots even lost some feeling in their big toes temporarily. The first few hours snatched away my initial confidence and reduced me to a quivering, hesitating, failing pulp of a Delhi girl. Sometimes I was down to knee-deep snow, and sometimes I was slipping down towards the valley.

During a lot of breaks, our guide pointed out to various points on the opposite valley, but my mind was lusting after a bonfire, and a warm sleeping bag.Though snow, rock-bottom confidence and hunger, however, we reached our second night stop, Morapara.Over the day, rain and snow clouds had built up to a looming storm. The evening was spent in quiet bonhomie as we lounged around a bonfire, drying our shoes, munching buttered popcorn and sipping hot tomato soup.But, night-time inside the tent was a living nightmare. Precipitation in all forms possible, in huge quantities, coupled with the thunderous lightening was an apocalyptic monster in our dreams.

TUESDAY
Morapara – Bebra
This was the easiest of days, and the most beautiful of trails. We walked through moist green canopies and carpets of moss and grass, stopped at bridges over pretty forest streams to click calendar shots and for the very first time met the river Assiganga (80 ganges). Legend holds that when 80 hermits were meditating around this valley, they became thirsty and they asked God for water. God obliged, and gave them 80 rivulets, which join and form the Assiganga River.

Beyond the river, lurked a steep climb, which meets the ‘trekking highway’ leading from Sangamchatti. Two more kilometres of level walk from here, a bit of a climb and we found ourselves at our lodge for the night, fully equipped with mattresses for beds and a family of three-inch sized spiders.

WEDNESDAY
Bebra – Dodital
This was the day we were to reach the lake. Tingling with the excitement of being able to rest our eyes on Dodital today, we made our eager way up the 14-km stretch. We were told that today’s trek was a predominantly level walk, only to find that the initial stretch till Manjhi (nine kms) was a gradual climb, and levelled out only after Manjhi (3150 m). The path is bright and rich, with rhododendrons, various kinds of fungi, unidentified white and purple flowers, and packs of Langurs.

The last five kms tested our patience, annoyed us, depressed us, and in a whole lot of ways, created a vacuum, which only a view of the lake could fill. It wasn’t so much about the ups and downs of the trail as its never-ending nature that was frustrating. After two dhabas at the lake, a bright green mini-bridge crosses over the stream originating from the lake. Right when you stand next to the bridge, the lake in its entirety is in front of you. On the left is the brightly painted Ganesh Mandir, which is the beginning of the path circumventing the lake.

Dodital, situated at a height of 3045 metres, is surrounded by lush forests of deodar, rhododendrons, oak and pine. It forms the centrepiece of a mountain bowl, sometimes glistening, sometimes reflecting, at one end gulping down a stream, and at the opposite end giving birth to the Assiganga.

A few Forest Department constructions dot the surrounding area, leaving a suitable flat land good for a match of cricket. Our trek to Darwa-Top (4150 m) was abandoned in favour of a rest day and more publicly due to the five-feet snow en-route. There was cricket, there was music on the radio, there were deep discussions about kheer, there was gaddha-patti (literal translation being Donkey-Cards, a local card game, we learnt on a previous trek, found to be equally popular here), and many cups of chai.

FRIDAY-SATURDAY
Dodital – Bebra – Agoda (2250 m) – Sangamchatti (1350 m) – Kuflon
The next two days are spent walking down to lower altitudes, to villages with cable equipped TV, flies, heat and cars. The return slog also throws up a surprise in the form of a chance meeting with an old acquaintance from Delhi. Who would consider the possibility of exchanging business cards on a trek?

So, yes, there were three to start off with, but how can I not mention the six other crew members who made the trek possible. Yes, we climbed to and beyond the snow line; we also went down to the river only to cross a bridge and start climbing again. Yes, the plan was to reach the three D’s but there was five feet of out-of-season snow adding to our fatigue and blocking our way to the top. We returned with the wisdom that everyone is more similar than different, simplest recipe for kheer, local music on our phones, a forest-rejected walking stick, and a greedy urge to return.

Valley of skeletons

Rohit Chaudhary — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 13:33:06 +0000

We recently completed the roopkund trek (16-25th september 2011) in Uttarakhand (India). The route we followed was: Lohajung – bigan tal – lohajung – wan – bedni – ali – baguwabasa – roopkund – paatarnachaniya – wangbhandar – kanol – sutol – setail. Following is an account of it written for Times of India – Crest Edition by Padmaparna Ghosh (a member of our trek group), link to which is here (published on November 26, 2011). The same article has been repeated here for your convenience. The article is followed by an image gallery and details of our itinerary.

The very first 200 metres of the trek to Roopkund offer a trailer of what is in store along the 100-kilometre route that meanders through scenic Himalayan alpine meadows to the legendary lake at the base of Trisul massif. If you can brave the punishing climb and treacherous weather, the trek can be rewarding. Roopkund, set at 5, 029 metres in a windswept landscape, is a desolate high-altitude lake tailor-made for eerie stories told around a campfire. Add some human skeletons dating back to the 9th or 10th century strewn along the edges of the glacial lake and you have bones to back your horror story.

The skeletons belong to a 500-strong group of pilgrims though the exact reason for their annihilation is unknown. It is believed that they were killed in a hailstorm or blizzard of epic proportions but the icy winds lashing the area preserved the remains surprisingly well. Local lore, of course, adds a more dramatic twist to the story: a king took along his pregnant wife along on the pilgrimage. To the displeasure of Goddess Nanda Devi, whose writ runs in the area, he took a troupe of dancers and musicians for entertainment. The king, it is said, had pooh-poohed the advice of wise men and saints, and decided that a party was called for. Moreover, the wife had to go on and deliver her child in the badlands, which angered the goddess no end. And that was it – the party was over.

Ours, however, was just getting started. And on a bright, chirpy morning our team of seven and three mules set off for the green rolling meadows, Bedni Bugyal (bugyal means meadow), via the little village of Wan. Wan (at 2, 450 metres) is reached via a bonecracking short road journey from Lohajung, the base for the Roopkund climb.

We scrambled to the top of the Wan Ridge. Unlike some of my fellow trekkers, I hadn’t read up anything about the trek. But even my well-read colleagues were not prepared for what we saw – a giant, upright monolith that looked impossible to scale. And to reach it, we had to go across a river. So we climbed down all the way to the river and climbed back again;negating the hundreds of metres we had toiled to climb for an hour – zero sum game.

It took us a good three hours till Bedni top with nothing much to report scenery wise, as the walk is steeply up through a forest, with no peak views. Near the end, I was pretending to stop to take photos but actually catching my breath to avoid any cracks about my climbing skills.

The weather was also the harbinger for the rest of the journey. Clouds and dense fog took away our aha! moment as we left the tree line and meandered to the gorgeous pasturelands. We only got a sense of the wide, empty, green spaces when the fog lifted briefly. We had to wait till the following dawn for a 360 degree view of Bedni, which has the monstrous Trisul peak behind it and the Chaukhamba, Nanda Ghunti and Haathi-Ghoda peaks on the side. Bedni and Ali Bugyal make up the stretch of the prized alpine pastures of the Garhwal region to which shepherds and goatherds flock every summer. But our picnic on the meadows had to move on.

The subsequent hurdles didn’t inspire confidence. Sinister stops with names like Ghoda Lathaniya, Paathar Nachaniya and Kalu Vinayak dotted the path to our next campsite, Bhugwa Basa. Cloudy weather kept its date and we climbed the much-feared ascent to the Kalu Vinayak pass, which holds a tiny temple of Ganesha. Vikram Singh, a part of our support staff, was convinced that the bad weather was punishment for not praying to the elements at the start of the trek. But we did pray as we negotiated the semi-treacherous, slippery, wobbly rocks to Bhugwa Basa, where all hell and hail broke loose. We managed to pitch our tents on a slippery slope as the clouds moved in for the night and pulled in the curtains on the peaks. The mules, smart beings, tried to make a run for Wan in the night but were stymied by a roadblock set up by Laxman, their owner.

A sleepless night in sub-zero temperature later, we started on the last ascent, or so we thought, to the lake. We had not anticipated the overnight frost on every rock, which would have made a great silent comedy if it weren’t so painful. But notwithstanding the mild altitude sickness, freezing winds, and a slippery path, we forged ahead, very slowly.

We had targeted two hours for the five-km ascent and proudly made it in two hours and five minutes. Truth be told, the lake itself is a bit of a letdown but the tale of the skeletons is true – we had to be careful hat we didn’t step on anything. We weren’t particularly religious, but we didn’t want to offend any spirits by stepping on an ancient femur.

From Roopkund, one can also hike up to the Jura Gali, a short ascent, for a full view of the massive Trisul Peak from its base. The trek can also be extended to the other side over the pass, via Shila Samudra to Homkund and down. Mules, however, cannot make this journey and porters will need to be employed.

We were lucky. We got our half an hour of sun at the lake while a small group right behind us missed out on the view. The weather from Kalu Vinayak to Bhugwa Basa is unkind and unpredictable, giving the landscape its otherworldly, inhospitable look but also making it exceedingly difficult for hikers to decide when to go.

On the way down to Paathar Nachaniya, we had to race back in the face of a hailstorm. And suddenly, the jokes we made about divine interventions and punishments were not so funny anymore. Paathar Nachaniya is a tricky spot to camp as water sources dry and spring up randomly here. Nonetheless, the position of the campsite is spectacular, with views of both the valley below and the peaks above.

Trekkers usually head back down the same way, via Wan. We chose a different route via villages Kanol and Suthol, extending the trek by a day. The hike from Paathar Nachaniya to Kanol though is fairly long, at approximately 18 km, with steep ascents and descents and a seemingly interminable last leg through a forest. But the village has one of the prettiest forest resthouses I have ever seen. Ringed with a small garden with blooming flowers, it is the perfect place to pass out at the end of the day. The next village, Sutol, is a disappointment though the forest between Kanol and Sutol is one of Garhwal’s finest with towering, decades-old pine and oak trees and wildflowers in full bloom. This is especially so in September, post-monsoon. The undergrowth contrasts beautifully with the stunning magenta and scarlet harvest colours of the cholai crop in the villages.

Sutol is disappointing but we did get a flat bed and a concrete loo. Though comforting, these are also signs of approaching urban life – cellphone signal, tap water, paved sidewalks and, even Facebook. If you can imagine life without these for 10 days, then the Roopkund trek has all the trappings of an adventure – storms, cliffs, stellar peaks and a creepy lake.

18 September: Lohajung (8.00 am) – Bigan tal (11.30 am) – Break (70 mins.) – Lohajung (2.40 pm)
19 September: Drive to Wan (45 mins.). Wan (8.30 am) – Gheroli Patal FRH (1.00 pm) – Lunch (45 mins.) – Bedni Kund (3.00 pm)
20 September: Bedni Kund to Ali Bugyal and back (4 hours)
21 September: Bedni Kund (8.00 am) – Ghodalauthaniya (10.00 am) – Paatarnachaniya (10.45 am) – Break (15 mins.) – Keluvinayak (1.00 pm) – Lunch (15 mins.) – Baguwabasa (2.00 pm)
22 September: Baguwabasa (7.30 am) – Roopkund (9.30 am) – Break (45 mins.) – Roopkund (11.30 am) – Campsite pack-up (45 mins.) – Paatarnachaniya meadows campsite (2.00 pm)
23 September: Paatarnachaniya (8.30 am) – Kunol (4.00 pm) – through Wangbhandar and Memphada: hell of a long day!
24 September: Kunol (10.30 am) – Sutol (2.00 pm)
25 September: Sutol – Setail (everyone was depressed to be going back and so no one took note of time, but must have taken 2 hours)

Spiti left bank trek

Rohit Chaudhary — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:03:15 +0000

Difficulty level: easy to moderate

Number of days: 6

Route: Poh(3280 mts.) to Kaza via Dhankar (3640 mts.), Lhalung (3620 mts.), Demul (4234 mts.), Komik (4275 mts.), Langza (4224 mts.).

Reaching the base of the trek: the best option would be to start the trek from Poh, though it can be done the other way round also. Take NH 22 from Shimla to Reckong Peo. Reckong Peo can be the night halt on this route. From there take the SH to Tabo via Yangthang, Nako, Chango, Sumdo and Hoorling. From Tabo, Poh is another 8 kms towards Kaza.

Day 1- Poh to Dhankar (Oct 8, 2008): Poh was the starting point of our trek (barely half an hour’s drive from Tabo). After spending enough precious time salivating in front of the PWD guest house in Poh for its location and scenic beauty, we began our long walk through Spiti with our 3 local friends (guide, donkey and donkey-man). After walking along the road for a good hour, covering Poh maidan, the climb tilted towards the right along a small bus stop. The ascent took us to Gamchamik (a 2 house hamlet) and further onto Londupdin. We took some time off at this midpoint on the day’s walk, and pampered ourselves with a short nap after lunch and tea. Things were going quite leisurely until we reached Nipti nallah after 30 minutes of walking. The route down into the nullah (ravine) and climb thereafter, were shown to us for a couple of times by the guide but in vain! We couldn’t see any route! With help from the guide we got out of it unscathed though, only to be warned of another more dangerous nullah ahead. And after crossing Paldang meadow, Nurpur village (1 house village), Checham (dry lake), there it was; Kharok nullah. It took some time for the guide to make the route at least crossable. And once we crossed it, there weren’t any more surprises for the day. After passing a Khorumchmik (sweet spring), we were onto the link road to Dhankar monastery (1.5 km to the monastery guest house).

Trekking time for the day: 8 hours

Day 2- Dhankar to Lhalung (Oct 9, 2008): The day began early, not because we had to leave early but for the simple reason that we had no more sleep left in us, considering that in Spiti people go to sleep no later than 10 in the night. So we had ample time to get ready, even more to get done with the breakfast, before setting off on foot at 9.30 am. The day’s trek was supposed to be a leisurely one, welcomed by everyone after a hectic first day’s walk. So we spent a good hour visiting the world famous Dhankar monastery and exploring the old village atop the monastery. Dhankar used to be the capital of the kingdom of Spiti at one point in time, fittingly enough, as its location commands a splendid view of the wide expanse of the valley below. A small part of the old fort is still in place, especially the part where the sentry used to sit to communicate or look out for any message from other posts through the fire torch. The trek, to begin with, was mostly along the Dhankar-Lhalung link road. Though the link road is also an option, the shorter route, a small trail diverting after half an hour’s walk on the road towards right, reaches Lhalung much faster. An hour’s climb on the trail, not a painful one by any means, leads to Chok Chokla, mid-point between Dhankar and Lhalung, where the locals take a break on their trip towards Lhalung. There’s a small pasture land near Chok Chokla called Tharpoley (with 2 uninhabited houses). The last leg of the trek route again falls back on the link road, which lasts for about an hour. This stretch is pretty exciting compared to the much banal initial part. There’s a spring, Chhubu, on the way. The icy cold water was quite refreshing in contrast to the soaring temperatures during the day in lower parts of the valleys across Spiti. Just ahead of the Chhubu spring, the village of Demul (next day night stop), could be seen perched on the top of the mountain across the Lingti valley on the left. It seemed quite improbable that anything, forget about people, could reach that place through what our guide suggested was the route next day! The guide was quick enough to divert our gaze, from the route to Demul (rather than Demul itself), to the Rama village down the valley on the banks of the Lingti river. It wasn’t much of a walk from there before the village of Lhalung was in view.

While in Lhalung, a visit to the monastery is a must. Golden temple, or Sarkhang monastery, overlooking the entire village is considered quite old. It’s said that Losarvar Rinpoche ordered of the construction of 108 monasteries, spread across the world, in a single day. Sarkhang monastery is one of them.

Trekking time for the day: 3 hours

Day 3- Lhalung to Demul (Oct 10, 2008): This day was going to be tough. Our struggle began at 9.20 after a relatively heavy breakfast of aloo paranthas. After almost 90 minutes of level walking, crossing 2 bridges and a 2-3 houses’ village Sanglung, we were there to face it: a steep incline, at places even at 60 degrees disappearing into the sky. The ascent seemed to continue forever. Breaks of a couple of minutes were taken after climbs of equal duration! Even the best of trekking shoes, failed to dispel ominous thoughts of a tiny slip and a disastrous fall into the valley below. We had lunch, hard to remember when. And the walk continued without any respite from the incline. Finally, on spotting a stupa, we thought that was it. Though the stupa marked an entry point into the village, it was more of hardship as reaching our homestay took us another good 20-30 minutes of slogging through the curves and narrow lanes of the village.

Demul is an amazing place to spend an extra day at. Wish we had known this previously. Its amazing location makes it the place of captivating views. Manerang and Kamelang peaks above Lhalung, lesser known peaks above the ridge emerging from Chau Chau Kang Nelda towards the east, and a sea of green rolling pastures above Demul make this an idyll place to lose yourself.

Trekking time for the day: 5 hours

Day 4- Demul to Komik (Oct 11, 2008): The trek began with a visit to the Demul monastery. It’s a relatively newly built one, considering that this village in itself came into existence recently. The village was supposedly shifted from its earlier location, further into the Lingti valley, to the present one due to better land quality here. The guide brought to our notice that the monastery here has paintings of Buddha’s life from birth till death on its walls, which are said to be unique to this monastery. So the trek began around 9.40 and was supposed to be continuously uphill through the meadows of Demul for an hour and half. It took us good two hours to reach the top while battling headache due to high altitude all the way. The top point, Yanglapche, at an altitude of roughly 4600 metres was the highest point on our trek route according to our guide. It’s from here that Chau Chau Kang Nelda is clearly visible. The walk downhill took some more concentrated efforts as the entire walk down the ridge was full of snow and hence, slippery. After this, the path was a good mix of level walk, ascent and descent, with nothing of too much or too less. Finally the route intersected the link road from Demul to Komik. The stretch thereafter is particularly very pretty as the road runs above the Chame pasture land on the left. It is especially considered a safe haven for Bharal or blue sheep. And we did come across a heard of around 12-15 of these pretty animals grazing. Once we crossed the semi circular stretch of the link road covering Chame meadow, the road curves towards right into another valley presenting the first views of the Tanguid monastery (4380 mts.), above the village of Komik. And so began a tussle to reach the village over ‘small humps’ of landmass, seemingly small from a distance but grossly underestimated. After an increasingly irritating “ups and downs” session over these “humps” we finally made it to the fields outside the village and the view of the highest inhabited village in the world was an incredible sight.

Trekking time for the day: 6 hours

Day 5- Komik to Langza (Oct 12, 2008): We had the easiest of days ahead for us. And so the day began with a visit to the Tanguid monastery. Women are not allowed in the prayer room of the old building, though the new one is open to all. New monastery complexes in Spiti stand quite different from the old counterparts. The prayer rooms are huge, huge enough to hold at the least 5o people as opposed to old ones which can accommodate barely a dozen monks, apart from being dark, and a bit claustrophobic for some. So we started on the link road to Langza around 10.30. Most of the walk was on the link road only with slight diversions here and there to cut short the distance further. It took us only 2.5 hours to reach Langza! Langza is a very pretty village. Not as big as Demul in terms of population (we could notice only 8-10 houses) but far prettier in its setting, so much so that it reminded us of Ladakh instantly. We had a good free time at our disposal which was spent splendidly by basking under the sun on the roof of our homestay. Later in the day we paid visit to the stupa here and a newly built Budhha statue (around 40-50 feet high). The location of the Budhha, overlooking the valley at Kaza below and the ranges on the opposite side of the river Spiti, made for a fabulous photography subject and kept us busy for a fairly long time.

Trekking time for the day: 2.5 hours

Day 6- Langza to Kaza (Oct 13, 2008): The route was simple, following the road downwards to Kaza, mostly metalled and unlike the link roads. Nonetheless it was pretty owing to the wide Spiti valley below and the Spiti river itself. The river, broken into a number of parts, meandering through the flat river bed added a magical touch to the route. Just to be more adventurous, we took a small trail off the road, which cuts straight across the mountain, down to Kaza, instead of the road which takes an unlimited number of hair pin bends. The route was unexpectedly treacherous, just like the Nipti nullah on the first day, according to the guide. The week before we arrived in Spiti, this region had witnessed one of worst climactic conditions in last few years. Access roads were closed, very unlikely in summers, for a complete fortnight. Broken and run down routes were all due to this phenomenon. We continued on the path, whatever there was of it, and avoided looking down, thanks to the sheer drop into the valley. When even the donkey refused to budge from one of his positions on “where is the foothold space”, we knew how risky it was. But we had 2 of the best people in this business to help us out. In the end, it was an experience that none of us can forget for a long time to come.

Trekking time for the day: 2.25 hours

To know about warm and welcoming homestays in Spiti, which is the best way to see the valley, follow this link for a story by padmaparna ghosh, who was a part of our trekking team.