KedarkunthaTrek Part1-by Aashish Chawla

Part One of Kedarkuntha Trek

21st Dec,2011, Time:5.30a.m.


 It is 5.30 am in the morning and I am wide awake, despite my sleeping very late last night. I could feel the pitch of excitement, Yes the feeling of utter estacy that I shall be venturing to the mighty and beautiful himalayas.

Beautiful Himalayan range

Few months back even in my wildest dreams I would have not imagined that one day I would be on my way to do the Himalayan trek."Sach me pucho toh apni itni aukat hi nahi thi " A lazy slob like me who nurtured himself on regular diet of junk food and TV set to keep company it was indeed a giant leap. So kedarkuntha here I come.....

Kedarkuntha Here I come !!!!

As planned I took the train to New Delhi and from there we were to catch the late night train to Dehradun. As most of us were on this train we gathered at Delhi station , Had a quick intro which most of us never remembered and split into groups to catch their individual compartment.


Dehradun Station:

Winter morning at Dehradun station

Someone jolted me out of my deep slumber to make me realise that Dehradun station has arrived. I  quickly picked up my things and made a dash to the SBI ATM centre where we were all suppose to meet......



But what is this ... a sudden shock of chill hit me...."arre yaar idhar kya baraf gir raha hai kya...so cold... I thought " Maar gaya " "wrong decision to come for trekking in winter." I was literally kicking myself at this stage... Something was ringing in my mind...
" logo ne bahut samjhaya par mai samaj na paya..." anyway I moved ahead " akhir me kya mu lekar jata...ki Dehradun station se hi bhaag aaya" ( You can get me to trek anywhere but cold weather is something I really dread like hell)

Our team waiting at the SBI ATM 

Anyway I somehow pushed myself( against my will ) to the ATM centre where everyone were waiting like lost cows koi idhar dekh raha toh koi udhar...As they say Safar  me suffer na kiya toh kya maja kiya.We got our first shock when we found there was no bus for Sankri  I could literally see the thought bubble on each head..


"local co-ordinator kidar hai" " bus kidhar hai" but friends "kabhi kabhi asi confusion bi bahut aachi hoti hai..."because strangers become friends...simple..both are facing Common problem and suddenly this splinter group evolved into a common unit with a common cause... to find the bus....

we are just like lost cows!!!

Certain team member frantically started calling the organisers and in the amidst of all this commotion certain wheels began to move and loo!!! there we saw the mini bus all ready to take us to Sankri.


As it always happens in local trek same thing happen here also "Koi na koi late ho hi jata hai" kabhi trekker toh kadhi usko lekar jane wali ghadi. In the ,meanwhile someone had a bright idea that we should have our breakfast so dumping our bags in the bus dicky we all fled to the nearby royal hotel and had a royal breakfast (which royally screwed up my bus journey )
just like the north Indian people the north india food is also very inviting. I could still feel the fragrance of the steaming hot Aloo Parathas with Volumptous  butter floating on it. we were told that the lunch could be late so Chaitanaya, Amit,Sapna and me stuffed ourself with parathas,butter,Curd. We literally hogged and with no more space till the neck we reluctantly moved away for these inviting delicacies.

Ice breaker impromptu photo session

The excitement was building up , everyone was in good spirit cracking jokes, calling out to each other  and breaking into a impromptu photo session at royal hotel itself. This is a small way of breaking the ice. I always love to make friends and what better way then to have few clicks together.


we finished our prolong breakfast and the bus contractor was pulling his hair shouting at us to move fast as we will be late for sankri our base village.."lekin saab masti me...sunta koon hai..."Poor fella has to literally pull us out from there.


we all boarded the bus and we were informed that 2 sumos with other members of our team  will be following our bus as the bus do not have sufficient seats. Meanwhile 2 Bangalore ladies Radhika and Deepa joined us enroute but as our bus was full they opted for the best seat ...yes the seat next to the driver...a full 70mm full screen sight....believe me they enjoyed it immensely..."trekker of future aap log try kar sakte ho..you too will be loving it"

Bus journey From Dehradun to Sankri

Atlast the time to move on has come and our bus started to move gently through the bazaars of Dehradun  and on the way to Sankri.
the route was Dehradun to Mussorie-Damta Village-Naugaon-Purola-Mori-naitwar-Sankri.


As it was quite cold so most of the members had kept the windows closed aur agar koi photo lene ki liye window open karta toh bechare per sab log tut padte....Window Band karo. many a time I was the victim as I was trying to capture the beautiful scenery which was whizzing past my eyes.

Whirlwind roads

On the way to Sankri .....Tranquil yamuna river

On the way to Sankri .....Tranquil yamuna river

On the way to Sankri .....Tranquil yamuna river

On the way to Sankri .....Tranquil yamuna river

On the way to Sankri .....Tranquil yamuna river

 whirlwind road with dusty mountains ,iron bridges, beautiful yamuna river to give company through out it was indeed an enchanting journey. 

On the way to Sankri .....Dusty mountain roads

On the way to Sankri .....Dusty mountain roads

On the way to Sankri ....iron bridges

Very rarely does it happens that what you see matches with the travel photos given to you but in this case what we saw en route to Sankri superseded whatever was given to us in information booklet.
 By the time we reached Sankri it was already late evening and whole of the Sankri was enveloped in darkness.


Our bus stopped in front of the GVN guest house where we were greeted with steaming hot Tea and biscuits by our organisers Arjun and Sandya. In the dim low voltage light of the guest house the brave group of trekkers landed ready to crash into the inviting beds.


Tomorrow will be another day with another story.......


Friends I am taking a break here...akhir me kal ke trek ke liye tayari karni hi....

Our Team for Kedarkuntha Trek

Dhak Baheri Trek by Aashish Chawla

 
Friends very often it happens that we are waiting for a release of a big film and we are very excited about the same..brimming with  high level of expectations but generally after we see the film most of the time the expectations exceeds the actual things and we are left feeling high and dry full of disappointment. However in case of Dhak Baheri Trek I want to confess that this trek superseded all my lofty expectations. I got more than what I could have dreamt of.

To cut the long story short Dhak Baheri Trek was perhaps the best Trek that I did till now.


It was the most Frightening,Daring,Adventurous, Dangerous and Endurance testing trek done by me !!!! 


27th Nov,2011. Morning 3.00am

My medicines !!!!

The alarm clock was screaming at the top of my brain and my body was aching due to the viral flu that I was suffering from.I had to make a choice either I stay in bed, take my medicine and enjoy Sunday afternoon nap  

OR 

Call of Wilderness

 on the other hand listen to the call of wilderness which was pulling me towards itself.....that eternal thirst of nature which simply doesn't seems to get quenched and leave me standing on the brink of indecision. But as usual the heart wins and I end up slinging my bag over my shoulder, popped a pill of crocin and multivitamin and off was I on my way to Dadar Station to catch Indrayani Express to Lonavala....

Dhak Baheri Trek here I come ...!!! 

Nikhil..My buddy

Standing at Dadar station waiting for Indrayani Express I was getting worried that my friend Nikhil who was suppose to join me hasn't yet turned up. Nikhil to me is someone like Dr Watson was to Sherlock Holmes.Always a good friend to have with you.I called up Nikhil to enquire as to where have he reached he replied "buddy I am on my way,train me hoon bandra cross kar raha hoon" I checked the time it was 5.35am. few minutes passed I again checked time it was 

5.42a.m "Nikhil Kider !!!" Nikhil replied "Chill Matunga cross kar raha hoon will be soon in dadar" 


5.45am : Called Nikhil again "where" Nikhil replied "tension maat le I have reached Dadar ,stairs chad raha  hoon...


5.52am The train arrives  I shouted in the phone "Nikhil Gadi aa gayi hai..." he replied "arre central side aa gaya hoon 


5.53 I was in the train and the trains moved I panicked !! I knew my dear friend has missed the train...and as they say in invitation ...missed the trek too.!!!!  


5.55 am. Dejectedly I called nikhil "abbe saale late ho gaya na... kya tere liye chain pulling karu train rokne ke liye' nikhil replied "dude I made it ..train to pakad li...lekin reserved compartment me hoon...thane me change karke ke tere paas aata hoon." 


So the script was written in a thrilling way for this thrilling trek!!!!

Lonawala Station

Lonawala Station
Our train Indrayani express reached Lonawala at 8.00am and from here we were to catch local train to Kamshet. We hopped from one platform to another to catch the local.

Tea and Batata wada in pune local

Pune local was quite empty still Nikhil and I preferred the foot board we had good steaming hot tea with equally hot batata wadas.

View of Kamshet Station

 Kamshet station
Kamshet station is hardly 2 stops away from Lonawala.It is a small station with a beautiful river flowing along the station on western side. We all started walking on the eastern side of the station to catch the ST bus. The ST bus stop was hardly 5 minutes walkable distance from the station. We all boarded 9.00am ST bus to Jambivali .

Village ST bus...note the smashed wind shield

ST bus Journey from Khamset to Jambivali Village
Our ST bus  just like most village ST bus was old rickety and creaky with a icing on the cake by the way of broken wind shield . The journey was full of bumpy ride but made enjoyable by beautiful mountain ranges on the both side of the road , goan ka phan ghat , an occasional glimpses of a dam and a river the name of which I could not gather. We reached Jambivali  in 1 hour time.

Beautiful view along the route to Jambivali Village

goan ka phan ghat

enchanting views on the way to Jambivali

 Jambivali Village:
We reached Jambivali Village at 10 am. We had introduction and instruction round. I must add here that I was very happy to be among the company of very experienced trekker. V Rangers were the organiser Ananda, Sudhir , Sandeep had done this trek several times earlier so mentally I was assured that I am in safe hands.

Gang is all set for the Trek

The Treks Starts:

Trek is on !!!

mesmerizing views on the way

mesmerizing views on the way

mesmerizing views on the way

 10.15 am our trek started . Initially it was a gradual walk for about an hour through the fields and shrubs then slowly we were in incline gear walking on the rocky patches the scenery along the trek route was something straight out of story book such mesmerising peaks, lovely breeze, enchanting valley below.

Add caption

 
.some superb rocky peaks you name it and it was there. At times Ananda has to literally pull us away because we were all busy capturing nature on our lenses.I pleaded to Ananda "Kya kare dost yeh nazare itne zabardaast hai ki yeh dil mange more..."

Rocky portion

We kept walking for more than 1.45 minutes through the canopy of trees that even during the day time you get the feeling that it is evening,jungle patch,descent,ascent,rocky boulders cow shit and many other unexplored shit we came across all possible things enroute.


We moved ahead till we came to a point where we saw two mountains kind of over lapping each other making a  crevice. We stopped there was a moment to catch our breath. 

V shaped way between two mountains and most of us were getting down in a sitting position

Ananda then instructed us that we will now have to walk through this crevice to the bottom on the other side. we all slowly moved forward from this point the wind that was blowing was very wild as if it wanted to blow us away but somehow sitting down and moving cautious we made our descent here as standing option was not possible due to this windy situation. 

making our way cautiously

This whole section was nothing but a kind of V and through this V we could see the sky and the valley on the other side. We made our descent for about 30 to 40 feets   total rocky patch  and when I reached the bottom of the patch  what I saw almost made me make the statement oh! what the F... 

the deep valley below

Below the last section there was hardly any ground underneath and you get to view something  like the above picture  and on the right hand side there was this mammoth rocky mountain  and in the distance I could see  small figures of trekkers making a literally 90 degree climb...my heart came into my mouth "boss meri toh puri tarah fhat gayi !!! Kon Kambakt bolta hai ki darr ke aage jeet hai...abhi to aisa lag raha tha ki dar ke aage bada darr hai !!! Ek time toh socha yaar ghar walo ne trek karne ke liye beja hai na ki suicide karne ke liye !!!  My God kya karoo !!! Aaj toh bara ke bav gaya Aashish tu....

narrow passage on the right side

But Yeh  Saala Dil  bahut shaitan hai...Fhasa deta hai, Marva deta hai... Bola abbe Fattu aaghe baad ...Tujhe maloom tha tu kahaan per trek karne ja raha hai.(This heart is incorrigible as it always gets you in a troubled spot...makes you inch forward saying you knew what you were getting into)

Once the mind was made up then nothing could stop me now ....even though I was feeling feverish i said move buddy and like a seasonal trekker I jumped into the fray. how could I deny myself the lifetime experience of walking on the edge of the

Slip from here and you are a past tense

mountain...with a perquisite of a slip here and you are nowhere.

Slip from here and you are a past tense

Slowly we all started moving along the edge of the cliff it was just 2 feet wide path which moving forward ends at the extreme rocky patch the highlight of this trek a horizontal move of of around 80feets with a space to hardly keep your foot in the grove on rock.one could keep one feet at a time and trekkers have to move in single file. one has to be very careful because a slip can prove to be a very costly slip. one can lose his life too !!!! I could see people with feet trembling as they were moving along the cracks of rock. however my mind was made .."Ab chahe sar foote ya matta tum toh bindass rahege....Dil par hhaat rakha aur zoor se bhola All izz well!!!"

Kon bola darr ke aage jeet hai

after covering a horizontal stretch next comes vertical climb of nearly 90degree someone behind me shouted aloud "saala ek musibat jaati nahi ki doosri sar par khadi hai" I wanted to tell him very much "Beta is ke aage aur badi musibat khadi hai tyar hoja" because just you complete this vertical climb then you see a long rope hanging in front of you and one must be ready for circus like activity, 

Circus rope trick

"ek hath rassi se pakado,paer baju me tree ka branch hai usme rakho aur left hand se same branch ka help lekar upar aa ja ooo.... Paas khade bunder bi hum par huns rahe the ki yeh log hamari harkate kyo kar rahe hai....( hold rope with right hand,put your feet on the tree branch,hold the upper branch with left hand and pull yourself up...seeing this the  monkeys too were laughing  on wondering why we are aping the ape...) 

Bander bi hamare maje le raha tha!!!

 I very much wanted to do this rock patch without the rope but sudhir scolded me from the top. Must be thinking over-smart ban raha hai but the problem was that I don't get the chance to do this dare devil act everyday( upar se me local train me travel bi nahi karta...toh koi chance hi nahi ) aur us ke upar se 127 hours  movie dekh kar aaya tha...fulltoo inspired tha......


Anyway after completing all this acrobatics We reached the top. It was a cave dived into two major section. First part had 2 water tank.How I wish my dear trekker understand that we all drink from this tank so they must try to keep it clean. I was very disappointed to see cooking utensils lying at the bottom.There was also a small make shift temple.  second part of the caves had small sub section . View from here is breathtaking...

Breath taking View from the top

 We all had lunch in the caves few of our friends decided to catch up with a nap at the top,with a break of over I/2 hour we were all ready for the descent. Same rocky patch same 90 degree all over again Sab ki aachi fati....photo me pose dene ko bi dar lag raha tha...so bola bhai camera rakho jaisa bi latka honga photo nikal lena...aage bhagwan malik... one look down in the valley aur apke hosh gul man !!!! somehow we crossed the whole section again  for me it was was double bonanza daring act plus style mar mar ke photo lene ki opportunity..(andar se kya halat thi woh mere ko hi maloom tha...)

andar se Darr lag raha ha phir bi pose mar raha hoon

The daring and the thrilling part behind us we moved forward for the final descent towards wadhap village. From here onward it was the turn of endurance part...Chal chal ke waat lag gayi descending to wadhap village was no easy task. You will ask why ? well the reason is that there was no proper defined route lots of thickets all around, diverse footfall trails in other words plenty of options by which you can lose your way and get stranded ek point per apne sath bi aisa hi hua...rahul aage gana sunte sunte jungle me ghus gaya and we were subsequently told that we are on lost path.Worst thing was that the sun was setting on the horizon and if if dont get out fast then we will also have to negotiate darkness Dil toh chila chila kar bol raha tha Bhaag bhaag DK bose agar time par pahuncha hai to.... 

returning to base is always a task

Chal chal ke waat lag gayi!!!!

Somehow we all bravely negotiated the steep slopes, wayward route and over looming darkness to come to Wadhap village as a victorious lot.

looming darkness

I want to thank Ananda, Sudhir and Sandeep from Vranger for managing this trek so well. 

Thanks to all my co trekker ..Aashish Chawla