Chandrakhani Pass to Malana IV - Day 2 the sun shone

It was 16th of July next day, we woke up around 6 AM. I felt refreshed and could not hear the rain. I knew this will be a great day to trek.

We were still in our bags for another half an hour when one of our porters came up to wake us. After our morning routine we realised the sun was shining and we left our clothes to dry in sun.

 We had a great breakfast of bread and omelette with some tea and started to pack our bags. My porter was there. We were given boiled eggs and chocolate for the day ahead.

We had not been able to take pictures the day before so Happy spent some time clicking.

My Porter with his nephew

 We met some local children and gave them some chocolate and they posed for some pics for us.

Local kids

 With our gear packed and mine being carried by a porter we started off again. An experience like this humbles a man. We learn how week a luxurious and sedentary life makes us. I run for thirty minutes every day and it became hard for me to climb on day one with my pack and even on day two when I did not have a pack I was still lagging. I will change my fitness regime to be a better hiker.

Me trying to soldier the next day

Happy and Gaurav

 People ask hikers why do you hike; its difficult to explain in blogs and pictures you have to go there  and see it for yourself.

The View

The View continues

We continued our ascent on day two and I was promised the campsite was just beyond the tree line; the tree line was far away.

Me climbing

 We kept trekking and I was the last on the group. I did get some consolation that I was able to complete it and this was not an easy trek.

The Campsite is just beyond the tree line

Me posing for a pic

The mountain and me

The mountain range

Happy "The Pro"

The deceptive tree line

 I think we got to the camp site around 4 PM and the temperate dropped soon we had tea followed by soup and some snacks.

The view from the campsite

Happy relaxing on the campsite

View from campsite

It got chilly

 I was on a course of dimox however we thought it would be prudent to do an acclimatisation climb.

Climb high sleep low

 Happy saw that some prayer flags had come loose so we climbed up some 500m and fixed them. It was also a good thing for me as I learnt how to decent which was needed starting next day.

The prayer flags we fixed 

We met an unofficial guide who stayed with us till the end of trek she kept running back and forth ensuring no one was left behind.

Our unofficial gude - she stayed with us till end of trek 

In the evening we saw some local women caring some herbs which they were kind enough to show us.

some local herbs

As it grew dark our guide Budhi pointed us to Manali and we took some pictures of the town in night.

Manali at night 

Today was a good day for hiking; I had climbed on my pace and I felt great. Next day was a new set of adventures as we would go over the pass and decent to Malana but for now sweet dreams....