Brahmtal, Part 2

Not sure how many of my readers live near nature, our city lives have made us impervious to the smells of nature and mountains and cleanliness of villages seem strange.

Today however was not going to be one of those days, it was the day before we would start trek and that means an eleven hour ride on dusty, smoky dirty road.

I usually prefer a smaller jeep as compared to a bus. We landed around a time early enough that I do not care admit and the five of us wondered aimlessly on the railway station.

At some point of time it was admitted that our true goal was to start a trek and finding our transport would be an invaluable step towards achieving it. As a titter of chill ran through our spines we exited the railway station multiple times in colorful fashion until it was again realized that calling our transport coordinator though obvious, but a helpful step would align us in the general direction of our cabs.

Finally we rounded up our people and as luck would have it five of us got into a Jeep as we proverbially marched towards our destination Lohagunj. I would like our readers to know more about this however I am afraid details of such journeys if published would have an impact on to the future of adventure sports in India and I would conclude by saying we reached our base camp in one piece.

As we reached our base camp we met our trek lead Arvind and went for a rather invasive medical test which would from thereon continue everyday on trek and haunt us for remainder of our lives, I think Aakash also got some exams that are best left for imagination.

There were scores of sessions, describing how mountain etiquette like laughing and breathing on a trek. We went though a number of skills like ranger roll and finally when confidence was high gear like crampons were issued to the team.

Towards Bekaltal.... I Think!

Next morning started at Indian Stretchable time around 8ish. We did our morning chores and breakfast. We went through a round of odd warmup and immediately started towards Bekaltal.

We were led by Hira Bhai our front runner and guide. 

I had my doubts about the trek, I was surrounded by people in twenty something and here I was in late thirty's; I was scared would I be able to manage the pace? What about my knee, all this was haunting me.

I had convinced myself I would be the slowest on the trek which led me to put an extra effort.

It was day 0, we all didn't know each other that well so the trek was mostly silent for me and I had to run up the hill, to prove to myself I had it in me.

It was day 0 of the trek so there were obvious kinks and then some not so obvious kinks, we were carrying our lunch for trek and the water was plentiful during the trek. 

The group rather slow was still making progress under given time limits. I say as a group we were slow with rather caution, I do not know if I was faster due to my fears or was the group slower? Was I missing sights in my haste?

Most of our trek was an uphill battle, which is not an issue for me, I prefer climbing up to coming down.

After couple of hours of walking we were in a relatively flat area which felt good. We took a number of picture there and as people went past me some struggling others tired.

Treks have a habit of changing people, for good! During the trek I realized I should help anyone in need.

We reached our camp under the time limit where we had snacks and I had a splitting headache as I in my infinite wisdom had not brought my sun hat.

 Later in the day we went for an acclamation walk to Bekaltal, where I helped people on snow, I guess I can cross off, helping people from my list.

The remainder of the evening was uneventful and the pictures I share are much more interesting.

These pics are in no particular order, just some memories from our first day of walking