TRAVEL DIARIES

What a great start to 2018! A snow trek at 12,500 ft to The Terrific Kedarkantha that left me awestruck.

Have you ever dreamt of stealing away to The Himalayas and Trekking the long , mystical trails above tree lines? What do you do if someone offers you 6 days of pure bliss , pleasure and ecstasy? You take it, without questions, without second thoughts, without doubts. Trek The Himalayas(TTH) an amazing trek group gave me this chance, and that’s just what I did. I took the chance to experience the most beautiful Himalayas, the charming moonlit trees, the amazing way to test my endurance. It could be any place for anyone to find a little more of yourself. For me, it was Kedarkantha, Uttarkashi. It was a 4-day trek from Sankri to Kedarkantha Peak that showed me a million different ways to life , and a thousand more reasons to go back to the Himalayas soon.

DAY 1- DEHRADUN — SANKRI

The drive from Dehradun to Sankri goes through Mussoorrie, I don’t think I need to explain how beautiful it would have been. Just as we tried to deal with Mussoorie’s mesmerizing beauty , we realized that the route after that towards Sankri was even more beautiful and stunning. The hypnotic pine trees filtering the sunshine for us , and the nice cool breeze passing by made it the most marvelous route we ever travelled on. We covered cute little beautiful villages with smiling people all the way in Nowgaon, Purola, Mori and Naitwar and finally Sankri! We were 26 in all. And we had chosen to stay at Wild Orchid Inn in the villages of Sankri.

DAY 2- SANKRI (6450ft) — JUDA KA TALAB (9150ft)

A beautiful village surrounded by the mighty Himalayas, where we started the first day of our trek at around 7:30, early in the morning. It was chilly , really chilly ,  so we obviously took our baths last night itself. The beginning was marked wonderfully with black tea and a yummy breakfast, bright sunshine and even brighter smiles. All the 26 of us removed their woollens one by one in the first 10 minutes given the nice ‘warm up’ . It was a 4km trek, within 4-5 hours we were all at the first campsite Juda ka Talab, which was 9150 ft , with our tents lined up, and snow visible at the back . The lake was chilling , but beautiful to look at and was already half frozen. We had dinner at 7:30 and had organized a campfire later that night. Where all of us came together and played Antaakshari. I remember I and Ajinkya didn’t sleep all night and gazed the night sky and the beautiful stars shining all the way. We got to see so many shooting stars while laying on the ground. The temperature had dropped down to -3 degree celcius! Oh! What a view that was. Big, furry dogs were barking all the night near our tents. They were always walking besides us to every base camp.

DAY 3- JUDA KA TALAB (9150ft) — KK BASE CAMP(11250ft)

After an amazing round of snacks, soup, dinner and night stay and lot of rest( not for me and Ajinkya) we left for our next campsite in the morning , the KK Base Camp. The trek began with greenery ,lot of it, and as we advanced, we were amazed to see snow again. We reached the campsite , with an altitude gain of around over 2100ft in 3 hours . We spent a beautiful noon , snack filled evening and a starry night at the KK Base Camp, and were woken by the team at 3! Yes 3 in the night , as I ( clearly not a morning person) call it. It was remarkable how we got ourselves ready with crampons and gaiters and everything woollen we had in our bags. I remember having 5 layers over me! And we headed with our torches and trek poles in the night. I still had dozy eyes!

DAY 4- KK BASE CAMP (11250ft) — KK SUMMIT (12500ft)– KK BASE CAMP (11250ft) — HARGAON(8900ft)

Walking through the snoozing trails in the snow-clad Himalayas, surrounded by the dark Deodars. You wouldn’t realize when you switched off the torch and there was just moon shedding silver over the snow. We kept walking to reach the Summit, which was visible but was probably moving away. We met the sun and moon on our way to the Summit, and were lucky to see one of the most beautiful sunrises that ever happened. The trail kept becoming steeper , more inclined, and the scenes in front of us more beautiful as we kept walking. Ajinkya took me all the way up to the Peak as I was losing my balance. I can still feel the moment when I reached the Peak, that old temple with the idols of Shiv- Parvati and Lord Ganesh. The temperature was as low as -11 degree celcius.

DAY 5- HARGAON(8900ft) — SANKRI (6400ft)

It took us 3 hours of beautiful scenes and fun to get down to Sankri from the Peak via Hargaon. The best decision if you’re in Sankri is to spend one more day dedicated to Sankri alone so you get to see this wonderful village compiled of around 250 houses with people’s hearts as big as the mountains they live in. You’ll find such innocent and warm hearted people only in the mountains. After all that tiring trekking, the hypnotic view of this village made us enthusiastic for a walk down the village. It is heaven down there if you’re willing to explore and have tea and warm talks with some villagers while your way back . A perfect end to your journey.

DAY 6- SANKRI — DEHRADUN

Not willing to leave the perfect place to go back to a world full of stress and pollution, we pushed ourselves into the tempo that took us back to Dehradhun, while still enjoying the views of Mussoorrie’s Kempty Falls and the beautiful city on the way! This marked the end of my trek plus picnic plus a happy little beginning to self- actualization, plus so many memories, plus a promise to come back soon to climb those snow-clad mountains, somewhere in the laps of ‘The Himalayas’

Written By:-

Nidhi Deshmukh