Khati- Dwali-Phurkia

Day 3 of trekking began with a small bit of confusion. We packed our tent and other stuff and even before we left khati we were confused which road to take. The villagers told us of a short cut and the little explorer in me was delighted. Jana was game and we were on through the short cut to the next pit stop Dwali, 11 kms from Khati.

If you are wondering what all this is about u need to read from the first entry on my Pindari Trek.

If you wanna just know what happened just before, read the last entry.

Anway, as we started going away from Khati we were going into dense forest. We started getting the first views of the moring, teh first look on our destination peaks. Jana was more exited than me i thought at that point, he had a spring in his steps. I was enjoying his company and along with the scenerey we had some great topics to debate on ranging from wether Indian chics look better or forgein to how good is Indian diplomacy. But nothing bet the view. Jana actually after while started getting too worried about the path we had taken. Even I had similar fears but felt was not as worried as he was. I thought it was becuase this is his first experience. Then suddenly as if to cheer us up we got our first glimpse of wildlife since we started our walk. It was group of white langurs swining around. Before I could go for the camera , Jana shouted out to me thinking I had not seen them and they ran away.

After walking for almost 3 hours we saw the first human being. He was walking towards khati accompanied by a dog. Jana, being an MBA, that too in marketing got down to his job of getting information while i started petting the dog thinking if not a tiger lemme atleast touch a dog of Pindari. ;)

Then another hour's walk took us to a breath taking turn, there was this point, we were so close to the river which was now flowing in all the glorious speed it could afford , splitting at a point into two and then rejoining again. All the splitting and rejoining within some 50 meters. We took a break, had some biscuts, took in the view as if it was some salad on the lunch table and moved on with a sigh. Just then we came to a small tea shop right above a cliff. There was this small way to go up and some forginers were coming down and saying to us "Namaste". We obliged and then hiked up the cliff, had a tea, crossed the bridge and moved on. We were again alone, in dense forest, which was home to a lot of bears, leapords and many other wild animals. I was hoping to see one, not getting enough of the first leapord we saw on the bus trip. But all we came across was the paw print of somebody from the cat family and dung of bears. By 12.00 we were at Dwali at 3100 mts height.

Don't try too hard to reach Dwali, something we did. It will give a "never will reach" feeling. Enjoy the great view and the forest around you. Don't go by the exact recorded distance. Its never correct. When it is said Khati to Dwali is 11 kms it is something like 14 kms. These measure were taken years back and now after all the land slides and other reasons its not the same distance.

We stopped there for our lunch, there are only two or there hutments made by the govt. We had left human settlements far behind us by now. Here we met a few Indians and forginers. A french guy and an Isrealie are worth mentioning. The frech guy was coming back from kafni glacier. Its at Dwali that the routes to Pindari and Kafni splits. The Isreali was more talkative and he told us he did Song to Pindari in two days. I was shocked first then found that he had served in the Isreali army and the was not into photography. He too told us about the baba living near the Pindari glacier, about whom by now many people had spoke to me and written on internet.

I told Jana that i wanna cut down on the lunch break from 1 hour to 30 mins and start for Phurkia asap. I wanted to get to pindari same night and enjoy a night there.

Phurkia is only 5 km away from Dwali. Don't start smiling. We were to gain 500 meters by the time we do 5 km. Phurkia is at 3600 meters height and in first 1 km we were to gain about 300 meters of it. I took the bag from Jana. It was time to hike. We kept up the pep talk, reduced stops and speed and stopped less to take pics. We did the 1st km in a pretty decent time for two amateurs. But after the first km the flaura an fauna of the place literally changed. We could see from the grass and vegetation around us that the altitude has changed. The mist was also coming and going at will. Temperature change was something we could feel as if drinking hot water. We were reveling the experience. We got to Phurkia by 3.30 pm. I wanted to try the next 7 km but Jana advised me against and i felt he was right. We decided to hold the ground.

We met Ayat Singh the keeper of the phurkia guest house and gave him Balwant's letter. We set our tent up as he made tea and zoop fell the temperature. The mist was coming down as if it was on an escalator. One minute i see the mountain right across us and the next minute its gone. I loved it. We were near the cliff so were to be more exposed to the mist movement in the night. We set out tent right behind a big rock at teh edge of the cliff so that we get some protection.

Its worth staying at phurkia, a good place for you to rest, and no long shot views. The hills and mountains around are very close and are very beautiful. You will want to stare at those waterfalls, rocks and the curves for a change rather than look at the snow peaks for ever. They both can be seen and they both are a real pleasure

Tomorrow was a big day, We were to reach our destination. We were to get up at 5.30 am and start the hike as after 9 the clouds cover up the peaks at most mountains and pindari was no exception. I had good dinner and great sleep. Next day I and Jana were going Pindari and it was a dream come true for me. My First trek to the Himalayas.

continued....