Getting to Pindari Ground zero 0

Day 4 started early, but late than what we wanted. We planned to start for Pindari at 5.30 in the morning. But when we got up it was so dark that we decided against it. Which was a wrong decision. Still we pushed ourselves to move on by 5.50 with a small torch. We left the tent and our stuff at phurkia. Ayat Singh was not yet up, but phurkia is one of the safest places in India. Well with just a few wild animals around whose gonna steal the stuff.

Wondering what this is about, read from first

or u wanna just read about what happened on Day 3 of our Pindari trek at Uttaranchal.

Anyway, this was one day i was looking forward to, planning and re planning for last 3 months. I was at my best and so was Jana. We were hiking as fast as we could. Every step was giving a closer look at the snow capped mountains, pumping the adrenaline in me. I was worried if i pee i may pass more adrenaline than urine...lol.

We were walking non stop for almost two hours when we saw few hutment on the nearby hill. I was wondering what this was as we had left human world far behind. Then I remembered that this was what I read on the internet. Some nomadic tribe that lives
there only for a few months in a year. There was no mark of human life other than a flag outside the hutment. There was lots of horses grazing , running and playing. We stopped to take in the view. I was cursing for not having a good camera. Sony cybershot was not even close to good enough for these pics.

Then suddenly we saw the clouds coming. They were far behind us. We were challenged to a race. I was sure we had to race them or else my dream of seeing the peaks close would remain a dream. I turned into a military commander i felt. Shouting at Jana orders to move not caring. My love for everything on earth was gone. My mission was under threat I was not ready to loose, not after coming this far. Our prayers to the heavens just increased. We were on a difficult terrain and we had not given gods any respite for last few days.




We were racing the clouds. After an hour of race. We reached the baba's temple. Well, if don't know. There is a baba living near Pindari. He has this small temple. Many ppl who have written about Pindari have mentioned him. We reached his temple. He offered us chai and asked us to relax. I was not even ready to sit down. I wanted to get to Pindari. It was 9 am. the sun was just coming up from behind one of the peaks, they clouds were coming in from the other direction. I wanted to see the shadow move when the sun come up in the glacier. Baba just asked me to calm down and we sat. But in 5 mins i was back at my feet and Jana was ready to move.

We started the last 500 m. I thought I was feeling how Ceaser would have felt when conquered a new country. I then made a big blunder. There track was splitting in to two. I had to take the right. I took left.

I started a jog, Jana too upped the ante. But after some 2 min i realized we were on the wrong direction. Jana was behind me (not to close not, too far). I called out to him and turned. I started a jogging back, stopped every few steps for Jana to catch up. He gave me the look "you go ahead mate, I am right behind you". I broke into a sprint, turned into a fanatic. Ppl who have know me for years will know that i change when i am with nature. I got to the final point just as sun was up. I looked down, my legs where shivering and i found that i was standing on a cliff with mud sliding down. To my right we were at two floors height and to my left we were about some 40 storied height or more. I knew standing would take me down the 40 floor height. I lied down at the edge of the cliff and stared into the beautiful valley right below me. The sun was coming shining and i was in heaven. In just about 2 mins Jana was right behind me. I shouted out him to be careful and raised my head for the first time in 5 mins. I was star struck. There were this 4 beautiful peaks and the trail pass surrounding us. I was right in the middle. I was by the side of a valley. I was right in Heaven.

Jana too took in the view. We sat down. By the time we remembered that we had to take some pics, the clouds had just arrived. We took few quick snaps. We didn't speak to each other for quite some time. I am very keen on speaking to nature at these kinda places. I just kept looking at the peaks and valley. The only thing I heard after quite some time was Jana telling me it was time leave. I told him 15 more minutes. We decided to leave by 10.45. He too was in no mood to leave. But when 10.45 came i was praying to Gods to freeze time. I didn't want to go home.



I kissed my Arsenal jersey (was wearing it for last 3 days) and we started our slow walk back. Jana was leading . I was more than happy that he was walking ahead of me. I looked back every few steps as if a little kid looking back to his mummy. I wanted time to freeze.






We got back to the baba's ashram. Baba and Jana struck a conversation by them. I was still looking at the peaks. I was back to self in about 10 mins. Baba made us Puliodharai after finding out that we were South Indians(Puliodharai is a famous south Indian dish). He then made us some hash brownies. I was shocked. At this height, when we lived last 4 days just eating potato, soya, rice, dal and wheat this guy was making us hash brownies. Baba forced us to eat a lot, he was showering love as the place. I felt he deserved to live there.

Baba told us his story. He came here from haridwar. Initially there was nothing to eat. He use to eat the biscuits pieces in the covers left behind by tourists. Even used to go hungry at times. He made his first vessel using two rocks. Now here is here. He is kind enough to say that lot of people helped him. He said, that's why he is there. Anybody who comes there, he makes food for them and does not ask for a penny.

At Bageshwar some ppl warned us saying baba is after money. He ddn't ask us for a penny. Then a crow came and sat on the roof of his hutment. Right beside it was a solar panel. On my inquiry baba said, he fitted it, also one of the bridges in our route was donated by him as govt was not ready to do antg abt it. LPG gas is delivered to him when we hadn't seen one for last 5 days, since we left Bageshwar. Baba, told us a lot about what all he has done. Suddenly he asked about us. I told him i was an Engineer and his eyes lightened up.

He asked me "what engineer?". I told him software and he was sad. I restrained from telling him that if i was not a software engineer it would have been mechanical for sure, but asked him why. He told me he just acquired a Hero Honda engine and trying to build a small glider. He wanted some help. I was really sorry.

But some where inside I was happy. I dnt wan't technology to reach these parts. It takes pollution with it. I don't want these places to be spoiled.

It was time to say good bye to the baba and so to the guide who was with a govt team that was there for some research on ice. They had gone to the other side so he was helping the baba.

We started back to Phurkia. We were in a jubilant mood. As if India had won the world cup. We started singing a lot of songs. Old, new, Hindi, English and what not. Everything we could remember. We reached phurkia in no time. We skipped lunch, said our good byes to Ayat Singh and his helper. Settled our bills and started for Dwali. That's were we planned to stay for the night.

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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.

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