Reaching Dwali at around 4.30 in the evening, we were looking forward to some rest. We setup our tent near the rest house. Here were tried to bargain dinner with the keeper of the Tara Hotel, another Ayat Singh (this name seems to be pretty common here). He asked for a whooping 50 Rs per plate. Even at Phurkia we had paid only 30 bucks. I was not ready. Jana got onto the bargaining mode. We were now regular customers of Tara Hotel. This was our third time with them (once at Khati, Once Dwali and now). So i got angry that i told Jana not to bargain anymore. We had Puranpoli (a version of Chapati) with us. But later in night we found out that it had gone bad. We had to go hungry to bed that nite.
What is all this,
read from the beginning or
read the last post..
Dwali is a great location. Surrounded by Hills on three sides and dense forest on the fourth. We met two shepherds with their lot and 3 German sheperd dogs. One of the guys told me there are bears and leopards in the forest and they come out in the night for the sheep. But he reassured me not to worry as the dogs are good at chasing them away. We sat down counting stars with river's sound in the background. Clear sky and full moon made the night worth it.
Next Day morning we started at around 6.30 am for khati. We were both quite hungry. Spent a lot of time on Photography. We reached the tea shop on the small cliff at around 9.00 am. We had Magiee for breakfast and a cup of chai each. The trek wan uneventful except for us coming across a bone of some animal near the river and for loads of languors. By the time we reached khati, the sandals that i was wearing gave way and this time on Jana's preasure we skipped the short cut.. We found feviquick by God's grace and fixed it. We ddnt stop for lunch and started for Dhakuri. I thought the trek and view was almost over. But i was completely wrong.
Don't take the shortcut while trekking from khati to Dwali, but use it while coming back(opposite of what we did). U will save a lot of energy by this.
On our way from Khati to Dhakuri we stopped near a small waterfall and had a good bath. It was like 5 days since our last bath. We enjoyed every bit of it. I took the first dip and at afternoon 1 O clock the water was freezing. When i got up from a dip my brain literally ing and I lost balance for a second. Still took two more dips and it was Jana's turn. I started making fun of Jana as a monkey on tree top was watching him take bath. lol!!
We felt so fresh and trek continued. We reached Dhakuri by 4.30 and set our tent near the pwd rest house. The keeper was friend of Balwant and had already introduced us. We set the tent up and soon it started raining. We sat inside the tent for while and as rain stopped I came out wearing Jana's shoes. I went to the other side of the rest house and i felt as if i was struck by thunderbolt. There were these three groups of peeks. and dense forest and big hills separating each of them. I ran back to the tent shouting out to Jana to come out or die then and there. He too skipped out and we had great view. Three groups of peaks each with a glacier there and we are seeing all of them together. That day at Dhakuri there were 2 more Indian teams and 2 foreign teams team. We all enjoyed the view. And for the first time, i had a go at Jana. He started baby sitting me asking me to wear the glouse and I hate being pampered.
As it was getting dark the temperature too was dropping. It was the coldest night of our trek. From the icy mountains to our hill we had no protection. The winds that were blowing were blowing straight at us. It was the night next to full moon and it was raining with thunderbolts on the icy mountains. We just reveled in it. Had a quick chat in the night with the Australian girls(one of the foreigner teams) and their guide and hit the sack.
The next day early morning we settled our bill with Ayat Singh(yes this one was also Ayat singh) and started for Loharket. I was expecting us to get there by 11.30 thinking since the terrain while coming was difficult so it gonna be easy while going the other way. Jana could not remember much of this route as he was brain dead tired when we were trekking in the other direction. It was a tough trek, we had our pain and fun.
We reached Loharket, met Pyare lal (Balwant's brother), he gave us Jana's bag. He took a lock from it and said he wants it. I didn't know it was Jana's . I said ok and when we started coming down to Song Jana told me it was his. I got angry. This guy had asked us for a lot of stuff by now. Once we got to Song took two seats in a jeep to the stop from where we had to get a jeep to Bageshwar. We reached Bageshwar by 5.30. Here we got my shoes stitched and check out the local market. Later when we got to the bus stop we found out no bus leaves Bageshwar after 6.30 in the evening. So we took a room for 150 bucks. Shabbiest room even i have stayed in my life. The room was so shabby that we used our sleeping bags as blankets rather than the one they gave.
continued...
Dhkuri- khati
