Har ki Dun trip - Day 5

day 5 - woke up in the morning, at around 8 am. the chowkidar n the guard brought some hot bed tea for me. man, it had been a cold night. i just stepped out to check the sights... and the views were awesome. the sky had cleared n it had stopped snowing and ..... i was in heaven!!!! (a cold one, though)




the chowkidar (forest guard)





it was so bright that i could nto take pics of the swargarohini peak from right in front. as i tured the camera towards it, my lcd monitor went absolutely white..n the mountains tured black...i guess the snow was reflecting the sunlight like mad. it was too much for a simple camera to handle. the sun rises from behind the swargarohini peak and u need some sophisticated lenses to shoot it.



the famous swargarohini/chaukhamba peak - this peak is mentioned in the closing chapter of mahabharata. swargarohini means climbing to the heaven.






behind these peaks lies the kinnaur district of himachal pradesh.



the guide...

after the breakfast, we started on our way back to seema at around 9:30 am. it was very beautiful and i wanted to stay n explore for a day, but we did niot have the resources to stay at such a cold place.





stunning beauty...:-)



the gmvnl guest house at the bottom of the mountain.



storage room of the forest guest house



today, it was slightly easy to walk since we were mainly going down. the sights were fantastic. the snow was sooo smooth around the river. also, there were some hyena tracks around the river. i was hoping to see some wild himalayan musk deer, but was not lucky enough.





see how smooth the snow is. no one comes here in the winter. i was the 2nd "tourist party" of the season (1 man tourist party)








the place was so beautiful....did not feel like elaving. but i had to, coz we did not bring food for any more days. so began the long trek down to seema. the guide n the guard walked ahead. but i went slowly, enjoying the view and clicking snaps with abundance.



did james milton have this in mind when he was writing shanghri-la??












unmatched natural beauty

right now i believe the statement that a picture is worth a thousand words. so i should not write too much. rather, u all can check out the pics.





this water is cold...brrr





hyena n human tracks



i again slipped a few times while coming back. still, the sun was out today and it wasn't so cold as yesterday.











saying goodbye to the small temple at the entrance of hkd...












there is a small stream flowing below this piece of snow..hence the depression. u need to be careful while crossing them, otherwise it can result in frozen feet, frostbites n even amputations :-(

slowly, as we left the hkd valley, the amount of snow got got less. it was slightly easier to walk on the hard ground.











we again had to climb the path to the high turning point. but today it was not so tough..and i managed it fairly quickly.











pretty soon we left hkd behind.











i was feeling thirsty and had water from a stream. there was a lovely bridge over it.
the water was crystal clear and colder than any refrigerator. hard to imagine that such cold water can be found naturally, sitting here in chennai.











from the turn, we got the last views of hkd. on one side was hkd and on the other side was the rupin valley, going down as far as one could see.











there was a magnificient 270 degree view from the turn. wow, it was beautiful. i took lots of snaps and 3 videos also. unfortunately, my camera decided to develop a bug at that very moment. it failed to recognise the memory card. so unfortunately i could not take any pics after that... :-(











i came down to seema at a leisurely pace. the guide went ahead and cooked up some stuff for me. i met many osla village kids on the way. they had gone down to seema for some local festival. they had a bad habit of saying "saabji mithai do" and then if u did not have anything, openly saying "paise do"!!! the kids in the villages of taluka and sankri were much well behaved.

then, in the night, the guide also decided to get drunk. he tried to make me also drink some local whisky, saying it is good for the ehalth, etc. but i flatly refused. after that, we had our dinner ,while he regaled me about his stories of his gf(!!) and how he married her after an "accidental" affair..etc.

the next morning he was slightly drunk and was not able to walk properly. still, he managed to make it to taluka pretty fast, much before me. but then in taluka again, he got super drunk, picked up a fight with the bihari labourers, abused everyone and created problems fro everyone.

moral: when fixing up a guide, tell him firmly that no drinks n drugss during the whole trek. otherwise u will not pay him.

then, on the 7th day, we walked back to seema and reached it by 11 am. i scolded him for drinking heavily, paid him the money and decided to leave immediately. i caught a jeep leaving for sankri (it was an experience, sitting on the extra wheel of the jeep) to netwar. from netwar i caught a taxi to naugaon. from naugaon i took a lift to vikasnagar. from vikasnagar i caught a bus to dehradun. thus i was able to reach my uncle's house in dehradun at 10:30 pm, just in tinme for dinner :-)))
hence concluded the most beautiful trip i ever made in my life.












it is an easy trek in the summers, with no snow. if u like to see green beauty, then u can go in summers. if u liek to see white beauty, go in winters. no tents r needed, as there r guest houses all along the way. but in summers, they might be booked beforehand, so just check in advance from the gmvnl ppl or the forest deptt.



path to ruinsara tal ... this winter i will try to go here.

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