Almoraboy's Pensieve: Part 1.1 S to B

You are here -
Home -> Trip to East Kumaon and Nepal -> Seraghat to Bona and back -> Part 1

day 4

we bought some stuff for our journey from a general store in seraghat. the tents were arranged from munsyari. the plan was to go to golpha village and then to bona village. total distance was 16 kms. we were planning to do it at a leisurely pace, within two days. we had to follow the small stream that flows down from the panchchulis. the final plan was to head up from bolpha village towards the jimba glacier and cross the passes that separate johar valley from the darma valley. two people had come down from the bona village to meet us -> the horseman and the guide (ganesh singh rawat). ganesh knew about these areas very well and he could also hunt birds (i had forbidden him from hunting birds while we were there). the horseman had bought three horses - 2 for his goods and one for carrying smira. the journey is pretty pleasant, following a stream for about 4 kms. we took some snaps next to the stream. smira even slipped and fell into one of the streams. but we enjoyed it a lot and also had a small water fight. then, we there is a steep climb of around 5-6 kms till golpha village. and riding on a horse, next to a steep cliff scared the living daylights of smira. actually. even i had not realised, that on riding a horse, the angle os vision becomes very steep and the slopes seem to look even more scary. well, even i got a bit tired climbing all this, so smira willingly offered me the horse and i took it. and then, it was really really scary....and i was screaming and shouting all the way. finally, i said that i would rather walk than ride a horse.,.you need to be a braveheart to ride a horse on such a steep slope. and smira decided that it was too tiring to walk on a steep slope and she had gotten used to riding horses. so she decided tot ake the horse, steep slope or not.

after a few more hours, by around 4 pm in the evening, we reached golpha village. it had a small general store, where we bought some snacks and had a cup of warm steaming tea. bona village is still 4-5 kms ahead of this, but now the journey is more or less flat, with little ups and downs on the way. it was done pretty smootlhly. the horse man tld us that earlier, lots of apples used to grow in bona village. but then some disease caught the tres and they stopped growing apples. so now they are planting the apple trees again. maybe, in a few years, people will again start saying - "bona hai ki sona hai, kashmir ka kona hai" :-)

by sunset, we reached bona village. i was pretty tired, so i borrowed the horse from smira for the last few yards. ganesh's house is in bona. he has a bedroom, toilet, bathroom and telephone for guests. everything is perfect except for the fact that the bedroom is situated above the rom where you keep the cows. this might lead to some breathing problems for people with sensitive noses. ganesh's wife (gangotri) had prepared some wonderful dinner for us. ganesh even had a thulma (blanket made out of tibetan goat's wool), which was very useful in the cold climate. we were also waiting for ganga ram and laxma to come. when they did not come for quite some time, we started getting worried. so kushal went back to look for them. they came around 8:30 pm, pretty tired. so i told them to just relax and chill out tomorrow. ganesh had a small room att he side of his house, which ganga, laxman, kushal, bhim, kalyan and nath took up.

seraghat

seraghat..we had dinner at laxman's sister's place, she prepared a winderful dinner for us all.

enjoying dinner

moti moti roti :-)

smira is front of plum trees

a flower..in few months it will becoem a ripe plum..yum yum

back "wall" of our hotel

getting ready for the trek....me, smira, laxman's sister, their kids, laxman's brother in law, laxman, ganga ram, nath.

smira starting the trek on horseback. the person "driving" the horse is ganesh. he is a descendent of the legendary pundit brother...nain singh (who was the first person to draw a map of tibet).