Monday, May 26, 2008

Trip To Tunganath - Day 2 [Trek to Tunganath]

We had some rajma-chawal for lunch. We looked for porters to carry our tents etc up to Tunganath.

Thus began our most difficult journey….. A 3.5 Km trek at an incline of some 45 degrees… with even rarer air than Deveria Tal….. Water… Chocolate…. The feeling that my lungs will burst for the want of oxygen…. This can be counted as one of the craziest moves of my life….. which in hindsight was quite an achievement….

From Day 2 - Climb...

Laugh all you can girls….. [This trek is gonna wipe a lot of smiles offfffffffff your faces…..]

In the meantime, Mr Mad Hatter was going up leaps and bounds like a bundle of nuclear energy with the porters…..

From Day 2 - Climb...

I really admire the grit and determination of Julie….. She’s such a fighter….. Hats off to her…..

From Day 2 - Climb...

The view was just beautiful… there were these shrubs with pink flowers….

From Day 2 - Climb...

I was trailing behind…..

From Day 2 - Climb...

After about 2.5Kms, I just wasn’t being able to deal with it anymore… saw some horse coming down empty…. Swallowing my pride, I decided to do the rest of climb on a pony…. Yes, there are pictures…..

From Day 2 - Climb...

From Day 2 - Climb...

From Day 2 - Climb...

From Day 2 - Climb...

I was scared stiff as the path was made of cobbled stones, so steep and uneven….. reached the top somehow and waited for the others. By the time they joined us… Mr Mad Hatter walked another 30 minutes towards the hill top and decided that we should camp there in the wilderness instead of at a regular camp site…. Puneet Makkar, Julie and I were waiting for them near the temple… Icy winds started blowing with a slight drizzle and the porters had all our bags…. We were freezing. My hands were almost blue with cold… Thankfully I had 1 of my bags with me which had some woolens which we put on.

All i could think of was the mountain dew's ad... "Darr Ke Aage Hi Jeet Hai"...

Would like to express my absolute and complete gratitude to my mom for putting in my windsheeter and woolen gloves(Puneet Makkar survived due to them.. ) We sat huddled in the leeward side of the curve cursing Mr Mad Hatter ….

From Day 2 - Climb...

From Day 2 - Climb...

We decided to walk back to the temple area, where there were some rudimentary shacks, atleast we’d be out of the icy cold winds. All the while saying it was a stupid idea to camp on top of the hill.

Mr Mad Hatter sent a porter down to call us up. We had to go, as the tents were all set up…. Who would get all that stuff down. Mr Mad Hatter showed no signs of slowing down. We walked up another 30 minutes. Reached the tents at 6pm.

From Day 2 - Climb...

Settled in…. opened our sleeping bags and huddled into them for warmth as we couldn’t do a camp fire as there wasn’t any wood available. The porter got us the dinner from the shacks below. We kept it in our tents and slept was a while till 9pm as all of us were bone tired….

I slept like a LOG. Mom has to be thanked again for insisting that I took a blanket and sheet inside my sleeping bag. Others were hardly getting any sleep as the winds were howling outside and rain was pouring. Everyone was so fearful that the tents would fly away. Thankfully they were worth their salt and all was well. We opened the tent flap only to see the hill full of hail. There was such a hailstorm that the entire mountain top was covered in ice…..

From Day 2 - Climb...

Now you know why I call him MAD Hatter….

From Day 2 - Climb...

Everyone had dinner. There was dal, chawal and aaloo.

From Day 2 - Climb...

From Day 2 - Climb...

From Day 2 - Climb...

From Day 2 - Climb...

Mr Mad Hatter, he was still roaming around in SHORTS… aint he crazy. Here I was in 2 T-Shirts, 2 Track Pants, 2 Socks and in a blanketed sleeping bag…… n he is in SHORTS….

n that’s how he warmed himself..…

From Day 2 - Climb...


I was freezing…..

From Day 2 - Climb...

About Tunganath

Trip To Tunganath - Day 1 - Photos

Trip To Tunganath - Day 2 [Trek to Deveria Tal] - Photos of Okhimat and Photos of Trek To DeveriaTal

Trip To Tunganath - Day 2 [Trek to Tunganath] - Photos

Trip To Tunganath - Day 3 [Return Journey] - Photos - Sun Rise and Way Back

7 comments:

Puneet Chawla said...

I am generally a sucker for adventure but i must admit that during the hailstorm i was scared..more so for the safety of you guys than meself..thankfully the tents held up.

Nachi forgot to mention one incident..
After the hail and rain stopped, makkar went out to take a leak. There he saw a light in the distance and he shouted, "log hamein dhoondhne aa rahe hain. unhe laga hoga ke is toofan mein hamara kya hua hoga. dekh kitni badi torch le kar aa rahe hain. bhaiya bhaiya hum idhar hain. bhaiya ji bhaiya ji"

i came out of the tent, looked at the light in the distance, looked at makkar and told him, "makkar vo mandir ki light hai"
and we all laughed our ass off..
funny would have been an understatement at that point..it was more knots in the tummy stuff..

The next morning we woke up to see what i had basically planned this trip for..the most awe inspiring sunrise..i dont have suitable adjectives for that moment so its better u have a dekko

http://picasaweb.google.com/chandra.nachiketa/Day3SunRiseWayNackTripToTunganath

Puneet Chawla said...

Nachi your pony's kepper looks like a Mongol and your map on picasa is in Thai.

Vee said...

looks like u guys had wonderful experience with the entire trek to tunganath. wish to go to such a place someday :)

Unknown said...

Amazing travelogue!!
waiting for more..

- Mugdha

Nachiketa said...

@puneet - makkar was really funnnyyy..... julie and i also laughed a lot.... :-)

@mepretentious (Mugdha) - thanks for stopping by.

princess'smom said...

relived the whole trip....amazing trek it was!!!

GRAPHIC said...

wow awesome.. should def make a trip.... :P