Treking ......... With Mum and Dad and Other things !!! ( dharampur files )

I went to Dharampur for five days and I am back just today.

I was surprised that the house over there had become so beautiful. Earlier, after one had seen the outside he or she would not be ready for a great interior. But were they surprised to enter such a nice interior. He would not have such expectations. And now the exterior had become so beautiful that would expect a better interior. The interior was still nice but nothing compared to the outside. Flowers of different variates and colors were growing on the flowerbed. There were flower pots bordering the walls and the floor was tiled red. You go down a set of stairs and you will see a miniature farm. Corn was growing, the Khera bales were climbing up a tree. There was a small patch of tomatoes. Rajma leaves were poking there leaves out of the ground. Bangan was flourishing, the tori bales was expanding. Trees of Japanese fruit, apple tree, Aarru were green.

When I reached there I realized that the 3-4 days were to be of fresh air, green surroundings , quiet atmosphere ................. laziness , very hot days and certainly a lot of sweat, T.V. and cold drinks.

The first day I reached I started exploring my improved house. In the empty lower levels of the building alongside the miniature farm were 102 bags of dung to fertilize the plants. The day left was spent in front of the television except for some time when I started my handwriting practice. Then I ate dinner and had another round of television. Then I lay down on the bed but could not sleep. It was too hot ! I had woken up only to find my bed wet with sweat. Finally I managed to drift off to sleep.
Next day I went to the market and bought some goodies to eat and ate them with relish later that day. The whole day was spent in front of the T.V except for the few hours during which I went out to play or read a book.
The next day I went to the mini farm and sowed some seeds of corn and Khera. I spent a lot of time outside, watering the plants, pots and the flowerbed. The rest of the time......... well, you can guess that!
The day after the next the rain came, cooling the air and relieving the farmers. I had a fun soaking in the rain. My parents came at about ten in the night and w e made a plan of treking early in the morning.
We woke up at about 6 next morning and in another hour we were out to trek. We started without any breakfast. I had never treked in the morning and it was so quiet and clean.
As usual the mountains of the little hillstation was great. We followed some big pipes and passed farms, breakdown sheds and empty houses. We finally reached a village. We went back to find another path and we did and I found a place where we could see the top of the pine trees just in front of us. We found a clump of trees where the sunlight could not peneterate. All of it was so faboulus that we did not want to leave. My father found the highest point of the hill and when we reached there we found another highest point then another and so on. We lay down ont the soft ground and I made my mother a pillow of pine leaves. We went a bit further and then we left back. The smell of the air suddenly changed when we reached the road. We ate lunch and left for home!

A Looong trek !

On the second and final day of our trekking to Khandaghat, we went to Chail by bus. We left our car at Dochi which is about 17 km before Chail because we intended to do a trek from Chail to Dochi after which we would leave for home.
We found the way of the path. Unfortunately there was a road and we do not like to walk down a road, so boring. So we went to a little path which went to a temple and later joined the road. We walked for about a mile and asked a girl for directions. The view which was to come was really soothing, not a sign of human presence anywhere except us we walked. But there still no sign of the temple and the village surrounding it. After some time we saw a man with a I pod on his ear. He looked like the typical Indian villager except for the I-pod. Who says India is Technologically backwards.

He told us that " oh ta parle he ha ji" ( It is just here only sir) We found out his " parle he ha " after we walked about 8 km, but that is a later talk like I said before the place was growing wilder but there was a path and a path always leads to somewhere but my mother could not understand. She thought that we would come to an dead end. But alas! Now the beautiful scenery came to an end. There had been a forest fire and a real raging one too. Everything was black except the top of the trees. The heat was suddenly increased. Where ever you touched your hand became black. I took some soot and some glue which was oozing out from the trees and stuck the soot on my face And so I looked like a Native of ancient times. My mother was scared when she saw me. Some of the soot is still stuck on my face and it will take some days to get it off. If you see someone with something on his face which looks like soot, he'll be me!

The black forest continued for about 5 km after which we arrived at the village and I slipped and cut my palm. We walked for another kilometre and then we saw it. It was in its full power raging through the trees. A huge forest fire with 3 main staring points . Just like a tigers claw. Clouds of grey clouds were floating about. When we were sat in our car we saw a fire fighting truck zooming towards the source of the fire. It had come dangerously close to a house.

After that we went to a restaurant on the riverbed. Our feet were being washed by the water. We ate our lunch and I watched some tiny fish. There were hundreds of them. They were so quick and alert that if you put a finger in the water they would suddenly move a little. Me and my mother sat in the cold water, splashing water over each other. I found a dead fish floating in the water. It was bigger than I had seen earlier. I took it to my brother and he tried to act as if he was going to eat it ( very bad acting! ). We saw a bird with a tail bigger than its body. It dived into the water and came out with a fish in is beak. We stayed for some time and then went towards home.

It was great there in the forests of Chail. Save it. Before it's gone too.

Kandaghat , My visit to the Himalyas !

Yesterday I went to Kandaghat, a place 30 km before Chail. i went with my parents and my elder brother. the eldest brother was in Delhi and was ( and still is ) very busy. On the first day, Friday, we went till Dharampur and decided to go till Kandaghat till train.

I am going to describe my first ever train journey in the hills

I will start with some facts.On1903 the first ever Himalayan train ever run slowly on the tracks.

The whole network consists of 102 tunnels, formerly 103 but one tunnel was levelled The longest tunnel is near Barog and is 1.41 km long. When this tunnel was being constructed the digging was started from both sides. One side had started digging 50 about 50 meters from where it should have been. When the other side came out from the other side. They did not find the other group.The instructor of the wrong side committed suicide. The wrong hole is still there. It has 988 curves many of which are as sharp as 45 degrees It has around 500 bridges. The man who marked all the routes was a native named Balkhu. Without him the construction was not possible.

We reached the station and and waited for some time as the train was a bit late. When we got inside we found ourselves in jam packed train my brother had to hang outside the train because there was a man blocking the door. The train had to stop to pull him back in. We had to stand as there was no place to sit. After some time I moved nearer to the door and stood at the edge of the door. the wind was hitting my face and the view of the trees and green and grey mountains was fascinating. Grey because there was a forest fire on one of the mountains. It looked terrible.

After some time when there was less rush but still no place to sit then me and my brother sat at the edge of the door with our legs hanging out. It was real fun then. We touched the tunnels because they were so near. When we reached the end I was Sorry to go as I had much fun.

Treking With The School

As done every year, the school organized a trek and and I went to Kothi, a village approx 25 km after Manali. As every time, I came back with new experiences, new stories, new wounds, tanned skin and a lot of fun.

The trek overall was very nice. It was very tough too because we had to walk minimum 20 kilometers every day. The view was always good, the weather not so often. The food was okay, except for the delay. The toilets were the worst. No water. Except these and a few more things the trek was great. The teachers and instructors were also very nice.

Saturday

We were called to report at 6: 30 in the morning but left school at 9:30. The bus got a ruptured tyre. As a result we had our lunch at 4: 15. After some time we passed the tunnel connecting kullu and manali. My friends were starting to vomit after having a heavy lunch. We were stuck in a traffic jam. We all were told we would reach at 5:30 but we reached Manali at around 11. I fell asleep and woke at 1:30 AM for we had finally reached our camp. It was fairly large with 3 levels. First level was all toilets and the dining tent. The second floor was of tents and the third floor was the same as the second. We had dinner at the moment we arrived. We then found our tents, put our bags into the tent and snuggled up in our sleeping bags.

Sunday

Today I woke very early. I brushed my teeth and tidied myself up. I drank some tea and then the camp was called up to learn tent pitching. It was fun and me and my friends somehow managed to erect something close to a tent. We had lunch and proceded to Killer bridge. Goodness knows how it got that name. It had two iron rods placed side by side with some distance in between. we got back, had dinner. a bonfire, some songs and a nice sleep.

Monday

Went to see Hadimba mandir. Rained a lot. Everything from tent to bags are wet. went to Solang Valley. Had lots of fun. We had 2 hours to roam there and do as you wish!

Tuesday

Lots of activities today. Played cricket, Did rappeling and rock climbing and valley crossing.
My head is feeling a bit dizzy today. Bumped my head into a rock and scratched my back.

Wednesday

Went to see Jogni falls. It is visited by me for the second time. It felt nice to feel its cool water washing over me. We then continued to vishest hot water springs. We spent some time in the market around it. THen had a long journey to camp

Thursday

Woke late. not feeling so well. THere is a lot of pain in the neck muscles. The trek is very difficult today. I turned back without reaching the destination because of fever. We started at 9:30 AM and now 7:30 and still no news of the rest of my fellow students. THe rest of the children reached at 2:15 in the morning. The reason for this delay that one student rooled into a river and others were stuck on the other side of the river. later sir told only me that he saw a bear and no one else not even the teacher and students noticed it. That why sir was so tensed as my friends told me.

Friday

Today we went to manali mall road. We had lots of fun as we were left to ourselves for 3 hours.
HAd a bonfire, great varity of food and a lot of dancing.

Saturday

We left at 10:30 and were completely bored on the journey to home.I had come in a travera and omly my bag was with me and the rest of the baggage of other students was still on the bus. There are a lot of advamtages of travelling light! But when I reached home I felt that it was worth being away so long for having such a great return.

I have had some great experences that I cannot forget. Hope I have many, many more!!!!