Ok, first a preface to why the title is so:
Thoughts about Chandertal : Chardertal means "lake of the moon" and from what we had read about it on web when we first went to Manali (2006), we had in our mind to go visit chandertal this time and in march 2008, when I went home from college for a few days - we made a phone call to jezer of golddrop adventures (who took us to the breathtaking beautiful place : Solang valley; and we had our first camping (actually not a real camping as it had a bed and a loo :) ) and actually loved the place) to enquire about the trip to Chandertal and he said it would be around 2k per person and this made us really happy coz we were assuming that it would be a lot more.
Then came the summer hols. and we started planning our budgets and where all we can go if Chandertal is cheap -- we looked for like Topka Gongma, Topka Yongma, Baralacha-pass -- there was a site where foreign tourist got together and came to place and that had a 15-17 day tour passing through Bhapa pass -- great heights, Baralachala and Bhapa passes are more than 4.8 kms high above sea level (assuming I remember correctly) and totally covered with ice. Total estimated was 10k per person if we wanted to go to Baralachala via trekking (don't know how corrrect it is ... ) so basically budget and all came to consideration -- the conversation on phone about the trek with jezer wasn't going well -- we couldn't get much information so we decided to go to Manali and find out, and what luck had in store for us was : (see day -1 and 0) , but before that some shopping :
Shopping : Well we had thought we will go like real trekkers for this trip and we even bought backpacks and tried to take as little stuff as possible (basically light stuff preffered), not more about this adrenalin burst period in our life as this blog is going to take a long time for me to write :) -- so photos instead :
Day -1 : (6th June) Evening - boarding the bus (seater -- back 5 seats -- 500rs each, booked a few days earlier -- we thought it was sleaper but found out govt. doesn't run sleaper -- first bummer as we were getting acutal sleaper for 550.) 16 hours of hell, even more for me as I couldn't sleep a bit.
Day 0: (Arrival) We reached at about 12:30 pm in Manali and went for the same Hotel we had booked two years back -- Hotel Meadows -- but it was closed -- so we took a nearby hotel - Hotel Ocean instead -- 900 Rs per day -- fine enough -- although we taked for only one or 2 days max. as we had to go to Chandertal.
In the evening, when we went to ask about Chandertal -- we were told a lot of things like -- you will be the first to go by our travels -- we can't arrange for a night at Chandertal -- etc. -- finally it was that if the snow is cleared we could go but not stay at night -- otherwise we had to trek 14 kms. to Chandertal from Batal and back (to and fro from Batal by road transport) and thought would be like touching the lake and coming back -- and that too involving high risk of so much walking at such a high altitude (4kms). So plan cancelled ... too depressed -- wanted to go back home -- but eventually made a plan for Rohtang for next day and left remaining things to be decided later.
This was our room the first day : (just for 1 or 2 days -- then we got new room which had 2 beds but not a scenic view - infact construction view)
View from the hotel :
Day 1 (Rohtang Pass) : Well nothing to say -- just that even though I had gone just 2 years back -- it was fresh as ever and looked toooo good -- looked better than last time (maybe coz of more snow?).
Way to Rohtang:
The next one is too beautiful, don't you think -- i personally call it heaven :
Now for breakfast, we stop at Marhi:
Finally reached Rohtang :
We crossed the snow dirtied with people and reached snow where there were none, and still kept going up :
Reached Antartica :) :
After reaching really really high up, we slided down a dangerous slope (didn't look dangerous before sliding, looked fun) -- and had NEAR-DEATH experiences (me, varun and dipu) -- we just tumbled down and our momentum foiling any attempt we made to stop -- we were lucky not to hit any stone in the way -- and when the slope was better -- our non-stopping attempts (how can you stop try to save yourself :) ) made helped in stopping, maybe a bit, but it was all slope-magic. And dipu lost one of his shoe but I, with Varun's and Hari's help, had to bear the burnt of that as I gave him my shoe to look for his, and he went back to the cab... . Anyways, I don't have a video of that for obvious reasons, but anyway, let's continue with the photos :
A view of the roads down :
Day 2 (Old Manali) : Well basically rest day. Inspite of all expectations that we would have gone home, we finally finalized a trip to bhrigu lake with a endurance-test trek before that... ok let's have old manali :
Trees in the (forest?) way to old manali
Day 3 (Jogni Falls) : The endurance-testing trip -- we were supposed to go to some other place (called Langdok ??!! -- anyways I don't remember the name), the guide taking a total of 600 bucks -- but he aked if we wanted to go to Jogni instead as we could also enjoy a waterfall and we went -- a long long way -- and this is what we had after the stairy path was over; a narrow path with khai on the left and thorny bushes on the right :
Waterfall:
Day 4 (Bhrigu lake day 1) : Bhrigu lake trek cost us 2k per head and was the main attraction of our trip -- a real trek...Gupta ji, our last day's guide and one more -- Babloo -- total 2 guides -- Gupta ji were in the front and Babloo in the back so that everyone can see/have a guide ...
In the stating we had greens, clouds - and a hell lot of bugs bugged us for 1-2 hours:
Some nice views:
Our mules (for our luggage and common luggage like food and all)
And from my camp:
Day 5 (Bhrigu lake day 2) :
Early morning view:
And then:
.
Well the following slope shows what I feared and couldn't go on with the thing; and while waiting there with Sahil and our guide Babloo -- I realized that I also had altitude-sickness -- hmm.. cool na -- mostly coz I had a lot of problem climbing the snow and wasted too much enery on that -- and the snow area wasnt' a bit green :) .... :
Finally the bhrigu lake (that I missed; though with no regrets) :
Barefeet at such height, great :
Ok, a few final comments -- total budget was approx. 7k per person -- worth it -- but I didn't enjoy so much coz of the near-death experience in Rohtang and the physical toll on my body during 2nd day of Bhrigu lake -- not to say that I didn't enjoy -- it's was the most wonderful trip -- but it failed to completely overshadow the 2006 trip, which it could and should have ....
P.S. : I have spent about 2.5 hours writing this blog -- and that doesnt' count sorting the photos for picasa and all ... what a waste of life, isn't it :) .
P.S.-2 (while editing) : took me another half an hour to edit html to give link to "day 1" and stuff which wasn't automically happening (I don't know why) by this WYSIWYG editor ...
P.S.-3 I figured that the pics are not in a good resolution -- unlike the ones I uploaded -- here are better (still not the ones I have) versions of all pics in this post : (I will try to upload full resolution pics of the best pics I have, on picasa ... )
My trekking adventures ...
No comments:
Post a Comment