Part I: The Infinite Meadows
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| First view of Dayara Bugyal |
Introduction:
I am posting this blog after more than 2 years, but the visions of Buran Ghati trek cease to fade away…! The call of the Himalayas was too great to ignore… That summer too (in 2015), despite several rebukes from my overprotective parents, I made up my mind to go to the Himalayas.
Kinnaur (Himachal Pradesh) had always captured my imagination, due its unique culture, the mystical lure of Kinnaur Kailash, and also its famous apples! I therefore initially planned for Rupin Pass trek, which ends at Baspa valley. However, the batches were running full 3 months advance! The only alternative that seemed feasible was Buran Ghati. Geographically too, Buran Ghati valley (i.e. Pabbar valley) lies adjacent to the Rupin valley (towards its West). However, the approach is completely different. While Rupin pass trek starts from Uttarkhand, Buran Ghati starts from Shimla district of Himachal Pradesh.
Buran Ghati (aka Buran Pass, Barua Pass or Burrando Pass) is one of the many passes that connect Pabbar valley in Shimla district and Baspa valley in Kinnaur. It used to be an important trade link between Shimla and Kinnaur, till the roads came along. The Pabbar valley, Buran Ghati and Kinnaur region had received innumerable explorations in the past, and the most notable work is by Alexander Gerard (Narrative of a Journey from Caunpoor to the Borendo Pass in the Himalayas, 1840). The Pabbar River is a major tributary of Yamuna, and Baspa River is a major tributary of Satluj.
“Great!” exclaimed my office colleague and friend Aditya, when he got to know that I was planning my next trek. He mentioned that he had been reading my last blog about my trek to Roopkund. “Count me in!” he declared. Gaurav, my undergrad college mate and an old friend, also expressed interest – “Just want to take a break, far from the rat race!”
So we booked Buran Ghati from 20 June to 26 June 2015 through Indiahikes. The trio of us Aditya, Gaurav and I, started our respective preparations for the trek. Both Adi and Gaurav had no prior trek experience. So, I impressed upon them the importance of physical preparation and packing the right things for the trek.
It was challenging to get our leaves approved. At one time, just few days prior to start, I had thought of cancelling the trek. “It may be either you or me!” I remember telling Aditya – one of the vices of working in the same organisation! Even Gaurav was in conundrum, he even contemplated bringing the Laptop with him! After relentless efforts, however, we finally got our leaves approved! I was excited: I would be going to the abode of the snows again, and this time with 2 friends!
19- 20 June: Delhi to Shimla (9 hours) to Janglik (2810 m) (11 hours)
Adi and I reached the Kashmere Gate ISBT directly from our office. My parents gave a pleasant surprise by arriving all the way from Gurgaon to see me off!
Gaurav came soon after, and the bus journey started. I had that inexplicable but familiar sense of exhilaration of going to the Himalayas, a resounding ‘yaay!’ came straight from the heart!
Thundering start
It normally takes 10 hours to reach Shimla. Thus, the bus was slated to reach around 6.30 am, which was beyond our reporting time of 6 am. To make the matters worse, a ferocious thunderstorm began just after crossing the Himachal Pradesh border. Once, a lightning struck so close, it blinded me for a minute. Another lightning set a nearby tree ablaze. It was frightening – I consciously made sure that no part of my body touched any metallic part of the bus! The mountains magnified the magnificent thunders; the winds became vicious and the heavens opened up.
Despite all this, the undaunted bus driver drove at full speed! I was literally sitting at the edge of my seat! Fortunately, the winds relented after Solan, though it was still raining. When we finally zigzagged our way to the old bus-stand at Shimla, the time was just 5 am – about 1.5 hours ahead of the scheduled time!
Shimla
Shimla is the capital of Himachal Pradesh. Formerly a capital of British India, it is now very crowded city. Except the mountains and the cool weather, it would be hard to notice any difference between Delhi and Shimla. However, it still evokes a feeling of certain intoxication and passion due to its old-world charm!
It was already aurora. The sky was still cloudy, but the sun could be seen struggling to come out of the clouds in the distant horizon.
We still had an hour to catch the cab arranged by Indiahikes team, so we whiled away time by roaming about at the vicinity and chit-chatting amongst ourselves. We also wrote a poem on Mother Earth (to assist one of our office-boys’ son with his Holiday Homework!) At 6.30 am, it again began to pour, so we hurriedly located our cab, a rickety Traveller, and soon started the bumpy but picturesque journey to Janglik!
The roller-coaster ride
The road till Theog was good. I had the first glimpse of the snow-clad mountains at the far-off horizon.
The road conditions spiralled soon after, and we were in for a bumpy ride for next 10 hours.
Although, Rohru was just 130 odd kms from Shimla, reaching there would easily take about 7 hours due to depraved road conditions. It is another 4-hour drive on a virtually non-existent road to reach Tonglu, via Chirgaon, alongside the river Pabbar.
The road after Chirgaon is actually a dirt track on a steep mountainside, the bumpiest and scariest you would ever see. We all had our hearts in our mouths as the young driver negotiated the rickety Traveller over razor sharp switchbacks on the way to Tonglu!
The scenery made up for the bad roads, green mountains and wide open valley, coupled with the company of my closest friends!
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| Pabbar River |
Just after Chirgaon, we also had first view of the snow-clad crests of the mountains up-close! We had been moving continuously for nearly 24 hours. But it was worth every second – we were finally into the lap of the Himalayas!
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| First view of snow-clad mountains up-close! |
We reached Tonglu at around 6 pm. Earlier, the road-head used to be all the way till Janglik, but due to a collapsed bridge just ahead; the only way to reach Janglik now was on foot! So, we had officially started our trek on day zero itself!
The Mountain Ranger
Here, we met our trek leader – a man who dons many hats: he is a mountaineer- having done Basic and Advance Mountaineering courses; a manager who managed the rations, high altitude porters and crew members and other guides with quite aplomb; a saviour who stood with us like a pillar at times of potential danger; a cook who made us a delicious Gulab Jamun at the second highest campsite, which we savoured heartily during the second coldest night; a porter who carried bags of rations and common equipment, sometimes rucksacks of trekkers and sometimes trekkers themselves; a great storyteller; a first aid expert; and above all a great leader – Saranbir Singh, or Saranbir in short, a tall, well-built, be-spectacled, dark complexioned Sikh (due to prolonged exposure to UV rays), his hair cleanly tucked inside the black turban, an oximeter and a whistle dangling from his neck and ropes and hooks from his rucksack, wearing a cool green t-shirt, Quechua pants and Salomon shoes, and a face flushed with determination.
After stretching our legs numbed from the tiring journey, we readied ourselves for the trek to the base camp. We descended to cross a stream, the descent was scary, and bought back the memories of the last year’s Descent during Roopkund trek. But my 2-trek old hunter shoes still managed to provide a good grip.
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| Moi |
We crossed a 2-feet-wide bridge adjacent to the broken bridge. A vehicle was made available at the other side of the broken road-bridge to carry the ration to the base camp. I wondered how the vehicle could have arrived there at first place, since at one end of the road there was a broken bridge, and the other end of the road terminated at Janglik!
We all preferred to walk instead of boarding the vehicle. We were animated and little did we realize that we climbed about 750 ft in mere 45 minutes to reach our base camp!
Janglik
We reached Janglik at around 7.30 pm. The campsite was on a small ground just above the village temple. A pretty large village, it has a temple and a school in the middle. The village believed to be named after the local deity “Jakh-Jakhoh”. Another belief is that due to its remoteness and ‘jungles’ all around, the people here were believed to be ‘junglee’ (violent), hence the name ‘Janglik’.
The views were mesmerizing, with greenery and vegetation all around. Seldom do we come across opportunity to start a trek from such a beautiful Base Camp…
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Across the valley, in stark contrast, are the mountains that are so steep and rugged, their face devoid of any human civilization and their naked pinnacles seem to threaten the sky…
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The introductions and instructions
It was getting dark. We huddled up for the usual instructions while munching delicious snacks. The other trekkers introduced themselves –we were a group of 17, which was much smaller as compared to the groups in my last two treks. For a few, including my 2 friends, this was their first high-altitude trek. We had amongst us a foreigner (Rob, a teacher), the co-founder of Indiahikes (Sandhya), a very young-at-heart 74-year-old Air Force veteran (Paras Ram) and also a group of lawyers and some solo trekkers. For the rest of our trek, we gelled quite well as a group, each helping the other in times of need, and each sharing their own exciting stories with the other! It was good to interact with other trekkers – one had completed cycling expedition on the 600-odd km Manali-Leh-Khardung La route, another just survived the Great Lakes trek during flash-floods at Kashmir. Retired wing commander Paras Ram was also an experienced trekker, having done Annapurna circuit and Everest Base Camp treks among others. Our trek leader Saranbir had also quit his marketing job 2 years ago to pursue his Himalayan dream.
Meanwhile, Saranbir emphasized importance of avoiding any alcoholic beverage and smoking at high altitudes, as these rapidly deplete in our bodies the most important resource at these places – oxygen.
The sky is lit
The dinner was sumptuous, a subzi, daal, salad, chapatis, sweet… a hearty meal indeed! But washing plates after dinner was quite a task in itself – since the water was ice cold!
Thus, after dinner, it was a good idea to light a campfire, which uplifted the sombre moods due to tiredness of the long day. I, however, wanted to explore the village a little bit, but since it was dark and I too was tired, I didn’t venture too far. The clear sky lit with stars, like a million candles lighting-up a vast ocean!
At around 10.30 pm, Aditya, Gaurav and I cuddled up together inside a single dome-tent. The claustrophobic tents needed some adjusting, but I was too tired and swiftly slipped into slumber and within seconds, I was in my own dreamy world of Buran Ghati.
Unlike last year, it was an eventful day-zero of the trek; from thunderstorms en-route Shimla to clear-skies at Janglik… We witnessed snow-clad mountains up-close and even trekked for about 1 hour to the base camp. Such a great start of the trek was un-anticipated. “What other surprises are in store for us?” I wondered.
June 21: Janglik (2810 m) to Dayara1 (3400 m), 5 hours
A fresh dewy morning greeted us, with a wondrous smell of the deodars and a spectacle to behold. The sun was all but out, since the sky was a bit cloudy. The clouds covered the crests of the distant tall mountains which stood like guardians protecting the little village.
The fresh atmosphere melted away even the slightest self-doubts hidden in the deepest corners of our heart.
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| Un-pitching a tent |
After our morning chores, we assembled to witness a little demonstration by Saranbir on how to ideally pack a rucksack. I realised how little I knew about rucksack-packing even after 2 treks! The most important lesson I learnt was that rolling (instead of folding) the cloths save lots of space in the rucksack. It is a special kind of roll, called ranger roll, so that the cloths don’t unroll after you pack them. I immediately unpacked my just-packed rucksack, pulled out all my cloths, ranger-rolled them, and then repacked. Surely, the volume of my rucksack decreased and it felt a lot more comfortable now! Later, he showed how to un-pitch a tent, an important skill in my opinion which a trekker should know. Unlike in Roopkund trek, where we always found our tents pitched and ready at the campsites, this time it was us who had to pitch and un-pitch the tents, which was actually quite fun!  |
| Sandhya Uc, Indiahikes co-founder |
After the hearty breakfast – bread-jam and butter and honey, cornflakes, eggs, milk (something to suit every palate) – Adi, Gaurav and I un-pitched and packed our tent. Adi and Gaurav bought a hiking pole each, while I carried a wooden stick which I picked during Roopkund trek. Looking at the distant clouds, I bought a poncho for 400 bucks, which was quite a bargain.
Bye-bye civilization!
After taking over our packed lunches and some dry rations, at 9’o clock, we began our trek. Climbing higher from our campsite on a rocky trail, we soon found ourselves walking past colourful wooden houses and crossing paddy fields, bidding adieu to civilization!
As we climbed higher, I looked back at the village Janglik, nestled gently among the rolling slopes of the snow-crested mountains and surrounded with so many shades of green, as if it just clung itself to the ridge of the mountain. I now know why it is called a hanging village. Past Janglik, one could also see the village of Tonglu.
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Across the valley, the dark Chanshal Mountains contrasts the rolling green slopes opposite them, its dark ravines filled with white snow and razor sharp pinnacles piercing the blue sky above…
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A rest and some puzzles
We walked among the mighty and tall pines and deodars, some of which could have been as old as the mighty Himalayas! I felt humbled and thankful to God who provided me the opportunity to walk among these giants!
At a small clearing en-route, at around 12.30, we had our packed lunch and had some rest for a while. Most of us sat around a small shepherd-hut, while some roamed around exploring the place. The sun had become quite strong, and it was nice to take a nap under the strong sun after the meal.
Saran introduced us to an immensely interesting game of story-puzzles. He used to put up a puzzling story, and we had to find out how that may have happened through logical reasoning. And, he never ran out of the stories.
Steep climb and Lo!
After an hour, we resumed our trek. Despite mostly a gentle gradient, there were some steeper sections which could have induced vertigo. However, since we were walking just above the treeline, the view of the steep valley was blocked by the tall deodars.  |
| One minute before... |
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| ...one minute after! |
The beautiful meadows
My eyes followed the brook upstream to see where it came from. I was amazed to notice how this humble looking stream had made its way by cutting so deep into the mighty mountain. I was reminded of the proverb ‘Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence’. My heart went to the little riparian flowers which bloomed with dignity and elegance, just to be one with Nature, without expecting anything in return.
A large herd of sheep and goats grazed peacefully, unperturbed by the swarm of unknown humans infiltrating their territory. This, among the herds of sheep, stallions and other cattle, on the tender dewy grasses of the meadow, was our campsite – so pristine and beautiful, untouched by any human activity!
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Across the valley, the scenery is contradictory – the steep dark rocks rising abruptly from the valley, ending in knifelike edges, with a dark mysterious forest barely clinging to the rugged landscape…
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| River Pabbar is flowing between those jagged mountains and undulating meadows |
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Some wanderings
As we waited for our tents to arrive, we wandered towards the very edge of the meadows to have a glimpse of the raging Pabbar river. However, our view was obstructed by the dense pine forest on the steep slopes below. We were startled by a herd of mules and cattle which seemed to follow us everywhere. May be they were just curious, or maybe they were just searching for some greener pastures!
Meanwhile, some of the trekkers climbed a small hillock nearby. Gaurav and Sourabdip (a solo trekker from Bhubaneshwar) went a further downward towards the forest, while Aditya played wonderful tunes from his harmonica.
Pitching tents
Soon our tents arrived, and since it began drizzling, we hurriedly went back to our campsite to pitch our tent. This was for the first time I learnt how to pitch a dome tent, and it was fun learning the nitty-gritties of this art!
We pitched our tent with its opening towards the spectacular view of the mighty snow-clad mountains across the valley. Indeed, a room with a view! The afternoon was really ours – while some of us took rest, others wandered around exploring the campsite.
An evening at Dayara
The clouds somehow parted in the evening, and the alpenglow swept across the crests of distant mountains. I soaked in each and every moment; there was so much life in each of these moments!
It became quite cold, and thus a campfire was lit. A herd of sheep grazed close to our campsite, and a few strayed into our camp area. Among them, an adorable little white lamb immediately became the centre of attraction! One of the locals was able to catch it, but he had to let it go when he saw its angry mother rushing towards him!
Soon, a sumptuous dinner was spread in the dining tent. Meanwhile, as the clouds parted completely and the sky again glittered with billions of stars, and soon it was time to call it a day! We were spending a night in one of the remotest places in the Himalayas, and with no electricity, no mobile network, no other worldly pleasures, it was surely celestial feeling!
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Across the valley, on the face of the rugged mountain, among the tall deodars, I see a dim flickering light. What can bring someone to that almost inaccessible place? Is that even a human, or something else…?
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| What could possible be there in the dead of the night in the face of that jagged mountain? |
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Notes:
1. It may be noted that this Dayara en-route Buran Ghati is different from Dayara Bugyal in Uttarakhand.
Sources:
1. https://indiahikes.com/buran-ghati/
2. http://www.indiamike.com/india/trekking-and-mountaineering-in-india-f89/help-buran-ghati-t53936/
3. Narrative of a Journey from Caunpoor to the Borendo Pass in the Himalayas, Alexander Gerard
4. Account of Koonawur in the Himalaya, Alexander Gerard
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Your great capability of storytelling almost takes us the readers to the mountains, I would love to visit all the great places that you have your footprints on, keep it up bhai... Ankit
ReplyDeleteHow beautiful the trek was, and how you made me revisit each moment.... thanks a lot shobhit for putting it all up together so wonderfully.
ReplyDeleteSo where are we headed next???
Loved the narration👍
ReplyDeletelovely, I am going to Buran this Sunday!
ReplyDelete