An Account Of Winter Trek-08 Part 4

Extended Vacation (Kugti & Amritsar)

Dear Diary,

I wish I could convince you that we had a well planned vacation, but it was not to be. Our initial plan for the extended vacation was to trek in Kinnaur. Our planning was so good that we forgot to find out about the time taken to travel to that location from Dalhousie. It turned out to be 2 days. Slouching in a small cramped internet cafe we started searching for new place to trek. The owner of the cafe suggested us Kugti. After seeing the pics he had taken last year in Kugti we finalized on it. But to our dismay it was very difficult to get any information about the stay and travel arrangements. We got mixed reviews about that place from the locals. In spite of the setbacks we decided to go to that place. I believe this was the best decision we have made so far in this trip.

Bharmour: A small town near Chamba is around 7000 ft.
It is well know for temples. More info
Photo By Varun

To reach this place we had to make it to Bharmour. Bharmour is a small town near Chamba. There is no direct bus to Bharmour from Dalhousie, so we took a bus to Chamba. This is the second time we have come to Chamba, previously during the trek. We reached Chamba late and couldn’t get any bus to Bharmour. We halted at Chamba and took the first bus out next morning to Bharmour. The route was pretty dangerous with lots of steep bends and bumpy roads. The scenery was breathtaking. I observed that not once did the bus driver honk, something I found amusing. I come from a place where people honk to the car behind them. We reached Bharmour at 11:00 am. With some snooping around we found that the forest department had jeep services to Kugti. We were a bit late so we decide to hire a cab to take us there. We were told that the cab would drop us near Kugti, but to actually reach the village we had to walk 6km as there were no roads. Another problem was the stay. The forest dept official told us that we might get permission to stay in their guest house. If that doesn’t happen there is no other place to go.

Frozen River: On the way to Kugti one can frozen rivers and falls
Photo By Uttaran

Knowing the risk involved we decided to push on. The route to Kugti was really bad and it took us nearly 2 hours to reach that place. Once there, the cab driver told us that it was 6km walk straight. It was all up hill and after a while we started feeling tired and cold. We realized that there were no humans around and it was really deserted. After 3 hours we finally managed to reach the village.

Kugti Village: A small remote village is last village in the range.
There is no road to this village. People travel on foot or mule.
There is no telephonic communication facilities.
Photo By Uttaran

The village was small but very beautiful and clean. The man in charge of the guest house refused to let us stay. We knew we were screwed. Knowing our problem the guest house in charge let us stay in his house. We realized that we had actually taken the kids room and they all had to adjust in a single room. The dinner we had there was simple but really tasty. We hit the bed at 10:00 pm. Next morning we decided to go to a small temple nearby. The steepness of the path we were taking incremented our determination to see god decremented till we reached an “I” give up” point. We ditched the temple for trek in adjacent mountains. Satisfied with the small trek we decided to head back to the village. We need to trek back to the point where the cab dropped us last time.

A small shack we stayed in
Photo By Varun

We had arranged for a cab to pick us up. After a quick breakfast / lunch session we packed our bags, thanked the family for the stay and hit the road. This time it was mostly down hill. We reached the spot much earlier than we expected. After a short wait the cab arrived to pick us up. We reached Bharmour at 3:30, immediately boarded a bus to Chamba. We had another connecting bus from Chamba to Amritsar at 11:00 pm. We celebrated the New Year’s Eve at Chamba with a little vodka. The journey to Amritsar was cold and bumpy. After checking into a hotel in Amritsar, we went site seeing. Waga border, Golden Temple and Lassi were the best of the lot. We took the night train to New Delhi bringing an end to the adventurous and fun filled holidays.

The Golden Temple
Photo By Varun

There is no part 5 as the return journey was not all that exciting. We were exhausted. The one thing I have not mentioned is the “Yeah” symptom. Our Junglee is know to use the term “Yeah” to express Happiness / Satisfaction etc, and now each one of us started using it for every little thing.

An Account Of Winter Trek-08 Part 3

The Trek (4 days)

Dear Diary,

We started off at 7:00 am to our first destination Kalatop. The trek was pretty easy and most first timers can pull it off. Kalatop is around 8000ft. Kunfu Pande has got the nack of taking decent photographs and we managed to get some really good pics here. Munching the chikkis given to us we made way through the forest. We had to wait once in a while to let others catch up. By 10:00 am1:00 pm.

Pir Panjal Ranges is the part of the middle himalayas.
This Beautiful mountain ranges can be seen on the way to Kalatop.
With a average height of 13,000 ft it a beautiful site to see.
Photo : Varun More info

The next part of the journey was much more beautiful. We again walked through the woods and it was simply amazing. Pande got used to camera settings so we decided to take our own time and were last in the group. In spite of the delays we reached the camp 2 hours early and spent sometime lying around in the sun and then we were allotted rooms to stay. I must admit it was damn cold and we had really small rooms to fit 15 people in.

Evening at Kalatop. With a height of 8500 ft its a stunning
location. The sky as seen from here is a sight to cherish.
Photo By Cheezo. More info

Despite the initial discomfort we were awed by the beauty of the place. The sky was so clear and we could see millions of stars. If only my child hood dream had come true this would have been the place to setup the research centre. Reading the previous line I am sure Pande and Cheezo would point me to a video of Randy Pausch. We were asked to join the camp fire for some rounds of singing / talent show. We were not really keen on this as were having a lot of fun pulling each others legs. We ditched it and went strolling in the park. This is when Hemanth enlightened us with some Cheezo blunders in Sar-Pass trek. The next day, was a long trek to Khajjiar, also known as the mini-Swiss of India. This turned out to be a slightly tough trek.

Route To Khajjiar. 12km trek in the thick forest is good experience
Photo By Varun

Again most of the journey was through the forest. We saw kids selling flowers on the pathway. They would wait till the full group passes by and then take a shortcut to intercept us in the next stop. Cheezo was in a race with these kids, and it was a funny sight. Our hero lost badly. Again we were the last in the group, and took our time for photographs. All along we had kids running around offering porter services to trekkers. Some of the older people did use the service but rest of us refused.

Young entrepreneurs : Kids living in jungle provide various
services like tea stalls, snacks, souvenirs, and porter.
Photo By Uttaran

We reached Khajjiar in the evening and enjoyed roaming around. It’s a commercial tourist place with nothing interesting there. The camp was slightly bigger than the previous one and we had enough space in the room.

Khajjiar: Also know as the mini-swiss of India. This place was
created by an asteroid. This is a busy tourist location. More info
Photo By Cheezo

You must understand that it’s inevitable for a group of guys to stop discussing ‘A’ jokes and so the saga continued. The pinnacle was reached when there was a joke about fruits, at that moment we decided to shut up and go to bed. Ozzy realized that I was snoring and wanted to record my snore. Alas I don’t snore it was the guy next to me. They were disappointed with their failure and finally went to bed.

A beautiful island enroute Chamba valley. Chamba is little
town near Khajjiar. Chamba is a district and a commercial place
for the tourists. Photo By Arun

Chamba, our next camp was relatively close and it was all downhill. Our camp leader told us to take our time to climb down as we have small distance to cover. We were last once again. We started to pace up towards the end, not because of fear of being left behind but more so to do with the intense discussion between Myself, Cheezo and Pande.

City of Chamba. More info
Photo By Varun

Chamba valley, a big town, was our last camp. We were asked to go around Chamba and shop if needed. Once in the market area the girls did all the shopping and we were busy hunting for non-veg. We spotted a decent hotel and had our early dinner. This end of our trek, and most of the folks left to Delhi from Dalhousie the next day. We had an extended holiday and we had no idea where we want to spend the next 3 days. We reached Dalhousie at 11:00 am and got ready for our extended vacation. The only problem was where? Click here for part 4 .

An Account Of Winter Trek-08 Part 2

Trip to Dalhousie & Acclimatization Day

Dear Diary,

We reached Pathankot early in the morning and got ourselves good hot parathas for breakfast. After an hour wait at the bus stand we finally boarded a bus to Dalhousie. Bad roads were a way of life in HP so we dug into the minimally cushioned seats and listened to music. After an uneventful bus ride we reached Dalhousie at around 5:00 pm. We reported to the base camp and took all our blankets and sleeping bags from the organizers.

The base camp at Dalhousie. You can decent facilities and good food. A nice lawn overlooking the camp is for exercising as well as relaxing. Photo taken by Varun

After our dinner which was pretty delicious we had a camp fire without fire. Participants from the previous batch entertained us with jokes and songs. I have to admit though they were fun, we were all in a different mood. The day ended and we retired to our bunks. The next day was Acclimatization day and we were made to get up and exercise at 5:00 am. There we met the rest of the gang (Mini and co, who had arrived late). Pande gave us some LMAO moments when the instructor caught him not exercising. After an hour of exercising, we were asked to go back to base camp for breakfast.

Stray Mountain Goat found roaming around in Dalhousie.
Picture taken by Cheezo

Aerosmith sang...

“I met a Blind Man
Who thought me how to see”,

I guess that applies to us except the fact that he didn’t teach us directions. We got lost yet again. All 5 of us took the wrong way and it took us 2km of walking to realize the mistake. Sure enough we were late for breakfast and also delayed the start of acclimatization day. After a hurried breakfast we were on our way to a 3km casual trek where we got to introduce ourselves and get to know others in the group. We had people from Maharastra, Gujarat and Tamilnadu. But the most misbehaved group was from Bangalore. It’s unfair to put that label on all the folks from Bangalore as it was us who were the hooligans. One useful thing we did when we returned from the trek was to clean up Dalhousie. We began collecting as many plastic bags lying around as possible and dumped them in bin. We were also able to inspire others to do similar act.







Cleaning up Dalhousie. Thats a stupid pose though ;)
Photo taken by Varun











This is about the time when Arun managed to get his new nickname. So back in the bunkers we already started off with ‘A’ jokes and were having a blast, we even came up with very funny patentable ideas. Click here for Part 3.

An Account Of Winter Trek-08 Part 1

For a change I decided to blog about this trip “My Diary” style. This was one the best trip I had ever been on. I have decided to share every little detail of the trip as I remember, censoring out the stuff that’s not meant for all. So here it goes…

Train Journey from Bangalore to New Delhi & Geographically Challenged Kunfu-Pande

Dear Diary,
We boarded the Karnataka Express around 7 in the evening. Every time I board a train, there is an expectation that a hot chick would be my co-passenger and this time it was no different. Like always expectation turned to disappointment when an elderly couple took the remaining 3 seats. Leaving behind the initial setback, we decided to girl-hunt the compartment. Satisfied with our efforts, we decided to settle down and discuss about the trek plans. In a session of fast paced no-holds-bar jokes exchange I regretfully let out a story from my college days earning me yet another nick name to the already over populated array. We spent the next day playing cards and listening to music. I often wondered what makes a decent group of boys/men/old men go wacky when it is to do with ‘A’ jokes. I guess all guys think alike. We ended an uneventful day with some wacky jokes from Arun and Uttaran and smart ass comments from the “old” man. By now we had already caught on the “Yeah” symptom. I will be back with more about this later. We reached New Delhi at 11:00 am and met Mr. Jog at the station and we decided to eat at Karims. I’ll skip the details of the lunch but for the record it was the best non-veg lunch I had in a while.






Photo Taken @ Karims: Situated near Jama Masjid is a must place to go if you are a meat lover. This is said to be a restaurant opened by the Mugal Emperors Cooks. There are many branches that have opened up all over the city of Delhi but nothing matches the original. A word of caution, it takes quite an effort to reach the place and many might find it dirty but if you are a foodie this is the place to go. Pic Taken By Cheezo




This kick starts the second episode of Part 1. We thought, I say that again “thought” that Kunfu-Pande being a local boy would know Delhi well. That would go down as the biggest mistake of the trek. Pande and I had our shares of goof-ups in Bangalore, but we could always escape by declaring that we were outsiders. Our very own Pande promised to take us for the movie Madagascar 2, but we ended up in a cine hall that played that stupid SRK flick. You have to forgive me, but I can’t even mention that name of the movie in my blog. It’s an insult. After couple of calls to Junglee we decided that we shall pass away the time by roaming in the streets. We soon realized that we need to hit a pub and enjoy some music. Our Pande once again delighted us with the news that he knew a ROCK pub. After roaming around in all the wrong directions we finally made it to the ROCK pub that turned out to be Sports Bar that played MJ. We finally ended up in Barista. I was too sober to remember what happened next, so we skip to Part 2. Click here for part 2.

Skandagiri Trek

Skandagiri is 73km from Bangalore. Located at an altitude of 1750 mts, its a beautiful location for moderate trekking. This is essentially a night trek, but we decided to trek in the morning as girls were accompanying us. The trekking day started off with me searching for ATM at 4:30 AM. I then picked up Manish and Uttaran. Arun and Kiran were right on time. So the only people who were late at the start point(EGL) were Ozzy and Prerna.There can never be a trek without at least one person getting late. We never thought getting out of the city would be a problem, but it turns out Uttaran (Our Navigator) has not done his "classwork". We were roaming around the city to find the exit to Bellary road. Finally, we were out and cruising along the highway. Reached Chikbalapur at 7:30 AM, and soon found our way to basecamp of Skandagiri. We parked our cars at basecamp, and found a guide for the trek. Although a guide is not needed for the morning trek, we decided to hire him nonetheless. We started the climb around 8:00AM, and it took us 3 hours to reach the top. We had few first timers with us, so we had to stop at regular intervals for them. Irrespective of the stops we made it to the top in good time. On the way we saw all the 6 circular fort walls as stated in the wiki .

A View From The Top

There were supposed to be two unexplored caves which are python infected. We didn't get a chance to see them, but if i ever go there again, thats something i want to see. Prerna was struggling, as the climb was steep. Apart from a few statements like "You guys carry on, ill be here. Pick me up when you come down", "I don't think i can make it" she mustered enough energy to reach the top. Energy bars must have done the trick :) . Ozzy was not doing any better either, he conveniently declared the trek as Fitness Awareness Session. While Arun and Uttaran, our official photographers were busy shooting pics, we were enjoying the scenic beauty form the hill. We could see mist and lush green trees all around us. Manish showed us a beautiful spot to rest and nap for a while but we ignored it at that moment.

Another View

That was a big mistake because, on the way down we could not get to that spot as it was already occupied by "shrill voiced" college girls. We finally managed to conquer the hill only to find no shade at the top. There was nothing there except a small temple.

Photo Time Folks!!

The place was dirty, and filled with plastic papers and bottles. Alas! the beauty of the place was spoilt by irresponsible city idiots. It was scorching hot and no place for us to hide. After searching around a bit we settled down in a place and started our regular chitchats. The topic of discussion was none other than our Sunflower boy. We seriously need to find better topic to discuss. We had some food, so we got busy munching them. Prerna had made some rolls which were delicious and in matter of minutes it was over. It was very clear why this place is meant for night trek. There are no tress or rocks on top for shade. So by 12:30 PM, we decided to climbdown and stop at a place for lunch, which never happened. Climbing down was also a little tough as it was steep. So much so that everyone there managed to come up with a theory of why goats can climb down comfortably than humans. Since Prerna was the one leading the pack and was pretty comfortable than she was when climbing up, Arun nicknamed her "The Goat". Ozzy and Manish were falling behind and the reason being few "Natural Beauties" ;-).

Climbing Down The Hill With "The Goat" Leading The Pack

We reached the basecamp by 2:30 PM. It was blistering hot. On our way to Bangalore we decided to stop at a road side Dhaba for lunch. We found one soon after a sudden downpour. It was rather strange to see the weather change so suddenly. Nonetheless, it was awesome driving in the rain and with our CJ (car jockey) Arun playing superb rock number i had no complain.

A Funny Notice

We had a long lunch session discussing topics from liquor to linux and finally reached Bangalore at 5:30 PM. It was a fun trek and iam looking forward for more. And before i forget, kudos to Kiran for dirtying her "Orbit White Shoes".

Trek At Muthati

After week long anticipation of the trek at kodachadri (near shimoga) that was planned 1 month in advance, the air was filled with disappointment. We learnt that shimoga was flooded due to heavy rains and trek was not possible. The long awaited trek had come to an end even before it started. We had 3 days to kill and no plan in place. Sensing this few of my friends decided to head home rather than wasting their time in bangalore doing nothing. We were down to just 4. We decided to drive down to nandhi hills near bangalore. We knew it was not a trekking spot, but at least it took us out of the city. Nandhi hills trip proved to be a good time pass, but there were far too many tourist to actually have fun. In matter of 15 mins we decided that we shall trek Muthati the next day. Raja and Joe were the people who worked out the logistics for the trek. I took the responsibility of driving and kicha, hmm sleeping. We started from bangalore at 6:30 AM on Saturday. We had enough food and water, as there would be nothing available there. We left the city via kanakapura road. The roads were very good, so we cruised at around 80kmph.

Raja, Me and Joe before we left bangalore.

It was decided that we shall have our breakfast at some restaurant in kanakapura. We reached there around 7:45 AM. We found it difficult to get a decent place to eat. Even though there were small hotels on the way, we could not park our car. Finally we found one small hotel for breakfast with a good car park. By 8:10 AM we were on our way to a small village called Sathnur. The road at this stretch was bad and narrow so we decided to slow down. Once we reached Sathnur which was around 16km from Kanakapura, we took a deviation to head towards Muthati which is around 18km. The roads were narrow so we had to be careful. We were a bit surprised that most of the journey from Sathnur to Muthati was downhill.

Road from Sathnur to Muthati

We reached Muthati around 9:15 AM. It was told that Muthati was a dirty place. But we did not find it that dirty. We found the forest department and payed Rs.150 per head for the trek. For a guide we had to pay Rs.150. The forest dept guy took the money and didnt give any receipt. On asking, he said if receipt is needed it will cost us more. We knew he was cheating us, but we decided to let go as we had to park our car in their camp and didnt want any trouble. Our guide's name was Nagaraj. He took us through a small hill to mark the starting point of the trek. We were told that there are various hills that can be covered in the trek depending upon difficulty and time. Joe had to catch a train at 10:00 pm the very same day, so we decided upon a trek route which would get us back by 3:00 pm. The route we decided was Muthati Base camp - Devanamundi Hills - Kalibetta - Mannabetta - Bheemeshwari - Muthati Base camp. We started our accent to reach Devanamundi which was the hardest part. It was very steep and by the time we reached our first destination we were exhausted. We rested for a while during which we saw the beauty of river cauvery flowing through the hills.

River Cauvery At Its Best

The next destination was Kallibetta, and way to reach it was a slippery rocks, untamed thorny bushes and tall grass. We had difficult time walking through these obstacles. Our guide was very helpful in clearing the way for us. He even offered to carry one of our backpacks as kicha was struggling. The most difficult stage of the trek was to jump to the other side of a huge inclined rock with a cactus plant exposing all its thorns at us. Our guide did it with ease. I was a bit nervous and i approached with great caution. Our only grip was the rock and nothing else to hold on to. In the end it was successful manoeuvre and all of us got to the other side safely. I managed to get a thorn embedded in my palm.

Me relaxing after the thorn incident

Our next stop was Mannabetta. This stretch was not as tedious as the previous ones. It was more like a stroll in the park. At this point we started noticing fresh elephant dung. Our guide cautioned us that an elephant had just crossed this path and we were to remain silent until we cross this stretch. Initially we were scared as none of us had seen a wild elephant. Soon fear gave away to excitement. We wanted to come face to face with a wild elephant. Suddenly we heard a noise near the thick bushes. We were sure it was an elephant. On further investigating we found that it was a lone woodcutter. Dismayed, we asked our guide if we can follow the elephant trail. He talked us out of it as it was very dangerous. We finally reached Mannabetta which had a watch tower. The scene from the watch tower was astounding. It was great view. It would have been good if we had an SLR.

A View From The Watch Tower

We rested in the watch tower for few minutes before we continued our trek to Bheemeshwari. This was a piece of cake and we reached Bheemeshwari at 1:15 PM. We had tender coconut water and walked to the river bank for lunch. We saw a funny "No-Plastic Zone" sign on the way.

A Funny Notice

We ate our full near the river cauvery. We decided to head back to the base camp. The route to base camp was not tough but we found it hard after the heavy meal. We went to another watch tower and rested there for sometime. The main problem was the number of accents and descents in the trek which tires a person quickly.

Pretty Tired Kicha :-)

Our guide promised us that route to base camp was very easy. It was easy and we managed to reach the road to base camp. We had to walk 6km on road to reach the destination. We were thirsty and tired. We walked as fast as we can to reach the camp. On the way we saw police patrol question the lorry filling up sand. We were not sure if it was illegal. We were also stopped by forest dept officials and inquired about our whereabouts. Our guide spoke to the officials and they let us go. We finally reached the base camp at 3:10 PM.

Wow!! its finally over.

There was a concern if i could drive back immediately after this tough trek. I decided to drive down without a break just to get away from a some IT folks who have gathered in the base camp for some team building activity. The drive back was tougher than i though due to exhaustion, but good old classic rock n roll kept me going with me singing "Highway to hell".

Total Distance Of The trek : 20km

Difficulty : Medium