*Crazy Over Desserts

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…..

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

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

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I was trailing behind…..

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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…..

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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 ….

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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.

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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…..

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Now you know why I call him MAD Hatter….

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

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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…..

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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

Trip To Tunganath - Day 2 [Trek to Deveria Tal]

Drive to sari village - Trek to Deveria Tal –– Drive to Chopta (30Kms) - Trek to the shiva temple of TUNGANATH.

We woke up to the most delightfully clear day after a misty shower of rain at 7am.

From Day 2 - At Ok...

We were all click happy and took lots of pictures. The snow capped peaks looked beautiful.

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An ode to the photographer……

We got ready, the thing to report is that the boys took so long to get ready…… We started chomping on biscuits right there….

From Day 2 - At Ok...

There was this shrub in full bloom which caught our fancy… actually more than that….. check out the walls at the back…..

From Day 2 - At Ok...

That’s Mad hatter and me….

Everyone else had yummy breakfast. I had the paratha’s packed as we still had to drive some distance in the hills before we left for Chopta for treking.

While driving to chopta, we crossed a board which mentioned a detour to Deveria Tal. A lake situated at an altitude of 3200 mts. Legends says its the same lake where Yaksha ask question from Pandavas . One can see the reflection of Chaukhamba peaks on a bright sunny day. It was decided that lets check out the lake and then we’ll do the Tunganath trek in the afternoon and reach the top by the evening.

We all agreed…

We started the trek with great enthusiasm….. The scenery was great…. Looking down was giving me the jitters….. just kept going.

From Day 2 - Trek ...

I never imaged it would be so tough to walk when the air got rare. I was breathing like a fish in no time. Even carrying a full bottle of water was impossible. We split 1 full bottle into 2 halfs.

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We stopped half way and rested our feet a bit… clicked some pictures…..

This is our Guide…

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The partners in most crimes….. ;-)

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Puneet Makkar and Mad Hatter bounded up leaving Julie and me trailing with Vivek sir accompanying us…..

We were completely pooped….. never thought we’d get to the top….. But kept going nevertheless……

Vivek sir pipes up suddenly… chalo nachi chalo….. abb sirf project ke bugs regress hone baki hai….. the worst is over…. We’re almost there…. Just little bit more…..

All I could do was burst out laughing….. even laughing at that altitude took some wind out of me….. [Caution…. This joke wold be understood mostly by Product/Project Managers]

When we reached up….. the view was just fabulous… See for your self…… we were really click happy.

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Such pristine beauty…… It was reallllllllyyyyy worth the climb……

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This one is a classic….

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We were quite tired walking up…… after lots of pics… we sat around for a while enjoying the natural beauty…

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Vivek sir at work…

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The results of his work….. :-)

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While walking around the lake on a trailer… I was busy chattering away and looking at the millions of tadpoles in the lake and….WHAM….. walked straight into a tree whose trunk was all knotted up and jutting out…. Ouch… That REALLLLLLYYYY hurt….

This was taken just after the bump….

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What a poser….

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We even spotted a fox on the hill top……

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The climb down was not so tedious as the climb up… but nevertheless very tiring and the calf muscles were complaining a lot.

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After we reached the village, we sat in the car and drove to Chopta.

About Tunganath

Trip To Tunganath - Day 1

How it all happened?

Last weekend Puneet Chawla (from now on called Mad Hatter in my blog… you will know why I am calling him that as you read on) said:

Mad Hatter: Trek pe chalna hai?

NC: Where?

Mad Hatter: Let’s see…. Aap bolo chaloge ya nahin…

NC: Who else is going?

Mad Hatter: Vivek, Julie (Vivek’s wife) Puneet Makkar, you and me…. [This is the same group in which we had gone to Billing for Parasailing in Himachal Pradesh.

NC: Okay… tell me where you want to go so that I can take permission at home.

Mad Hatter: Decided…. We are going to Tungnath…. And we’ll be doing a 3 day trip and trek to the shiva temple of Tunganath. You can check out Pictures of tunganath (by a user “lighttripper” on www.flickr.com) which gave us the confidence that the place is worth visiting….. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lighttripper/1456035475/in/set-72157602069686780/

Day 1: Friday

Noida – Roorkee – Haridwar - Rishikesh - Devprayag - Rudraprayag - Ukhimat (Okhimat) [Night Halt]

Left Noida at 4:30 am

Reached Roorkee and had a fabulous breakfast of bun maska with masala omlette outside IIT Roorkee….. [as close as I could ever get to such a place….. ]

From Day 1 [Trip T...

That’s Vivek sir and Mad Hatter[Orange Shirt] with the owner[Dressed in white] of the small shop outside IIT-R.

From Day 1 [Trip T...

That’s Julie….

After which we went on to climb the hills… was excited to cross “Logout at Work” [the camp where we stayed when I went rafting]

From Day 1 [Trip T...

On the way, we crossed a lovely waterfall… we just had to stop and take pictures….

From Day 1 [Trip T...

The most comfortable monster, who took us on the journey….

And what did we discovered…… One of Mad Hatter’s favourite movies is “Dil Se”… we all crashed out laughing…..

It rained for a bit….. Vivek got nice pictures of an Indica’s tail lights, thru the rainy windshield….. reminds me of a “Heat Map of Clicks”…. [what to do… Product Manager ka tainted dimag….] after which I slept all the way as I get very sick in the hilly drives.

From Day 1 [Trip T...

We had lunch at a dhaba in Rudraprayag… The menu there was spelled amazingly…. "Dal Fired", "Finger Masala", "Chawmine", "Batter Toste"... LOz...

We crossed many pilgrims on the way… but this sadhu really caught our attention. While Vivek clicked his pictures… he knew that this was a digital camera and asked to see what shots we got of him…..

From Day 1 [Trip T...

We reached the GMVN guest house at 4:30pm….. [That's 375 Kms in 12 hours including breaks]

We were famished n it was raining… obviously we ordered for tea/coffee and pakoras….

From Day 1 [Trip T...

We played flash with match sticks and plastic glasses…. Beginners luck… after a starting balance of Rs120, I had reach a positive balance of 220….. and slowly my profit dwindled from Rs100 to Rs.50, thanks o tall the reckless playing with blind and chaal……

Mad Hatter: I remember that you owe me Rs.50. See I still remember.

We had quite a sensible discussion with Vivek while he was quite high….. [we had obviously carried our own booze]

From Day 1 [Trip T...

The twinkling lights of the small villages thru the mist looked amazing.

From Day 1 [Trip T...

After a decent dinner cooked by the caretaker, we slept quite comfortably.

About Tunganath

Facts
Tunganath temple is situated on the highest altitude in Himalayan Region,13,072 feet from the sea level, as the word means in Sanskrit. “Tunga” is peak and “Nath” is lord. Tunganath literally means “Lord of the Peak”.It is an abode of Lord Siva and one of the Panch Kedars , the five Kedar temples dediocated to Lord Siva, the important among them being the Kedarnath, which is visited by millions of tourists and trekkers every year. The other 4 are Kedarnath, Madhmaheshwar, Rudranath , and Kalpanath. The current temple is about 1000 years old. Tunganath is one of the oldest temple of SHIVA..The place is renouned as Indian Switzerland..

The high altitude temple is a Seat of Swyambhu Linga . The temple, is situated in Chamoli district of the Uttaranchal State of India. The Tunganath temple, on the inner Himalayan range, is among a few shrines situated at a height of more than 13,072 feet from the sea level. This gives it the magic of its own. To get there, one passes through the most delightful temperate forests in the Garhwal Himalaya.

From Chandrashila (14,000 ft), a very great section of the Himalaya is visible. Legend has it that Goddess Chandrama (Moon) had spent a long time here in a penance. Bandarpoonchh, Chaukhambha, Neelkanth, Nandadevi, and several other peaks are clearly visible from this place. Chaukhambha (25,000 ft) looks so close as if at an arm's distance. The peaks also remind one of the fables that they are the ladders to the heavens. Nandadevi is of course clouded most of the times. Besides, a large part of Garhwal is seen from here, far away valleys and all that that is the grandeur of Garhwal. On the background of Tunganath is Ravanashila, where Ravana is believed to have accomplished tapa or penance. Wild buffaloes are regularly is site there.

The legends about Tungnath can be found at http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Tungnath-102847-1.html

My Links:

About Tunganath

Some more links on the net:
http://www.summittoseatours.com/kedar.html

Chopta-Tunganath by Deeps Kumar - http://www.flickr.com/photos/happysoul/sets/72157600056493818/

kmanojmenon's photostream - http://www.flickr.com/search/?ss=2&ct=6&w=11285010%40N05&q=tunganath&m=text

http://chitrang.blogspot.com/2006/10/day-3.html
some fabulous sunrise pictures here- http://chitrang.blogspot.com/2006/10/day-4.html with Sunrise behind the mounain (see the Hexagon formation), Shadown of Mountain (see a 3D pryamid formation) and Panaormic View of Chaukhamba Peak's