One never knows which way life will take a turn and how old times can come back knocking. 20 years is a long time. When I look back two decades, I remember my crazy days of adventure sports. It all began from a rock climbing course in the hills of Bengal and graduated to advance mountaineering course from NIM. Studies, search for job and adventure sports were going on side by side but not necessarily in that order. Then bingo - I got a job. But alas - that became the end of my adventure sports days.
During these 20 years old memories came back off and on but never created the craze that I had. So it was slowly but almost forgotten. Suddenly after 20 years it started coming back- automatically. No effort from my side but still it seemed as if a dormant volcano again started to assert its life. To cut the story short, it all came back in a big downpour. Now I had to decide where to start and after long hours on the net, I decided to do the Rupin pass trek in Oct 2015 through Indiahikes.
It was July when I decided to do the Everest base camp trek in April 2016. From Aug first week I started by physical preparation. I needed a trek in between to check my actual physical ability and assess and re plan my preparation accordingly. That's how Rupin Pass from 17 to 24 Oct 2015.
I am 44 years old and my physical preparation was 3 kms jogging, push ups 30 x 3 sets, abdominal 40 x 3 sets, free hand squats 30 x 3 sets. My BMI was just below 30.
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| breakfast time |
On 15 Oct 2015, I left Sri Ganganagar and reached Sarai Rohilla Station next day morning. Same day I took the bus from ISBT Delhi to Dehradun. By evening of 16th Oct I was at Dehradun. I checked in a hotel near Dehradun railway station for the night. On 17th Oct morning at 0630 hrs I was at the Dehradun railway station, the rendezvous. We were total 20 trekkers, 14 male and 6 females.
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| Purola |
At about 0700 hrs we started for Dhaula. Its a long journey. We had breakfast at Kemptee falls at about 0930 hrs. Further we reached Purola and halted for lunch. Purola is a scenic place and from there you get the feel that you are entering the remote areas. Anyway after an hours halt we left for Dhaula. By early evening we reached Naitwar which is the entrance of Govind National Park and entry fee has to be paid on per day basis of stay in the National park. By 1700 hrs we reached Dhaula, our first camp.
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| Dhaula camp |
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| Entry to NP |
Its a beautiful camp site, nestled between tall trees and by the bank of a river. As we got down the bus I could feel the chill in the air. The mountains, river and the tall trees were as if welcoming us to the enjoy the beauty of nature. How ever I was apprehensive about my physical ability and had a last thought that why did I come here, with lots of what ifs. But it was too late to step back, so I assured myself and moved towards our campsite. We were welcomed by the trek leader, served tea and pakoras and given the initial required briefings. Thereafter we had an early dinner and went to sleep in our tents(3 persons sharing one tent). The actual trek was to start from 18th Oct. The morning timings were tea- 0600 hrs, breakfast -0700 hrs and trek starts at 0800 hrs.
18 OCT - DHAULA TO SEWA
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| bridge at Dhaula |
We started from Dhaula at about 0815 hrs, with our pack lunch for the first days trek. About 200 mtrs from the camp there is a bridge which we crossed. The path is well laid and the height gain is gradual. We follow the river upstream on the left bank. It takes about 5 hrs to reach Sewa, a typical small village of the mountains. We are put up in a house in Sewa. There were two rooms, the bigger room was for the males and the smaller room for the females, and it also had two toilets. In the afternoon we went to the village Mandir. There is one idol, an avatar of Hanuman, which is taken to the 11 villages in the area around the year. At our time the idol was not at this village so we could not see it.
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| Mandir |
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| Sewa home stay |
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| Jiskun home stay |
