Dheet Trekkers in Chopta-Tungnath, Deoriatal
Going to the hills is always a spiritual experience. The
warmth and the blue of the sea-side make you cheerful, whereas the cold and
the solitude of the hills make you somber, somewhat more inclined to reflect
upon your existence and purpose in life. Elevating you to great heights only to
make you feel insignificant to the existence of the universe...
First it
was Araib Hassan, who packed his bags with the usual
alacrity and plunged headfirst ecstasy [sic]. His trip account and pics can be
seen here.
Then Danish,
Kutaula and Major Khandi went there and returned with this pic, posted
shamelessly here without permission.
And this
one…
And the
awesomeness of these pics made it clear. This was to be the next destination.
The time
for Diwali was approaching and I could get a leave from Tuesday to Sunday. Metallica was playing in New
Delhi on Friday, 28th Oct, and tickets for the same had
been booked years ego, so I would get 3 days, from Tuesday to Thursday, to get
to Tungnath, Deoriyatal and back again to Delhi
But as
always, just as the time for the trip came close, things started to look grim.
My schedule at work became so messy I started fearing I would not make it and that
we would have to cancel the trip and just visit nearby Rishikesh for the bungee
jump instead. Well, not so. Dheetpana to the rescue…
My final
schedule was something like this. On Tuesday, the 19th, I was in Nagpur Nagpur Nagpur at speeds totally beyond my control to catch a
plane at 10 p.m. to Delhi Delhi
If you
think driving 350 KMs the day before and doing 3 hrs of sleep were bad, when I
met up with Upreti in Noida and saw him, I got scared. His eyes were red, he
had dark circles around his eyes and groped around the bed for his glasses as
he woke up with as much surety as a zombie on crack. Figured out he had had a
bad night too and had only gone to sleep around 3 a.m.
Anyways, bags
were strapped to the bikes and we set off after a tank full. Odometer reading was 42722. The morning breeze
was pleasantly chilly and signs of winter approaching were showing. We took the
route from Meerut
By the time
we reached Roorkee, it was around 10.30 a.m., which meant we were right on
schedule. When we stopped for tea on the Haridwar bypass and looked at each
other, we knew we were in deep shit. We both were cramped and tired, and my
back had started to pain at the base of the spine, probably due to the posture
on the bike and the lack of sleep. I was drowsy and the morning traffic was so irritable
it was driving us mad. We had done about 200 KMs of the journey, on plain
highways, and now we had to drive in the hills.
We were
slowed down owing to the heavy traffic between Roorkee and Rishikesh, and we got
to Rishikesh by 1 p.m.
At
Rishikesh when we tried to get our tanks filled, we found that none of the
petrol pumps accepted a card. It was then that we realised we had started on
our trip without withdrawing any cash. At Noida we had paid for the petrol by
card and totally forgotten about cash.
From
Rishikesh the hills start and the air becomes cool and dust free, the
atmosphere becomes quiet, the landscape become greener, the heart becomes
redder and the lips start to curl up in happiness. The pleasure of riding in
the hills takes away all your fatigue.
We rode onwards
and had our lunch at Srinagar
A thing
peculiar about Srinagar
Anyways, onwards
we went to Rudraprayag and then reached Ukhimat at 8 p.m. Chopta was now 32 KMs
away. But my back pain had grown unbearable, so I begged Upreti to call it a
day and instead start out a half hour earlier the next day.
The hotel
at Ukhimath asked us for 300 bucks for a room, but we had a problem. When we
told him we would check out next day at 12 p.m., he said we could not do that.
His sweeper came at 10, and we would have to vacate by then. We had a problem
with that as we had to come back from Tungnath and rest, and he told us we
should go to Mastura 12 Ms ahead
where we could stay till 12.
I was
shocked. It was certain that he would not be getting any more guests that night.
He was not only losing the 300 bucks from rent but also the dinner and breakfast
earnings! It was ridiculous. He would have been better off letter us stay for
free! Guess he was more a landlord than a businessman…
I don’t
want to be rude, but both Upreti and I were agreed that we had met some of the
most unpleasant people in the hills that day. Such a contrast to the people we
had met in Himachal and back home in Kumaon.
Anyways, we
drover another 12 KMs to reach a village called Mastura, where an ex-Army Service
gentleman runs a motel. Although he charged us 600 for the room we were getting
for 300 back at Ukhimath, the place was very hospitable, had a geyser and the
food was amazing. He even called his daughter to make rotis for us beyond his
closing time, and I think Upreti took a fancy to her cause that whole night
during dinner, he kept praising the owner about the stupid ghee he had used on
the rotis as he indirectly praised the chef. The ghee was really good though.
Odometer reading at the end of day one was 43182. We had done 460 KMs that day.
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| Riding after dark |
We went to
bed at 10 p.m. At 3 a.m. the next morning Upreti woke me up as he handed me a
piece of cake for breakfast. We set off at 3.30 a.m. for Chopta 20 KMs away and
from there we would trek for 5 KMs to reach Chandrashila, a place we had heard
was great for watching the sun rise.
The temperature
was sub-zero and we made slow progress as the cold wind froze our naked hands. We had forgotten to take our torch with us, which the owner of the hotel was kind enough to lend to us. And although we had packed warm innerwear, jackets, caps, mufflers and even leather
socks, for some weird reason we both had also forgotten our gloves. So we rode on
in the blistering cold in the dark eerie night with our mufflers tied around
our hands till we reached Chopta. From Chopta it would be a 3.5 KM uphill trek
to Tungnath and from there 1.5 KMs to Chandrashila.
As we were
told by Araib, the best thing about this trip would be the sunrise, both at
Chopta and at Deoriyatal, and we were eager to reach Chandrshila before
sunrise. It was 4.15, and we had to do 5 KMs before the sun rose at 6.20 a.m. 2
hours for 5 KMs seemed too easy to worry much about and we foolishly wasted 15
minutes trying to figure out how to keep our helmets locked before we decided
to take them along. There were horses at Chopta too, for tourists who wanted to
avoid walking, but taking them was not even an option for us. We would walk.
I think
what happened was the combination of factors such as the sub-zero temperatures, acclimatization issues, the fatigue from previous days (especially the previous
day) and the my newly discovery sinus problem. Cold, however, had the major part to play. We found ourselves tired, exhausted, dizzy and panting
even before we had covered a KM. Marching on in the Zombie Holocaust, midway
we heard a voice call out to us from the dark hill-side. The voice asked us to
stop for some warm tea. It was the devil come to tempt us and foil our
salvation.
Temptation
won and we stopped for the tea, losing another 10 minutes of our climb. We came
to know that a group of about 10 people on horses had gone on ahead of us. We
too had been seen by the locals and guides as they had seen our bikes’
headlights as we came in the morning. So even before we had reached Tungnath,
news of our coming had spread. And almost everyone we met knew us as the ones
who had come on bikes in the morning!
As the
twilight grew thinner and the first rays of the sun set the snow covered peaks
of the Chaukhamba on apparent fire, we realized we were running short of time
and made a final dash. However, we took a
wrong turn after Tungnath and instead of taking a sharp left turn on a very narrow path, we went straight ahead onto a path that looked straight out of the Lord of the
Rings and enticed us towards it...but took us downhill! By the time we realized
our mistake and found the correct way to Chandrashila, it was too late. Our
sins, though each small in nature, had piled up and we would be punished by reaching
the Chandrashila top 20 minutes after sunrise.
What we saw
there was so beautiful that to this day I fail to understand how the sunrise
could have looked any better had we reached earlier. You get a panoramic view
of the snow covered Himalayas , and all around
you see steep hills and the lands far beyond. The group of 10 left after the
sunrise and we slept for a while in the sun there, on grass covered in frozen
dew. Every effort that we had made
to reach this point so far had been rewarded beyond measure.
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| The Lord of the Rings path |
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| From Tungnath to Chndrashila, a walk on frozen dew |
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| The rising sun set the Chaukhamba peaks on apparent fire |
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| Feeling happy in my veins, Icicles within my brain... |
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| View of Chandrashila |
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| Chandrashila |
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| Chandrashila |
The sun came up and we went to see Tungnath, the highest Shiva
temple in the world. It has several huts where pilgrims can stay. Araib had stayed the night at
one of these huts, at the time when there was snow all around, and found
them to be quite cold and inhospitable. Spending the night at Tungnath is a
good option if you do not wish to trek the 5 KMs from Chopta early in the
morning. But I guess half the fun for us was in that dreadful early morning
trek, and would recommend all to spend the night at Mastura, where its
comfortable.
Returning
to Chopta was easy as the sun was out and it was downhill. We returned to
Mastura by 10 and went off to sleep. We were woken up at 12.30 by the gentleman
owner, and after lunch we set off for Sari, It would be a 3 KMs to Deoriyatal from Sari
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| For enquiries and booking at Sari |
We had been
told that Sari was 25 KMs from Chopta, but it was only 6 from Mastura. There
are options to stay at Sari also, but we were in no mood to go trekking again
in the dark tomorrow. So we left off our bikes at Sari and climbed up to Deoriyatal
to stay for the night. We had travelled 47 KMs on bike that day.
It was Diwali
that day and most of the people were either drunk or high. And the mood of
gaiety crept into us also as we walked on up to Deoriyatal. I fell in love with
the cows there. The cows in the hills are a little different than the cows in
the plains, in that they have shorter legs and fatter tummies. Also, the
expression on the cows in the plains is of absolute simplicity and
harmlessness. The cows in the hills, on the other hand, look more mature and
learned. They too are harmless and sweet like the ones in the plains, but have
a smug been-there-done-that uninterested expression on their face when they
look at you. Atleast that’s what I thought when I saw them.
The mules,
on the other hand, look suicidal at the best. So dejected, dispirited,
demotivated, overworked and underpaid that it did not seem they were from the
same family as horses. Upreti said they needed a Ghoda Chalisa, like the
Hanuman Chalisa of the Ramayana, to rouse their inner horse.
The trek
from Sari to Deoriatal is easy, and I think it can be covered in around an hour
and a half at a leisurely pace. We were told that there is one Mr.Rajender Singh Bhatt at
Deoriatal who could arrange tents for us, and we also met a few people en route
who wanted to know if we would require tents. The going rate was 600 per night
for a tent of two. There are also two fixed tents for two persons each owned by
the locals from Sari, and a caretaker named Negi ji looks after their booking.
So accommodation at Deoriyatal was not an issue. As it happened, we were the
only ones at Deoriyatal that day. We got one tent for 500 bucks, dinner
included.
Now
visitors be warned, this Negi Ji caretaker is a tricky fellow, and one should
avoid engaging him in conversation if one can. One should learn from our mistakes.
I wish some one had warned us too.
Anyway, the
moment we got to Deoriatl this dude caught hold of us. Told us we were like
children to him, and that he had been here all his life and was going to die
here too. Told us how it was unimportant what you did or where you lived, as
long as you brought happiness to others. And he would bring that happiness to
us by sharing the mutton that he had made earlier that day. He was a
scholar of religion, like his forefathers and told us about ethics and
respecting elders and being religious and what not.
We were
told by Negi Ji that Deoriyatal was where the Pandavas had meditated, and it
was the place where the Yaksha prashna had been asked. All hogwash ofcourse,
but we couldn’t risk disagreeing. All this even before we had gone around the
lake!
Now the
Yaksha Prashna was asked to Yudhishthira of the Pandavas in the Mahabharata by a
demon of a lake, who had poisoned his four brothers when they had refused to
listen to him.
The last
question that had been asked is my favourite, and so I asked the caretaker whether
he remembered what the last question was. No. Then I told him the question and
asked if he remembered the answer. Still no! So much so for truthfulness and scholarship.
Anyways,
the last question that was asked was what is the biggest wonder in the world.
And the answer was that even though every day man sees people around him die,
but he still goes on living as if he himself would never die…
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| Tungnath Temple |
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| Tungnath Temple |
The lake at
Deoriyatl is small, but the Chaukhamba peaks get reflected in it and the scene
is breathtaking, even in the evening. One can take a walk around the lake or
just sit in quiet contemplation by its side. With no visitors that day, it was
paradise.
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| On the way back from Tungnath |
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| Deoriatal |
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| Deoriatal |
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| Inside the tent. That's Upreti sleeping... |
We went
around the lake, and found a blood trail leading to a place where a lamb had been sacrificed earlier that day. Later we went to Negi Ji’s tent to ask if he could make us some
tea. Upreti, who too had come to regard the man with caution, habitually addressed him as yaar as he asked for some tea. Fatal mistake. We got another
lecture on ethics, about respecting our elders and about the social and
religious morals that the youth of today had forgotten. It only stopped when
Upreti said sorry and showed him the bottle of rum that he had in his bag.
Sipping tea
in Negi Ji’s tent, a mule came up from outside and started chewing on the tent.
Our Negi Ji of the rightousness and happiness fundas screamed out explicatives
at the poor animal and said in disgust that this animal was a nuisance and that
it was the Muslims who had brought it to India
I asked him
if he knew the difference between a horse, a donkey and a mule. No. I told him
that when a male donkey mated with a female horse, you get a mule. Mules, like
oxen, are sterile animals that cannot reproduce, and are hence used for
carrying burden. In these regions, if not for these mules, Negi Ji would have
had to carry all his supplies on his own backside.
It was the horse that the Muslims brought with them. And what a fine animal it is, most faithful to its owner after the dog.
Then I
asked him if he knew that I was a Muslim? In spite of my beard and my clipped
moustache, he said no. I left it
at that. And made sure that we paid him whatever he asked us for in the
morning.
Later in
the evening, an Israeli couple came up with an entourage of cooks and guides.
These guys had brought pressure cookers to make dinner, and all through the
evening the quiet was abruptly disrupted by the whistling of the pressure
cooker. Aarghh!!!
The night
sky was so clear that I was able to identify the Pole Star and the Big Dipper. I
even spotted a plane that was quite distant yet moving so fast that I guessed
it was a Chinese spy plane. Ofcourse, I was just fooling around.
The much acclaimed mutton from the sacrificial lamb, although I did not have it, and the
egg curry that Negi Ji had made was pretty bad, not just because
of the bad taste in our mouth. But we were grateful for it nonetheless. It you
don’t get too entangled with him in conversation, I guess he is a nice old man
that you would remember.
We woke up
the next day at seven, after sunrise. The reflection of the Chaukhamba peak in
the lake can be seen till an hour or so after sunrise. We then went back to
Sari to have breakfast and then started back for Delhi
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| Sunrise at Deoriatal |
Coming down
was easy and most pleasurable. You could conjure the wildest fantasies or the most
intricate philosophies while riding down the lovely hills. One thing worth
noticing was how Shivalik, the entity of the Border Roads Organisation that had built the roads,
had spent much upon publicising the fact that the roads had been built by them.
The slogans
for road safety were also enjoyable. Here is a sample from the innumerous
slogans we came across that day:
“Driving faster beckons disaster”
“No race,
no rally, enjoy the beauty of the valley”
And the
mature sensible ones like:
“Start
early, drive slowly, reach safely”
And my
favourites:
“ Impatient on road, patient in hospital”
“Safety on
road, safe tea at home”
Without
being in too much of a hurry, we were at Haridwar around 4 p.m. Had lunch
there, hoping to reach Delhi
We had been
shocked and awed by the trip we had just made, but were back at home and would
live to tell the tale. We had taken unwarranted risks and had driven long KMs
on bikes that we could have stretched out over a couple of days more. But we
only had 3 days to make the trip, to accommodate the Metallica concert in New Delhi
This trek is
the easiest way to get to 4000m above sea level, and offers some breathtaking
views. For someone wishing to take the trip, we would strongly suggest against
doing things the way we did them. Our suggestion is to go easy. On the way and
back, take a stop at Rishikesh where you can go rafting or bungee jumping and
enjoy the camp fire beside the Ganga . Stay at
Mastura the night before going to Tungnath. Take the mules to carry you to
Chandrashila early in the morning. Then go to Sari and take a guide and a cook
with you to make you some good food at Deoriyatal and to spare yourself from
the broth that we had to endure, and have a nice peaceful time in the hills. We
would also suggest that you get a tattoo that reads tame.
We, of
course, prefer the challenges that stupidity brings in its wake. If
it is comfortable and easy, you’re doing it wrong….
P.S.
- Tungnath is the highest Shiva temple in the world, at an altitude of 3600m asl.
- 1.5 KMs from Tungnath, at an altitude of about 4000m is the Chandrashila peak.
- Deoriyatal is at a slightly lower altitude of 2438m asl.
and lastly....
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| What happened at the Metallica concert! |
Comments
And ofcourse the reference to revered Araib Hasan