Kheerganga Winter Trek- Part I

Reached Kasol

Reached gurudwara, there are two ponds, one is outside and the other one for ladies is inside. As soon as we kept one foot inside the water it was burning like hell. Then an elderly lady asked us to take God's name and then step inside the pond and nothing will happen. It worked. We took lots of dip inside it and all our journey stress vanished. I felt like washing my hair outside the pond and these idiots made me wash my hair with a face wash. Decided to have langar which is made with the help of hot water only. Here people put rice in small packets and put it inside the hot water. After 25-30 minutes, it comes out in the form of boiled rice and people take it as 'Prasad'. This is the beauty of this place and this country. We know how to use and value each and every aspect of anything.

This place is of utmost beliefs for Hindus and Sikhs. There is a Shiv Temple & Shri Ram temple there. Lord Shiva's statue is always seen being surrounded by the vapours of hot water. The best part about the temple is it's architecture. There was an earthquake in the early 20th Century due to which it has been tilted since then. Himachal is rightly called as 'Dev Bhoomi'. It truly is and is equally magical.

Had langar of Kadhi Rice at gurudwara, people have to take their respective plates after eating and wash them, if they desire so. Sat for few minutes in the hall and headed towards Kasol.

We were walking towards Kasol market and roaming around all the shops. Suddenly I felt the urge to inquire about the 'most talked about stuff' of Kasol, so we went to few shops to ask for it but none of the shop owners co-operated. Finally found a shop owner who helped us and gave it to us. It was late afternoon, we decided to have a short trek to Chalaal instead of going back to our camp. Chalaal is a small village and one has to walk for around a km through forest. We started our walk alongside the parvati river. The sound of the river, silence amidst the forest, chirping birds and three of us walking and enjoying the never fading beauty. We saw people coming back from the village whereas we were heading towards it. At first we thought of not going there because it would have been so dark by the time we'd be back. But we continued our walk.

We reached Chalaal , the way to Chalaal Village is so calm that one could keep on walking without thinking of the destination. On your left is Parvati River flowing and settling all your chaos, the healing sound of rushing water, wide dense forest, locals sitting and doing their chores. All of this was so pure to experience. Reached Chalaal, sat at a local shop, clicked few pictures, had few cold drinks and started walking towards our camp. By the time we started, we could see it getting dark. Our camp was not in the main Kasol but before Kasol (When coming towards Kasol from Bhuntar), we started walking at a fast pace so that we could reach there at least before complete dark.

But all in vain! We reached Kasol and it got dark enough to scare us and regret us for going to Chalaal so late, we still had to walk more to reach our camp, it was way too dark and no lights were there. It was around 7:00 P.M. We got bit scared as there was nobody we could ask help from, we switched on the torches in our phones and started to walk on the main Kasol Manikaran Road towards our camp talking and pretending as if we were not scared of the dark and unaccounted risk of any mishap or any wild animal or anything else. Took few stones in our hands too for our own safety. Meanwhile I played few songs on a low volume so that I could avoid the situation getting more tensed.

There were few cars passing by that stopped at far looking at us, that scared us even more. Some weird sounds of animals, and the worst part was that we couldn't locate the place where we had our camps. GPS was also not working. It was just a rough idea on which we were walking. After walking for 20-25 mins, I heard the sound of few Kishor Kumar songs and got a sigh of relief because I realized that our camps were nearby and started humming the songs. Finally we located our camp and had to again walk down through jungle to reach our camp, it became too difficult because it was dark now. Formed a human chain to go downwards from road towards the jungle and finally we reached our camp. God! that was hell of a daunting experience indeed.

Our camp area was well decorated with lights,chairs and tables, music, bonfire everything was there. It was -3 or -4 degree and we all were sitting around bonfire, there were 25-30 people more there. We sat and talked. Bonfire, chicken, old monk and friends. I mean what else could anyone ask for on such a cold night. We started to dance and danced for hours with all of them who were unknown to us but still felt like we've known them for so long.

I never expected such a warm and lively evening. There were very nice people, all of us sitting together dancing, sharing our stories, experiences. We slept at around 2.30 a.m because we had to go for our trek the next morning. Sleeping in the tent was quite a difficult task for us because it was a two person tent in which we 3 adjusted ourselves, moreover it was drizzling and I could hear the sound of droplets falling on our tent like rocks. But we slept after a day full of excitement and experiences. The next day was waiting for us to experience some more adventures...................

TO BE CONTINUED.................