Nanda Devi

The hill station often sees snowfall, that is why it’s Munsiyari is also known as as ‘Little Kashmir’. Fringed with thick forests, the town is home to amazing wildlife such as the whistling thrust, hawk cuckoo, mountain bear and musk deer, settled on the banks of Gori Ganga. The main people here are the people of the Shauka tribe who worship the Goddess Nanda Devi.

When our trek leader was explaining about Nandadevi as the highest peak which is fully inside India I was feeling goosebumps. And Ali bugyal also visible from this area where many major skiing tournaments take place in winter season. It was total bliss to watch the entire Nandadevi range from here, we spend almost an hour there. As it is the summit top there was heavy wind there and sun was above our head, ice started melting as there was no snow fall yesterday also. It was difficult to get down as the slopes were more slippery but guides and team leader helped us to go down. In an hour we reached brahmtal base camp we had some snacks and tea. Then we went to the brahmtal lake which is just 300 meters away from the camp. Where our trek leader explained the story about brahmtal how it got the name and all. We spend some time there and came back to camp site it was almost evening and sun was about to set. Kiran and me was trying to get some nice pics of the sunset, we had a small party in our dinner tent with all the crew including trek leader, guides, cooks etc. We had dinner and slept off early as we were very tired.

Everybody don't have enough water remaining as there was no water bodies on the route to refill. Soon our team leader showed as our second base camp which we can see after two hills. And by around 3:30 we reached there. We did our regular stretching, had some tea and snacks then went back to our tents to take little rest. But guides and team leader always warn everyone not to sleep after the trekking straight away it may make us prone to high altitude sickness. Later we roamed around a lot to explore the place, from here we can see the summit point on the top, which we are supposed to reach tomorrow. After dinner that night was much calm and clear there was no snow fall. We can see the stars and kiran was excited to capture stars, milky way and all in that clear night. He took a lot of pictures of us as well as tents, dogs etc. Temperature has dropped to -3℃ and it was freezing cold. I was using all the three layers of sleeping bag still it was cold. And dog was constantly barking looking at the woods. Later at morning guides were telling that this area is prone to wolf packs and mountain red foxes. May be some were wandering around at night.

First we visited the bekaltal lake which is just 500 meters away from our base camp. I captured all the wonderful moments of trekking as much as I can in my mobile. Each step forward I felt like I am going more closer to heaven. The views are heavenly, the mountains and the sky it looks like we are climbing the steps towards heaven. We take small small intervals for resting, our next destination was jhanditop. Jhanda means flag and there was flag and some remains of status where there in the top of the hill. From the we can get a small view of the Nandadevi range, if the climate is not cloudy. But when we reach there it was cloudy so we couldn't see it. Actually it was good to keep the suspense, because we are gonna get a much closer and clear view of entire Nandadevi range at the summit top at the end. We all had our lunch and started trekking again.