It was that one fine evening, sitting
with my husband and sipping on my
evening tea, I said “let’s plan a
trip,maybe to a hillstation”.
Little did I know that this trip is going to
change my entire existence.
We both began to discuss about
locations that we always wanted to
travel. The discussion came to an
end and Tungnath, Uttarakhand was the location
we both pinned upon.
As much as I was excited to go to the
mountains, I could feel that anxiety
of leaving for Tungnath.
We decided to leave next day at 4 am
from Almora to Chopta. The night
never felt so long. Be it the anxiety or
the excitement, I was sleepless.
We woke up at 3 am and left at 4 am
sharp. The entire route felt so new
and different (mentioning the fact
that I have travelled via that route
multiple times). We reached Chopta
at around 1 pm the same day.
Chopta being the base for Tungnath trek was
crowded with people from different
parts of the country. The sounds of
people speaking different languages
made me realise how beautifully we
the people of this earth bond on one
thing and that is Nature.
The horses were being loaded with
grains, food items, drinks , people’s
luggage and people who weren’t able
to do the trek on foot.
We stayed at chopta the same night
and decided to do the trek next day
morning.
Next morning I woke up
early, anxious to start the climb. The
trek was not easy but was worth it.
Every new turn gave a different view
of majestic Himalayas and beautiful
meadows. We began at 5:30 am in
the morning from Chopta and
reached Tungnath temple at 7:30 am
after a climb of 5 kms. Mahadev was
kind enough I guess and we had the
chance to see the beautiful Deer and Monal bird.
The moment I reached Tunganath,it
was different, I was different.
Settled on the mid of Himalayas and upon
the beautiful meadows, Tunganath
looked like nothing but heaven. The
tiredness vanished away and all I
could feel was gratitude. But this was
not the end of my curiosity, rather it
was the beginning. After reaching
Tungnath , I wanted to cover the
Chandrashila peak.
First view of Tungnath Temple.
The peak at the top , at first sight felt
like an impossible task to Tunganath we started to climb
Chandrashila peak. The steep 2 kms
climb from Tunganath is definitely a
difficult one.
It was 8:30 am in the morning when
we reached Chandrashila.
Chandrashila Temple.
The peaks of Himalayas were covered with haze
and clouds.
We so wanted to witness
the beauty of chandrashila that we
decided to stay in Tungnath and
climb the Chandrashila again the
next morning. My entire day in
Tungnath went in admiring the
beauty of home of shiva.
Tungnath.
Next morning our target was to
climb the Chandrashila before
sunrise
We left our room at 4 am
and started the trek. The 2kms trek
from Tunganath to Chandrashila,
changed me from inside.
It was all dark when we started the
climb. We were lucky enough to do the trek without any crowd.
We were being accompanied by two three dogs, making the
climb a lot more memorable and beautiful.
While walking through the meadows I
could feel the cold air touching me as
if it was saying something. I could
feel the presence of someone
around, a nice fragrance was there
in the air. Waves of cold air were
touching as if someone was playing
with us. The only way I could
conclude it in is “it was divine”.
We reached the Chandrashila Peak and
waited for the sunrise. Another
trekking group climbed the peak 30
minutes after we reached.
The sunrise began and the rays of the
sun started to illuminate each and
every peak it came in contact with.
That scene was so beautiful that I
didn’t wanted to waste a single
second of it, even if it was for
clicking a photograph.
I closed my eyes and sat in silence. That silence
for the first time made me hear the
screams of the minds of people. I
could feel the happiness, gratitude,
sorrows, tears, thirst, hunger of
people present there. My mind was
quiet but my heart was feeling every
word that came to my ears. The peak
that we did twice was the dream of a
boy who was doing it for the first
time. He cried in joy. A lady missing
her late husband wanted to see if he
could connect with her. A man was
disappointed because reality was
different than what he saw on
Instagram. Different people different emotions and I could feel them all.
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