Paragliding, Kayaking, Deoriatal and World's Highest Shiva temple. #Budgettravelstory.

Day 2

We woke up in the morning and what the driver had suggested is to reach chopta by evening and trek Tunganath by 3rd day morning. We were dissatisfied but then we had no other choice. We started our journey by 6:30 a.m

On our Way to Chopta, We had visited Rudraprayag. We had some great time clicking photos there. We then had breakfast there in a shop and bought some medicines for vomiting and breathing problems there. Having speaking with the locals, we came to know that there is 2 chopta. If you're planning to trek Tunganath, you have to search in maps as Chopta Hill station. We were making plans looking for Chopta in the maps.

We then had maggi, Butter toast and bread omelette in a small shop near the lake. Our driver had then pitched some guy for paragliding. Before that, I had called some of them who charged Rs 1500 + Rs 400( For Video and Photos) per person. But we had now bargained it to Rs 1300 which includes a 3-6 min flight(which depends upon the wind speed) and Photos and videos of Landing.

We reached the paragliding spot by around 9:30 A.m. We then filled up the declaration and started flying all the way witnessing the Kumaon Ranges and naukuchia taal from above. I was the first one to do among us. It was my first experience gliding and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was the kind of guy who shouts all the time but then I was totally stuck with the views. I then had a small convo with the glider who guided me during flight. They charged Rs 1300 for individuals below 80 kgs. But over weighing guys can personally pay some amount( We paid Rs 400) to gliders for flying them . You can also pay them extra for some extra fly time.

Everybody had completed gliding by 12 and we started our long journey to Chopta by 12:30 p.m. We then had a stop for lunch by 2 p.m.in a shop on our way. We had Chole Chawal, Maggi and Rotis. The cost were feasible and we had also purchased some Biscuits and chocolates for trekking. We then started our journey and many had Vomiting sensation and Headaches as the roads were so curvy. Though the roads were perfectly maintained but the steepy roads and N number of bends tired us. We had carried some plastic covers and candies to cope up with those roads. It was a lengthy journey and the driver stopped the Vehicle at Chamoli, Karnaprayag. He couldn't drive all night and we had another 5 hours of journey pending to Chopta. He himself arranged a room in a Marriage hall for us. We had booked 3 rooms for Rs 500 each. We now couldn't reach chopta by night as we had planned and we were also informed that Road to Mana village has also been closed due to Snowfall. So now we have to totally change the plan and we couldn't afford to lose an entire day. We had Rotis and Dal in a only shop that was open at that time there. Everybody were so tired and we now have to plan for the next 2 days.

The driver was ahead of the scheduled time and hence we had now altered the plan. We planned to trek Deoriatal. We halted there in Sari village( 19 kms before Chopta) and had lunch there( same maggi and Bread Omelette). We spoke with the shop owner itself ( named Lucky Chand) for arranging Camping. They had charged Rs 800 per tent for Camping at deoriatal and Rs 250 per person for Dinner there. Since we need to hire 3 tents it costed us Rs 5150 totally which we had finally bargained it to Ra 4500. We then started our trek to Deoriatal lake. The trekking distance is 2.3 km fr Sari village. We started to trek by 2:45 p.m and had planned to reach Deoriatal by sunset. The trek is not easy for everybody since it is very steep it and requires frequent rests. However, Since some of us had earlier experience of trekking we reached deoriatal an hour before Sunset.

The path had some patches of snow but then the deoriatal had 1.5 feet of snow. It was so cold out there when we reached( 0°C). We had witnessed the Golden Garhwal Ranges during sunset and clicked some astonishingly good photos. We then reached our camp which is nearer to lake. We had some chai and biscuits. Bon fire there is not permitted since it was protected forest of Kedarnath Forest Department. However our camp owner had a small pit of fire which really helped us in getting our Nerves back. We then had some random conservations with the trekkers over there. Many of them had planned to trek down the same day. We then had some rotis, Dal, Chawal and Sabji.

After spending some time near the fire pit, many of them went to their tents. But some us thought of witnessing the stars. We tried some astro photography near the camp and that stunned us. So 4 of us planned to walk down to lake(200m from our camp). We went there to lake with our Flashlights ON and was totally blown away by the view we got there. We had never witnessed the stars like that before. There was no light pollution and we had mounted the tripod in the snow and started trying some light Painting and Astro photos. We clicked so many photos and astonished by the Milky way we framed in a picture. We then reached the other side of the lake and clicked many photos. It was 10 p.m and -6°C then. We could barely feel our hands. We had even witnessed shooting star and we were totally spellbound. We then returned to our Camp site and went to sleep super excited about tomorrow's plan.

Day 3

We had planned to trek Tunganath and Chandrashila from Chopta that day and hence we woke up at 3:30 a.m in the morning. It was so cold then and we had temperatures dropping much below the Zero figure. Waking up before everybody, I had clicked some astro photos with our tents. We then started our trek back to sari Village at 4:00 a.m in the morning. A super fluffy dog accompanied us and trekking down in such a cold condition with no lights other than our mobile flashes thrilled us. We reached Sari village by 5:15 a.m.

We had refreshed there and had some tastiest Black Chai made by Lucky Chand. We bid good bye to him and started to Chopta by van. The temperature dipped as we moved higher. Soon we were surrounded by snow on both sides and our experienced driver smoothly drove us to chopta. we reached Chopta by 7:15 a.m and it was -8°C. It was one of the coldest day in Chopta and the maximum temperature showed -1°C in Accuweather. We had some chai in a shop there in the main market(Which had some 10 shops) and hired Snow Shoes for Rs 100 and a stick for Rs 20. I had trekked many places before and stick was not a thing to go with for me. But I was adviced to hire a stick and believe me that helped us a lot during trek. Out of 11, 3 of us could not withstand cold and hence they hired a room there in the chopta itself for Rs 5o0.

We started our trek to Tunganath by 8:00 a.m and it was entirely covered by snow. Even the path was covered with fresh snow. We didn't had any proper trekking equipment but were wearing 5 layers of dress( 2 tshirts, 2 sweatshirts and 1 jacket), a glove and a neck stole. I was even wearing 2 pairs of socks. It was too cold and I couldn't put it in words now. We couldn't even rest for a minute since walking was the only way to keep our body a bit warm. We had some random conversations with trekkers and reached a shop which is around 2.5 kms from the base. The name of the shop owner was Mohan Singh Negi and He made us Chai and Maggi. I was bewildered hearing that he stays there in the shop even during the nights. I could barely stand still there for 2 minutes. He gave us some hot water by heating the fresh snow just outside the shop. We had an hour remaining to reach Tunganath and we started back to trek.

The sun rose on the east and it made the trek pleasant and comfortable. It was cold but then the sun rays helped us to cope up with the chill. It was the day of the last solar eclipse of the year and we were told not to see the sun with bare eyes. The snow started shining with the rays of sun and we reached the Worlds Highest Shiva temple By 11:30 a.m. We rested there and took some dazzling photos of the Tunganath Temple with the Mighty Garhwal Ranges at the back. We rested there for about 15 mins. We had planned to trek to Chandrashila too but snow had made the path toughest. We could have trekked to Chandrashila but then we had time constraint. So we dropped the plan to Chandrashila and started to trek down to Chopta by 1:00 p.m. There were loads and loads of snow and hence we skidded down in many areas. On our way down one of us had a muscle sprain in the ankle and so we slowed down. But then we were totally enjoying the snow and view. At around 3:00 p.m., it started to snow. We were spell bound and we could do nothing other than standing still and enjoying the snowfall. We already started enjoying the success of the trip . We reached Chopta by 4:15 p.m and had the same boring yet life saving maggi, Omelette and Chai. We then started our way back to Delhi and reached early morning.

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