Trekking in the mountains!

Since I am about to go on my next trek, it seems like a good time to write about the last one.  It all came together in a fun way...  When I was in Rishikesh some people thought I was an Israeli and asked me in Hebrew if I had any books to trade...I said I only had English books and they said ok...we laughed for a sec about my Hebrew and that was that....

A week later in Bagsu, a hamlet near Mcleaod Ganj, the home of the Dalai Lama, I was in an internet cafe and noticed a nice map on the wall... I asked the guy there about trekking and he said he had 2 people trying to make a group... He gave me their e-mail address and I sent them a message... We had plans to meet the next day and when I went to meet them (with a friend from South Africa) it turned out they were the people who asked me for the book in Rishikesh.... We were joined with another Israeli couple and made plans to go on a 5 day trip...

We set off with our guide and 3 or 4 porters who carried all the food and tents...we just needed to carry clothing water and sleeping bags... Day one was a nice climb to Triund, a couple rock houses overlooking Mcleod Ganj and Dharamsala...

John (from SA) and I were sharing the blue tent... put up in a wonderfully exposed area on a ridge.  No problem...The guides made us popcorn, soup, tea and supper and we got ready for bed....  At some point I woke up in a wonderful storm with our tent shaking like a paint mixer.  The rain was pouring and the thunder and lightning were making a magnificent show.  It didnt take to long for me to realize that the tent was not going to survive the storm.  It was only a matter of time so I curled up in my sac and enjoyed until the pegs were pulled out of the ground, a cord tore and the tent collapsed on us.  In order to enjoy the storm as long as possible I had paked all my clothes and other stuff into my bag and had my rain jacket ready to go.  So I got out and tried to see if the tent was fixable...it was not...  It was fun holding the tent in the crazy wind and seeing the outline of Jon's head sitting up inside it...Points to our guide for showing up at that time and helping us get into the rock shelter/hut him and the porters were staying in...  The morning called for yoga and a good breakfast, both of which I enjoyed and we all set off....

One of the couples we were with had their own tent and the other got lucky as I chose to be in the tent that collapsed and theirs survived...

Day 2 saw us going up and up, great views and we came across many herdsmen driving their flocks...The ground although high up was very well fertilized,so much so that it looked like God dropped 10 million tons of chocolate covered raisins on the ground.  Unfortunately they didn't taste as good.

We were above the trees, either by elevation or lack of soil and climbed on up to our night's shelter, a cave.

Inside and out...you could see one of the porters making chapati (flatbread) with his hands

 

The next morning we were supposed to awake at 4:30 and get ready to head over a high pass...Unfortunately the rain that crept into the cave at night had not let up and the conditions were too dangerous to go over.  Our guide came up with another plan for our next three days.  While we couldn't do the pass, by staying on this side of the range we didn't have to take a 10hr bus ride at the end of the trip...we also didn't get the crazy view that the pass supposedly offers...

The clouds lifting...

My camera skills were not adequate to capture all the wildflowers but this area we came to was a bed of white yellow and purple beauty!

That night we hiked down to a Hindu temple and set up the tents there....

The next day we went down some more to a river where we jumped in and then had lunch
Here is some interesting flora by the river....

Crossing the river was fun and we continued up to a village for our last night

Some locals

It turned out the village is where all the porters were form and they got their hands on some booze after dinner... wihout even sharing they drank themselves silly.  Gravity played some mean tricks on them and somehow they were recovered enough in the morning to make breakfast...
Here is the view across the valley on the way down

We made it down and took a jeep back home...