Shepherd's paradise : Rupin

 Draft

As we waited for the flight to land in Chennai, among about a 100 other people, an elderly lady handed us two sweetmeats, another touch of humanity, my mind leapt back, jumping right into the last one week - A hidden expanse of nature's pristine beauty, dotted with grazing herds and lazy clouds, I lay on the soft, moist grass, chewing a straw, no thoughts in the head.


For such precious moments, our planning began six months before, in the month of January, when we decided that we had finally marginally moved up our fitness and deserved to do a harder trek. An assumption, which would be overruled, along the course of our journey. Along with Sreejith and Milon, we setup and confirmed dates, made travel plans, got leaves approved and waited with anxiety for the days we were counting down for. We tried as much as we could to run, jog, walk, swim, cycle, so that we finish the trek well.


Finally, when we were a day away, a hurried trip to Decathlon, a night long packing session followed by 2 hours of sleep and off we were, back with the huge bags, hoping they were lighter this time. Landing in Delhi, we spent time with Mrinal at his place, lugging the bags, hoping against hope that they get lighter our our shoulders gets more powerful. Late night, we got into the Last train to Dehradun, which was full of trekkers. As I dozed off to glory, I was awoken from my beauty sleep by Chitra, informing me that we were still at the Delhi station. And there we were, as the boards said it, right on the same platform, 3 hours after departure time, due to faulty A/C. Our train finally reached around 9 AM, much to the frustration of co-passengers, more to the frustration of our waiting team at the station.


Dehradun was no different from Delhi. Heavily polluted, hot, noisy, different from the Dehradun  we visited last winter. Meeting Sreejit and Milon after one whole year was good. We enquired if we could get Gajendra bhai-"Tum se na ho Payega". (Our last driver who had given us full confidence of our incapability to finish two treks back-back )But no, he was dropping people for another trek. Thus started our journey with our co-passengers being Parikshit and Manish. A nice small break for 1/2 kg of litchis for breakfast and a lunch on the way and finally we reached Dhaula. A wide ground of grass surrounded by hills with pines on all sides, just by a growling Rupin. A few introductions later, much needed sleep would take over after a yummy dinner. It was a group of 19 people, with me and Chitra skirting the edge of the age groups, along with Pushan,


A searing reminder of the news we had seen was the burning forest in the background, creatively moving around, forming beautiful patterns, but burning out the green, day and night.

Morning tea, ablutions, packing, and we were green to start. On a burning day, sweat dripping away like the multiple water falls at Rupin, we crawled through the “trails”, wide mud roads from Dhaula to Sewa. A 2-floor wooden homestay was the place to crash for the day. This was where we found the abundant growth of marijuana plants, right as it is called, weed. I met a smart kid called Prem Kumar, who would write down any new name he heard, citing poor memory. Then, he would keep calling the person, attempting to extract chocolates, biscuits or any new eatables. As the kids played cricket with Chitra, Parikshit and Manish, I walked around to take photos of any birds I could find. The result: Poision ivys leaving rashes all over my legs. I did get a consolation shot of a hopoe. An interesting creature all along this terrain was something between a garden lizard and a small iguana.
The second day’s walk was not very different. From Sewa to Jiskun, a village which had a post office. The route demanded a long walk as we moved into Himachal from UK. It started with sighting a majestic vulture. Brisk walks across thick jungles and then

Spice coast marathon personal report

All ready on Friday afternoon, working from home to avoid the rain, we left early and reached the station for our super ac express. Not kidding, that is the real name.

The non stop monsoon delayed our awesome train trip and we arrived around 4 am delayed by 2 hours. Reaching our hotel Aiswarya, a good budget hotel, we fulfilled the remaining sleep required and had breakfast at Kempu Veg. Keep in mind we have just walked from the station into our hotel. A nice long bath, check out and a cab trip to Oberon mall for the race kit through desperately full roads. A move lunch in the mail and back we were near the boat jetty, four rupees to the government and we boarded our first 'water bus' which was a novel experience in itself as we reached fort kochi.

Solar cafe, just outside the boat jetty, served for a neat meal. Arafat's rent a bike on princess street was the next location where we walked to, got a bike for ourselves for the day and off we went... Slowly crossing Wellington island and reached Riviera suites for the night.

A good night's sleep, and we were back to getting ready, this time for the marathon. Reflective stickers, caps, banana, all set. A short pleasant ride along Wellington island and we were there thanks to the rented bike.

And a good marathon it was... But that is another story altogether... This is just the pre and post...



Once the marathon was over, we went back, rested aa bit, checked out and off we went to fort kochi... Going round and round, we went to the synagogue, the dutch palace and finally settled for a late snack at Kashi art cafe. Submitting the vehicle, we were finally back on foot to the boat jetty, a little boat ride back to Ernakulam and another meal at Kempu...

One final thing, we met Shaheer, after a little less than six months after our trek. Glad he came.


Here are some pictures:

Photos from the boat trip from Ernakulam to fort kochi

Solar cafe, near boat jetty, fort kochi

Mandatory picture of Chinese fishing nets

         The interesting Kashi art gallery

Motivational quote helped me finish

Goechala

While in west Sikkim(Pelling), we stopped at a small cafe for a meal along with a view of Kanchenjunga when a native introduced himself and explained about trekking in Sikkim. While chatting over dinner at Kabur, we went through a couple of books and asked around and understood that Yuksom is a village where trekkers often start from.

A month later, we booked our trek with India hikes. Six months from then and off we went, high again in the air, in the same direction we went exactly six months ago. Getting down at Kolkata, we boarded the connecting flight for Bagdogra and were off to New Jalpaiguri were the shared transport would come. We took a cab from the airport looking around at the familiar yet different surroundings and reached NJP within an hour with a charge of 475, booking a prepaid cab at the airport itself.

Hotel Breeze did not look all that breezy, but it served the purpose of an economical place to put up for a night. Looking back a few hours, we imagined how we had gone about buying the bare necessities for the trek. The trek shoes, the bag, the poncho, the thermals, the borrowed jackets and how we would get our trek poles from the base camp. How well connected we were thanks to the whatsapp group and how the earthquake posed a threat to our trek. We talked on and thought on till sweet dreams took over and the next day began with the first walk with our luggage. A few seconds and we switched to a manual rickshaw till the station for 30 rupees.

Upon reaching the station, we found the rest of our group who were supposed to start alongside us from NJP, all except for two: A Mr.Rajesh whose train was delayed and a Roopesh, who said he will reach soon. My first impressions of Roopesh were like those a long known friend when he finally hurried into the station looking around for a place to take a xerox. The four in our jeep were good to go.


Just before sunset, we finally reached the very place whose first utterance we heard six months ago. We were here and it was beautiful. A little converted shop below and a couple of rooms above made the india hikes base camp, with Mr. Subba, the person in charge, also the owner of the shop which  sold trek goods like the amazing two left handed water proof gloves we bought. A common swallow family with many little off springs peeking at us was a sight to behold. Barring the little chirps and the occasional whirring of the vehicles, and some banter between people who had just come down after finishing, there was no other penetrating sound. We met Mr.Sudipta, who would be taking care of the place and doing a lot of management behind the scenes for IH. This then followed up with a little briefing by our lanky leader Prateek, who cautioned us against doing anything not expected. In the middle of the briefing arrived the missing remaining contingent, coming from !NJP.  We also met Shiben, who was going to be the sweeper for the rest of the journey who turned out to be the most regular companion with us throughout the journey.


Day 1: And we heard from Roopesh about how every gram matters. How the bag will feel lighter everytime, we brush our teeth because we squeeze out some toothpaste, how the extra clothes never matter, because you are too tired to change, how min weight is of max importance and off we ran, trying to reduce as much we could off those giant bags.

A few minutes and we got our brand new golden trek poles which Roopesh promptly screwed out and had immense trouble and getting it back to normal. Then came running, our trek guide, the charming Dawa. A little stretching and off we went. 2 minutes into the trek and we could already feel that this was not going to be easy. Slowly we made our way going higher and higher till we reached out lunch spot finally, which I forget now.

Then, after what appeared like days or months of walking, we finally saw a place which looked like humans could be existing in. The bags felt like someone had replaced our clothes with heavy stones as we barely crawled into our camping site. A small hut with a roof top became the banter place as people took turns to talk about their previous treks, today's heat, flipkart esops and what not.


Bakhim : was where we had reached at 9000 ft, the cold was already getting to us when the rain gods started to pur down some water. When the rains decreased, we walked back to our camps and I had a lot of black tea to keep myself hot along with the fantastic biscuits. I found that Dawa's voice would be the alarm for the next few days for the availability of food. Getting into our tent, we finally slept well and long. The next morning was the first day without concrete toilets.

The place with the silent T :

Inconvenient for the first day, we managed fine and walked the green two kilometers to reach Tshokha amid mild drizzle around 11 am. This was the day people talked away to their heart's content. Unending talks about everything that is wrong in the world kept happening and it appeared that if we just went back to the society, we could change it in seconds. This was the first place from which the beauty of the majestic Kanchenjunga range was visible from close.

 And this was the only place where Rajesh told me a lot about Adobe and Flipkart, Roopesh shared his inclination to believe an astrologer who wouldnt charge money, Ramki, me and Roopesh talked about a few things. And then, it was dark. Rajesh Flipkart and Sreejith had a deep passion for photography along with a deep interest for lighted tents which they forced me into. Having only a mechanical light, I still remember rotating that light for well over half an hour and then when I finally asked if I can stop, I was handed a battery light.

Phedong:

Early morning and slowly we rose to the dazzling beauty outside. The sun coming up made for a very pleasant feeling when the heat finally came along. We got ready and packed everything, ready to move. We were told that this would be the toughest day. As a group, we slowly started nodding our greetings to the the Netherland friends and slowly walked through the scant houses, the monastery and it's small heart shaped lake. Each step taking us higher and higher, actually too high for comfort. The route, had wooden logs placed perpendicular to the direction of walking, leaving us feel like miniature trains.

The walk speed slowed down to a crawl pace and the destination never looked like it could get closer when a hint of snow and the distant white brought us back the motivation we needed. Slowly, we reached our destination, at 4pm, Dzongi.

The Matching Mufflers place: Dzongri


Kockchurang

Thansing

River Bank camping : Lamuney

Samiti
Kockchurang
Phedong:
Tshokha!!
Yuksom
Khechoperi
Siliguri
And bye!