The Dream is closer

Bright Morning

It is a bright day today.  I peep out of the tent to see the Sun rising. The golden sunshine is spreading arms. We are fortunate it is a great weather. After a delicious breakfast we head to our next day of trekking. We are still walking in the meadows. Blue skies, and green mountains welcome us with sparkling sunshine. 

We suddenly stumble upon a small portion of snow. It the first time in this season, we are able to see

Himalayan Resident : Treat to the eyes

the snow. We take pictures and march ahead. There is no change in the surroundings, however the huge Devdar trees are slowly disappearing. And suddenly we are standing in front of a mountain blanketed with the white snow. Dineshji, our tour guide tells us that we must climb this mountain for practice. He briefs us that tomorrow we will be climbing many such mountains in deep snow hence the practice. We carefully march ahead after learning the technique. All of us try to master the technique of walking on the snow with much efforts.

Ashok, Pranav(JCB), Sachin, Kalyani and Prerana

After about 30 minutes of practice full of masti and magic, we finally declare that we are done with it and may proceed further. As we climb another mountain we reach our destination for the day. We have reached rather early and hence we once again do tent pitching and relax for a while. After a sumptuous lunch many disappear in their tents. Some of us decide to sit in the open to absorb the fresh air and golden sunshine. As I am engrossed in a chat with Kalyani and Ashok, Shardul and Tanaya join us. Shardul spots a small rabbit like animal. We take the snaps and proceed to the tents. Ashok wants to try   digging out the snow. We are trying to figure out which fort it is going to be. Finally we are told that he is making Shivaji Maharaj.  This looks like an ambitious plan and we withdraw from it.
his hands on Snow once again. He starts building a structure in the snow. Pranav, our official JCB of the group starts

Sharvari : The Smiling Star

The tea is served by the side of the kitchen tent. Simultaneously Mitraji declares that he will be teaching us how to tie different types of knots  to a rope. Everybody tries his hand. It is a useful exercise indeed. As the time passes by we start preparing for our big day tomorrow. We are going to have a long day, since it is a climb of almost 6 hours and a descend of 3 hours. We are thrilled about this portion of the trek. It is going to be absolute pleasure to climb the mountain filled with snow. Dinesh tells us that we would be starting our trek at 6.00 am in the morning. He gives instructions about back pack and assures us that he will do his best to reach us to the destination. 

Moon Lit Mountains in the midnight

Since it is extremely cold I use my veto and tell everyone to have turmeric milk (Haldiwala Dudh). Some characters who are in the habit of skipping milk since their childhood escape silently. However I am able to hold on to 7 people to drink the milk. Finally we are off to our tents.

Dream Bhrugu

I suddenly wake up in the middle of the night to attend to nature’s call. It is extremely cold and it is impossible to leave the warmth of my sleeping bag. However it is next to impossible to sleep without going out. I curse myself for drinking water in the evening and gather courage to go out. As I come outside, the sky is lit with full moon. The moon looks like a silver disk. It is glowing like a Diwali lantern. I am amazed at the sight. The snowy mountains are bathing in the moonlight. The blue sky is lit with the silvery shiny light spread all over. I am forced to go back to my tent due to the cold. However I do not want to close my eyes with the fear of wiping out the spectacular seen of nature I just captured.  

I fall back to sleep with the dream in my eyes. Dream of moon lit Bhrugu Lake.