In last posting I was mentioning about trekking program, so lets pick it from there & continue.
We were about 20 students,10 each from junior & senior division & Mr.Afaque was our team leader, an employee of JMI NCC office.
BAM, QMD,Kamil hasan, Parvez Akhtar were prominent in our group.
When Bus Started from ISBT,we were full of energy but soon after traveling 100km, our energy level went down & we felt exhausted.
We have to travel whole night & it was expected to reach Kullu between 10-11AM.
Trying to sleep but there was no angle that we can sleep due to bumpy road & bus was far away from comfort zone!
Tried different positions
Head resting back on iron bar, too risky & can’t sleep.
Head on bar at front seat, no sleep.
Leaning either side! Forget about it.
Finally we rested past our leg on the top of front seat bar while half body on the seat in a way that our head should touch & move freely to the seat we were occupying.
This posture given all of us a tough sleep till driver applies brakes signaled that we reached Ambala (Punjab).
Went down, had our dinner & a cup of tea before disembark again.
It was last hours of night when we felt some cold, cant see outside as there was no light & no moon.
Only black tarmac visible through bus head lights but we can felt bus is gaining altitude as engine was too noisy.
Few hours later we feel company out side while covering ourselves in shawls.
To our surprise, the bus was penetrating through Himalayas.
It was my first time that I have been face to face with the youngest mountain of the world.
The brown/grey giants fully covered with greenery.
Conductor told us that we left shimla behind through bye pass road.
Unlimited peaks surround us with a kind we feel that, yes we are above the world!
National highway looks merely a line in comparison with Himalayas however it was strong enough to challenge its greatness by penetrating through.
Left side huge wall of mountains towering hundreds of meters while right side deep gorge descending straight 100 of meters.
Beautiful but frightening, a single mistake of driver can plunge the bus deep down.
The expert driver of himachal roadways was driving it fast towards destination & now we can feel cool breeze on our faces & deep down blinking Sound of Beas River.
Altogether, it was wonderful looking all around & we forget our breakfast.
Kullu came, bus stopped to drop few passenger & starts again towards Manali.
It was after kullu that we came near to Beas River as far as altitude was concern & easily hear roaring sound of flowing river.
After 20-25km bus stopped almost few hundred meters away from river on a plane & we all disembarked.
It was our base camp set on the bank of Beas river.
A very beautiful place can hardly be described in words.
The whole trekking program was organized by YHA (Youth hostel association) & we have been welcomed by officials upon arrival.
Soon after registration, we have been allotted with tent & 8 people gets one tent.
Our tent was situated very near to the banks of beas & its roaring sound was very prominent.
We have been briefed about our trekking program & its essentials to be kept in rucksack with many do’s & don’ts.
We also informed by our instructor to get ready next day for a 10km acclimatization walk which eventually will help us to get ready for the main program.
Other training highlights were rock climbing & river crossing by rope.
