Trekking part-2 (base camp)

On arrival to base camp Raison about half way from Kullu & manali, it was a dream come true.

Beautiful camp sat on the noisy bank of beas river, neat & tidy surrounded by green peaks.

we have been alotted tents & guidelines to stay there.

I got a tent with my 5 trekker friends & we settled down before go out to get fresh.

In those days, we were habitual of asian w/c & what we found in the toilet was Europian!!

First time, was a bad time...an indian goes europian way & things were messed up with agreat degree of dissatisfaction.

we decided not to go that direction again!

myself, qyam & muzaffar decided to have a bath & we walked in the mangroves @ 500m away from our camp to take bath in beas.

Roaring sound of water with a good speed challenged us to conquer.

except Qyamuddin we both were not swimmer & for him there was no room to swim as the water was shallow at the banks & we tried to settle for few rocks.

Finally we kept our soap on one side & took our mug to take water for bath.

It was cold & the first pour on our body made us felt that, it was very cold.

@ 8-10 degree.

we controlled our shiver & pur few more mugs in order to use soap.

Using soap was our biggest mistake!!!!!!!

we kept on pouring water on our temporarily paralysed skin to wash away soap & it didt happened.

Then we realised, it was comparitively hard water.

Once become unbearable, we given off & used our towels to take the sticky stuff off from body.

The first lesson learned: dont use soap if you are bathing out side the designated bathroom.

Soon, body starts coming back to normal & we dont know how we were walking.......The foot was not landing at the place where it intend to.

This continues till we reach near to base camp.

We share our experience with others & given tips HOW TO TAKE BATH.

taking bath directly from the river or from water fall throughout the trek becomes the status symbol of "Daring" as other group doing trekking with us was from Gujrat.

We never saw Any Gujrati taking bath....they used to soak their towel in water, squeezed it & then taking towel bath.

The food at camp was pure vegetarian & good in taste like any camp in such scenario.

After dinner we have been called for camp fire, the main attraction of base camp & throughout the the trekking program.

The base camp was a place where 70-100 people are present all the times, from different part of india.

We went there sat quietly to see the proceedings....The anchor, the person & groups performing were not found very attractive to us & the whole group decided to challenge them next eve.

Jamiaets pushed me to take charge to play anchor & as pre planned, we rock the camp fire.

The sweetness of urdu, culture of jamia, activeness & dscipline of NCC brought the good results in our favor & Jamia gang become the hot favorite over night.

Three night stay at raison base & performance of all jamiaets inlcuding me, zia haider, kamil hasan, talib, musarrat bhai & many more did magic to make camp fire as ever lasting experience.

Jamia NCC-Trekking program (chandrakhani pass)

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.

Trekking program in 1986

"Abe NCC ka tour ja raha he"(NCC is organising a tour) said one of my colleague!

I asked where?

Replied "Himachal Pradesh"!!!

It was in 1985-86 & i was in Xth standard, fully involve & active cadet of Jamia NCC.

Summer vacation were approaching & NCC office announced a tour for its cadets in Himachal Pradesh to do tracking in Himalyas.

It came to me like a dream comes true!

NCC was bearing @ half the cost & half to be arranged by us.

I went to NCC office along with QMD & BAM to register ourselves.

It was one month before i must make the payment.

The question remians, how to pay?

I dont wanna trouble my parents for this.

Also, the tution i was offering was not enough to bear the required expenses.

Trying to figure out, i came across a contractor backfilling Yamuna for ploting at batla house.

He offerred me to supervise backfilling operation for 20days & offered me a good amount in return.

Finally i got the amount needed to finance tracking tour.

Finished with the formalities, NCC office divided us in three groups & i was named in group-3.

My self, QMD & BAM decided to go shopping & went to Sunday market/Chor bazar behind red fort.

We purchased Gum boot, ruksack,knives & specially foam filled shirts at shoulders for our tour along with few small items.

Finally the day came & we departed in a DTC bus for ISBT (inter state bus terminal).

Few of our seniors like Musarrat Ali/Afaque bhai joined us there.

Boarded on Himachal pradesh state transport corporation bus finally departed for Kullu (HP).