Euphoria

It was a long wait of over 2 months before I finally boarded the train for my maiden Himalayan trek – the Spiti Valley trek in the northern Himachal Pradesh region. It was all due to Anjeli Singh – who during our chat prompted me of this trek in May end. Parth-Himangi Lawate couple were planning for a trek around the same time and hence, we four + Pranav, Aditya, Kanika, Girish, Saket made a group of 9.

Members –

1) Anjeli Singh

2) Aditya Sontakke

3) Girish Yelka

4) Kanika Kaura

5) Saket Mokate

6) Parth Lawate

7) Himangi Lawate

8) Pranav Lawate

9) Abhijit Avalaskar

1. Never travelled continuously for so long…. Almost 60 hrs with 5 hrs break @ Kanika’s home in Chandigarh … we kept eating for 4 hrs out of 5 😛 … thank you so much aunty for lovely food 🙂
2. I got cold just at the RIGHT time – 8^th Aug to 15^th Aug. Cold + high altitude made breathing horribly tough, especially @ Komic (14900 ft)
3. Effect of high altitude could be felt immediately… you feel tired even after walking for a minute.
4. We spent 2 nights @ Kaza (11000 ft) and went to Lhangza (14000 ft) on 13^th Aug morning. This was a huge altitude difference and we further gained about 1000 ft while trekking to Komic (highest motorable village). This was extremely tiring walk of about 3 hrs with Sun beating down badly. Goggle proved to be a bliss 🙂 !
5. Komic homestay was fantastic… A huge rectangular room lit with natural light, beautifully colored room, breeze flowing continuously through west facing window and all this supplemented with amazing views of Himalayas was a heavenly feeling BUT physical condition at Komic was the worst of entire tour…. I had a horrible time in breathing. Even 2-3 steps of climbing the homestay stairs seemed like climbing Mt. Everest :-). My pulse rate was 125+ throughout the stay at Komic. I never imagined that even a simple walk could be soooooooo tiring 🙂 ! To add to this, my left knee started giving sporadic aches. However, trek to Dhankar lake proved to be an apt treatment 😀 … It has not pained since then 🙂 !
6. Anjeli-Kanika had a fantastic energy, stamina … I envied them 🙂 !
7. Himangi-Pranav-Aditya had a bad time with headache (high altitude sickness). Parth, Girish had bad stomach/ acidity (high altitude sickness). All in all, majority of us had some problem or the other 🙂 !
8. Trek to Dhankar lake was tiring but worth doing. Five min break everyt after 10 min was customery for me 🙂 ….I had almost given up making it till the end. BUT desire to experience the lake kind of dragged me to the lake…. The lake was scenic, mood freshening and more importantly, my knee injury (?) got treated 🙂 !
9. During return journey (Kaza – Manali), we visited a paradise called CHANDRATAAL LAKE … this small fresh water lake surrounded by hills from all the sides is a treat to eyes.
10. We had to wait at a single point in Rohtang pass for 3 hrs! (at one moment, we almost had made mental preparedness to spent the entire night in Sumo….it was such a deadlock traffic situation!!)
11. We all – especially Parth, Pranav, Aditya, Abhijit – Played cards almost on every possible opportunity…. tiredlessly !! Saket had a new game  in store for us – BLACK QUEEN 🙂 !
12. Relaxed in Manali for 2 nights and reached Mumbai on 20^th Aug morning.

* NOTE : Only BSNL / CELLONE network works in Spiti area. So, buying a prepaid card of it is a good idea. (Being disconnected from phone, computer, TV for 12 days was a great feeling 🙂 !! )

Contact numbers –

For Sumo/ Guide (Manali-Kaza-Manali OR Kaza region tour)

Mr. Lama @ Kaza – +919459228584

Mr. Narayan @ Manali – +919817092312

Mr. Roshan @ Manali – +919816372999 / +919459519099

Kaza Stay

Hotel Mandala – Mr. Sunil Soni – +919418558435 / Mr. Sanjeev Acharya – +919418009649

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