Three years ago, when I held my first camera all I would care to do was click. There is a mountain, click! There is a river, click! There flies a bird, click! Click! Click! Click! Now, almost three years later I wait before I click, I wait. I wait for the light, I wait for the angle, I wait for the idea. Years from now I'd expect only to think and not wait. A real artist would make the best out of any given situation, of course such days are long ahead of me. But today, I would wait at Dhankar Lake. I am almost always in a hurry in all my journeys. I never waited around a place to think, compose, wait and click. But today for the first time I would have the opportunity to do so. Light changes everything.

Dhankar is a small hamlet resting on one of the mountain tops in Spiti. Dhankar has an old monastery sitting dangerously on a cliff and also 5 kms from here, on the other side of the same mountain lies a small lake, called Dhankar Lake. If you are feeling quite adventurous, you could just climb up the mountain above Dhankar and get down the other side. This is the steeper trail used by the sure-footed sheep and goats while normal people can trek for about an hour or so by taking the trail that goes above the new monastery. The trail is well marked till the lake.

Well, so to speak I was waiting for the golden hour but reached the lake much earlier than that. There's some dirty left over water that I see but I kept walking anyway hoping to find more water. As I walked further, I saw more water. There is a lake indeed and is reasonably well fed. Now as I walked here and there, climbed up and down over the course of the evening the lake showed it various colors or rather the light brought out the various colors of the lake. See the photos below to see the transition over a period of 3 hours.

Back to Himalayas:

I read a mail from Arjun which said the trek starts somewhere and ends in Lahaul. Well that was it, the word Lahaul hooked me onto it and I sent a mail saying I am interested in joining the trek. It was an exploratory trek and I was long gone out of the trekking scene. But nothing mattered, I just wanted to go to Lahaul and Spiti and why I had to go on a trek before going to Spiti I don’t know. But I was going on an exploratory trek in the Himalayas. I had no clue about the difficulty, about the terrain, about the arrangements, about the skill required, nothing. I just knew I was going there on September 1st. 

One Step Closer:

This trek was special in many ways but first and foremost it took me a step closer to being a true Himalayan trekker. I carried my own backpack. At altitude where even one tiny speck of dust might seem like a burden, I carried my own backpack. At an altitude where even one extra step might seem overkill I carried my own backpack. At an altitude where even one additional ..okay I think you got the point – I carried my backpack all along which would weigh anywhere between 8 – 10kgs. Well it is not exactly alpine style because the porters were still carrying our food, sleeping bags and tents but it is one step closer and one step better than having a mule carry your luggage. Signs of a true trekker eh? ;)