The morning of September 29th 2009, we woke up at an altitude of 8600 ft and we were about to do something which put in terms of simple mechanics amounts to zero work. Well, it’s zero work by no means and we were about to go all the way down to Wan river through the valley and gain the same altitude again to reach Didna – our next campsite and a cute little village and the last little village where we would come across civilization.

The team of 26 was split into three groups and 8 of us along with Rajesh started the 5 hour hike at 8.30 AM. The trail goes down along a not so steep incline and the initial stretches were looking like the forests in Western Ghats. I was longing for the feeling to resurface that I was wandering in the foothills of the Himalayas. Earlier this morning it did feel like that with Nanda Ghunti in front of us and the chilling temperature but now it doesn’t anymore. As I said, it was a bright sunny day and the heat was not doing any good to help me with the feeling that I was roaming in Western Ghats. We crossed numerous pretty streams and bridges as we walked along.  This trail passed mostly through huge trees flanking on your both sides depriving you of clear views.

People don’t matter.. only snow matters!

Yes. I said that. But we’ll get to the details, sequences and consequences that led to this blunt declaration later. Having said that, today let’s meet the people who made this trek more enjoyable and then ride along to Loharjung.