The next day (21 May) we were woken up at 5 AM with a cup of morning
tea. After getting up and running off to the loo ASAP (I had lived
in a hostel and I knew how bad the morning rush can get ) we
assembled for the morning exercises. We were assigned a group number
(SP-21). After the exercises, we assembled together to send off
another group off to the higher camp.
This was the day for our acclimatization walk and orientation. The
purpose of the acclimatization walk is to check if all our equipment
is functional and we are not having any trouble with our shoes. We
were issued a rucksack and we packed it with 2 blankets. For our
walk, we had to climb a small hill next to our camp itself. On the
first day itself, I realized that my regular exercising has started
paying off. I did not have much trouble in climbing the hill. We
also selected a group leader, group co-leader and an environment
leader for our group. The role of the environment leader was to make
sure no one was littering the trail.
Once we reached back at the camp, I took a shower and had lunch. The
time after lunch was for orientation. The Field Director explained to
us the precautions that we needed to take and the facilities made
available by YHAI at the higher camps. After sitting through the
orientation, we took our evening tea and I spent most of the evening
by sitting near the river flowing next to our camp. We had dinner at
7:30 and campfire at 9 and then we went off to our tents.
On reaching base camp (on 20th May), I registered myself at the
reception and I was assigned a tent. I was sharing the tent with some
11 or 12 other people, but I did not really mind. I knew that the
only time I would get back to the tent was when it was time to
sleep. We were also issued a pair of blankets. I spent the first day
by eating, resting and exploring the river flowing near our camp. We
had dinner by 7:30 PM and then a campfire at 9. The campfire was
mostly people singing/dancing/doing solo presentations etc. It was
good fun. The campfire ended at around 10 PM and we went off to sleep
by 10:30 PM.
The trek to Saurkundi Pass was organized by
Youth Hostels Association of India. The base camp for this trek was the
Youth Hostel situated at Babeli, a small town near
Kullu, Himachal Pradesh. I took a flight to Delhi, and then from
Delhi I took a bus to Kullu. All the AC buses leaving for Kullu were
full and it was only by good luck that I was able to get a seat in one
of them.
The next entries are about my days during the trek.
I am back from my vacation. It was awesome. Pics here
.
I really did not want to come back to Bangalore and the only good thing about coming back here is that I am getting back to work with my extremely talented colleagues
I will be on vacation (I think for the first time since I started working) from 19th May to 5th of June. I am going on a trek with the Youth Hostel Association of India (YHAI). Hopefully, being on a trek (my first one) will be an enlightening experience.
) we
assembled for the morning exercises. We were assigned a group number
(SP-21). After the exercises, we assembled together to send off
another group off to the higher camp.
