We didn’t take this news seriously rather chose to have a leisure lunch in Hotel Sonamarg glacier for some reason. We ordered soup and starters to our surprise the waiter gives a surprised look, Then he says people come here they are always in hurry , they want to leave as soon as possible. We said we are in no hurry treat us as your guest. The food was awesome, Impressed with us they gave us discount. We promised them that if the road is not open we would come for dinner.
Local guides were trying to caution us by saying that our cars cannot go up there, apparently we were guys who have already driven 3000 Kms Ignoring the local tour guide we drove our car to foot hills of glaciers where we were planning to do snow sledging.
Reaching up in the glaciers we meet Trikhanna and gang who were taking us for the sledge. We were getting cranky for some reason may be officially our trip has started. We decide to do sledge in our bare chest, yep we did that. Trikhanna and gang got so involved that they joined our party of enjoying. He admitted that he has never seen somebody doing such crazy things. We were assisted by few old guys who were trying to help us climbing the glaciers. Taking pity on them we said we would rather pay than the guys accompanying us. They reply “Mehanat ka rupiya hai, aise nahi lengea” (Its hard work money , cant just take it without work). The guys who hardly have 4 months of tourist visit still tries to justify his income. Learning 1 of the day more to come.
As dawn begins people started rushing out of the glaciers. We were quick to spot the camping ground. We next meet impressive person Nazir and his gang. We requested them if we can pitch in our tent. Nazir was a forest security guard. He immediately say “Chalo lagathae hai”( common lets do it). We were just surprised how come every body is so good here. We split rupesh and amit were pitching the tent , while vivek picks some wood for camp fire.
Nazir makes sure that we are comfortable and says if we need anything we could anytime knock is doors. We parked our car next to his security office.Our tent was pitched in one of the most picturesque location any could imagine. Just beneath the snow clad mountains, Small stream of water running near by. We were infact not alone but accompanied by horses and cattle’s. Unavailability of humans didn’t really bother us rather we enjoyed the serene scenery.
We went all way down again to sonamarg glacier hotel to pick some food. Struggling with the camp fire we managed to have dinner in one of the loneliest place. We were just happy to stare at the bright mountain in dark night. Snow caps were glittering in moon light. Unfortunately cameras couldn’t capture want naked eye could enjoy.
While we were getting cozy in 4 people quest tent, The horses were gazing around us making weird sound. With temperature really dropping we catch up some sleep. We were woken up by the bright sun early in the morning . Its just 5’clock in the morning but the sun light was bright as if it was10 already. Since we were in west and mountains raising high enough the early rays were falling on the mountain tips. Really what a scene to watch, we just kept watching the changing color as sun raising up and covering all mountains.
We packed our went tent and decided to came back from the woods. There were good amount of condensation which happened in tents and sleeping bags as the temperature inside the tent was more than the ambient temperature. We thank Nazir and pack our bags. We thought the road should be open today. We headed down and reached the market where we now find hundreds of standard people. The road wasn’t open today and it might not be too.
In order to pass time rupesh decided to have a haircut, Amit too joins him. After having haircut both of them have a cold water bath on streets of sonamarg. After cup of chai we decide to wait in J & K tourism building. Authorities say that the conditions are not good it might take couple of days for the road to open. Not knowing what to do we decided to dry our tent and Sleeping bags.
Once they got dried we were trying to pass time not knowing what to do, We spend sometime investigating the attachment in motorcycle for carrying rugsacks. Then we spot local kids playing cricket. We requested them to play a match with us. Our team captain was a 8 year old local kid. First match was won by us batting second. Second match was also won by us based on duckworth and lewis rules. We decided to play a better match in a bigger ground. As we started to move somebody spreads the news of road opening.
Every body rush to their vehicles and they were heading checkpost in high speed. Initial view would say that they is a volcano or an earthquake. We picked some survival food for couple of days and headed towards checkpoint only to realize it was a rumor. After waiting for an hour we realize it’s not going to open till next day so we head back to market again.
On the way we spotted rafting guys. We join our hands for rafting 3 km in cold water. The time which we chose for rafting wasn’t that great it was evening 6. We managed to convince the rafting guys for taking us. We were joined in other raft by a family who were taking Brandy to keep them warn. The weirdest part was they were even giving it to 8 year old kid too. Every time raft jumps on turbulent water it made sure it’s drenching us. We started requesting the raft handler to make sure every person is equally drenched.
Rafting was wonderful experience its just that we had to be in wet clothes for some more time. We cajoled the rafters to take us back to the upstream where our vehicle is . We sit in a mini truck above the rafts to reach the upstream. Quickly changing the dress we head back to meet Nazir again.
The day was extremely cold and we being in water were feeling even more. Nazir helped us to find a Tourism bunglow even deeper in the woods. This was nice cozy place where we played cards to some time before resting. We were so impressed by Nazir and their gang’s helping nature. We decided to present them something, We didn’t have much of a choice as we were already stranded in the small place and we didn’t have anything new as such. Finally we decided to gift rupesh’s sweat shirt. Before moving towards the check post we thank Nazir and gift him the shirt. He was also pleased with us.
They gave us their wishes saying “Allah appko sahi salamat pahunchayae” . (Allah will help you reach safely) .We headed towards check post and decided to wait till the road open’s. We were one of the early birds to reach there. We found a strategic place where we could be one of the early goers if the road opens.
Mean time we decided to dry our wet cloths from rafting. Though you find snow and cold breeze the sun usually in these places are really hot , Air being thin is one of the reason. We also had a walk in near by villages to make use of our Digitial SLR’s . We should accept we were able to capture some wonderful pictures.
Then we Mr.Lucky around 1.00 , a person seeing us was getting some photography tips form us. He was surprised by the distance we have already driven. We said it been more than two days we are still here. he says it would open today as he was very lucky. To our surprise we hear news of road opening
By Afternoon we were sure that the road would open. All of a sudden surge of people increased, now we find hundreds of vehicle standing bumper to bumper. We also saw guys who have been there for more than 4 days. I was just wondering how people traveling in local bus would have managed for 4 days. We should accept it’s a tough different world.
We were almost ready to move, We quicky decided to have some noodles before hitting the road. We manage to hold few plates of noodles from small stores which were already serving hundreds of them. By Then every vehicle is standing in get set go positions. All lined up just waiting for the go word from the security person.
It's truly amazing that you slept in the middle of nowhere.
ReplyDeleteI was told you need to fit some extra stuffs to your tire so that the vehicle doesn't skid off . . Is it true ? Did you guys fit anything of that kind ?
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