A group of twenty executives of City Bank from Delhi office stayed in Himgiri Nature Resort near Rajgarh in Sirmaur – the southern most district of Himachal Pradesh in Northern India. Mr. Maninder Kohli, their Vice President an enthusiastic team leader and a keen trekker himself has made it compulsory for his every team member to go for a trek at least once a year. I think every corporate house must follow this rule. This time he was taking them to Churdhar peak, the highest peak of south Himachal.
I had already been informed by General Ugrasen Yadav, the owner of the resort, to guide his clients to the Peak. So I reached there a day before on my Motor Cycle from Shimla. The duty of transporting all the paraphernalia such as tents, kitchen equipment, sleeping bags, sleeping mattresses and utensils was put on the responsible shoulders of Sunil, the resort manager. It is impossible to complete the trek in one day so they were suggested to camp some where on the way for a night. The best place is Rohandy Nullah a wide meadow after eight kilometer and next stop is the starting end of Tesri.
Next morning things were transported by jeep to Nauradhar, 25 km from Didag and loaded on ponies. Sunil along with Govind – his cook, one camp boy – Satpal started their walk much before we reached Nauradhar by bus. Chandu, our locale guide was waiting for us in the market with his bag wearing in his arms.
Carrying our day packs filled with chocolates, water bottles and biscuits and lunch boxes started our climb and we also reached there. Nauradhar is a tiny town on Haripurdhar road where few buses stop after Rajgarh for a break. About five hundred people live here. Few locals have their own vehicles to transport sacks of vegetable
from surrounding villages to big markets and bring daily supplies to the shops in the market.
Initially for four to five kilometers we walked through few small villages. People have set up their small houses near the trail. These are small hill houses with tiled rooftops and mud plastered walls painted with lime stone water. The doors and windows are made of wood, painted green, brown or sometimes white. The houses are set up away from each other, surrounded by fields in which wheat was still green and Garlic was being sown. Here people do terrace farming and major part of the region is sunny as here we found hardly any trees.
Most of the houses face valley extending towards Garwal – the neighboring state.
We were surprised to see water taps out side the houses where women either washed clothes or taps were connected with plastic pipes taking water to the fields. Later we came to know that taps get water from the natural sources in hills.
As we advanced towards our destination we gained height and more and more open view of Sirmaur valley enchanted our eyes. It was second week of March so rhododendrons were in their full bloom. Green valley was decorated with red flowers everywhere.
‘Is this the flower whose petals are used to make squash?’ asked one of the party members to me.
‘Yes. It is available in the market’.
‘If I pluck all these flowers then how much money I shall earn?’ said some one.
They always want to spoil nature. Everything is business for them. In the name of development we are going to leave nothing for our coming generations.
Little more walk up side and we entered a mixed forest of oak and rhododendrons. The ground is moist and soft here. The view of the valley is obstructed by trees and the dense forest kept us away from the rest of the world. Few of the trees had been uprooted, perhaps due to heavy winds. They lied on the trail and we had to some times jump over them or go under them.
We occupied a slightly wide space on a rock near out trail and opened our lunch boxes. Govind, the cook at Himgiri Nature resort was kind enough to pack our lunch boxes with poori, chana, some pickle, a piece of fruit and salad. It was fun to enjoy lunch sitting on ground with our backs resting against oak trees. The space was surrounded by a dense forest, wind and silence. A doze on the rock with stretched legs after lunch was very refreshing.
Sunil was informed to stop and set up camp at Rohandi Nullah where a wide meadow welcomes travelers. Before we reached Rohandi Nullah a giant size rock was an attraction for all. From this rock Rohandi Nullah is not very far and before we entered meadow we encountered the first small patch of snow a few feet long. Some of them pulled their cameras to click photos.
‘You shall find more snow further?’ I told them but they were not ready to listen to me. Rohandy Nullah was the last destination, every one thought. The wide meadow is surrounded by thick cedar trees. I was the first one to reach with a group of five executives. Rest of them were slow walkers so they took some more time.
The meadow had a large patch of snow where many of them played in snow and got some photographs clicked.
‘Have we reached?’ every one asked me as they saw us stretched on the grass of meadow.
‘Yes, but I do not see any camp here. Sunil must have gone further’.
Why did not he stop here?’ they were tired.
‘He must have not found any water here’ answered Chandu.
‘We have to walk for another two kilometers’. I added to him.
‘That’s ok. We are ready to walk’ said Maninder. After some time we started again.
Sunil had setup camp at a round shaped flat ground in the mid of the forest. Before we reached camp there were enough sources of fresh water. We filled up our water bottles from there got refreshed and reached the camp site. Govind welcomed us with hot tea and biscuits and then we occupied our tents with two members in each tent with sleeping bags and mattresses provided.
As the night fell bon fire was set up in the middle of the camp and everyone sat around the fire. After couple of drinks it was time to sing and dance. Ajit an executive and Rajat – their assistant manager were good singers to make the evening exciting.
Dinner was ready at 08:30. Every one slept early as we had another walk next morning.
After breakfast few of them decided to go back where as Maninder and others walked further with me. The walk from this overnight campsite to the other end of Tesri is monotonous. Much of the area was packed with snow. As we advanced further more snow was found. It was dirty and melting. Tesri offers the view of valley behind Sirmaur from where panoramic view of snow clad Himalayan peaks from west to east can make anyone to take out his camera. Here we experienced two to eight feet snow at some places. The trail to the Churdhar Peak was covered with snow and we saw no foot steps on it.
In spite of our very sincere efforts we could touch only the bottom of the hill from where the trail to the peak was blocked due to snow. At last we were left with no option but to return to Himgiri Nature resort. Unfortunately we came back from a kilometer before the peak.
‘Perhaps the local God – Shirgul Devta, whose temple crowns the peaks was not happy with us so he does not permitted us to reach his temple’ said Chandu, our local guide.
Deities from surrounding villages are brought here when route to the temple opens. They are given a fresh wash, worshipped and taken back to their respective villages.
‘It is always next time. We had a good climb and I am happy that my team was able to make it till this point’ said Maninder and we walked back to Nauradhar where our bus waited for us to take us back to Himgiri Nature Resort.
………………….By : Sumit Raj Vashisht
