Climb to Bedani Kund, 12 May 2007

We got up in the morning to bed tea served at our tents, a clear sky, a much more happier looking Lien…but did we sleep at all in the first place? Preeti heard me all right last night but did not want to encourage a conversation and hear all the voices of dissent. She said she had other things to worry about, like for example that I was sleeping on the edge of the tent and she was afraid that the grazing mules might get a taste of my already very short hair. “ I was worried about what you would be left with after they chomped your hair off!” Aparna responded with a mule snort that would have put any of the grazing wonders to shame. One of the girls in our gang who had to be moved out to another tent to make more room for us, reported that the tent where she had to sleep, Impedimenta’s worse half made enough noise snoring to keep all the mules in the world awake. To add to the spice of it all, we had heard voices of the PT teachers trying to find a boy in the middle of the night and our wild imaginations had envisioned the worst—which was that a kid was running away because he could not take it anymore. The reality was no less imaginative—the teen unabashedly admitted that he was known to sleep walk and had sleep walked into the forests.

The sun was out and snow glistened on the mountain peaks and Lien was better. After breakfast we started off on our trail to Camp Bedani Kund at 12,000ft. We had climbed to 10,000ft—how difficult could it be to climb 2000ft more? Manish Jha warned, “If yesterday was what you considered tough, then today’s would be a challenge.” We were told that it was uphill over the hills near camp and then we would reach the vast meadows of Bedani Bugyal. From there it would be a trek along a mountain path to camp. Seemed straight forward—till I saw Narayan tie both Nayanika and Meena when they sat on Munni. Why do they have to be tied up? When I climbed up with Ash and the others, I realized why. If climbing up a mountain is hard—try doing it by pony. Hats off to Impedimenta and the girls for doing it in style—I still preferred my sore feet!

Manish Jha, decided to walk with us to Bedani Kund and we all welcomed it—the other kids who had been disciplined enough said, “Do we have to deal with the climb as well as Hitler?” But our girls at least heard stories of the mountains that kept spurred their curiosity and their energy. We climbed leaf-strewn tracks, with Ash tapping out the loose stones and rocks, we heard birds’ call so sweetly clear and we saw a amazing variety of butterflies flitting along with us. We stopped to sit on fallen logs. Ayesha wrote names on what she called a ‘Family Rock’ so that the mountains would bear at least the names of the people she loved but who couldn’t come with her on this trek. Then our energy began to sag and we longed for those promised meadows. We stopped to see the hills we had passed by that somewhere hid Base Camp and realized that we really had come a long way. Then we walked again till we reached the bugyal or the meadow. The sight was something one can only be privileged to see.

Over the gur and channa that Manish Jha handed out, we sat back to drink in the view. The regal mountain peaks looked down at us, perhaps to remind us that we were but specks that would pass with time and they would go on forever. Our children looked so vulnerable and yet so strong against this backdrop—a combination that probably emerged from their pure hearts and sincere efforts that got them to this high point. I could have sat their forever, looking at these silent, snow-covered ranges and hoping that the wisdom they passed on to the Rishis of yore would rub off on me. But it was time to walk on.

We could see the rain clouds begin their trek towards us. Raincoats were pulled out and actually seemed to make a bit of a fashion statement up here—the girl gang gathered for a picture with Ash. Nothing however could keep the cold away. We passed the sign that warned us that now we were entering restricted areas. Meena was way ahead with Manish and her snow-monkey warm coat was with Aparna—we could not even see her. Preeti, Liz and Priya were way behind and we could not see them either. The climb became more difficult. We could see the narrow path cut into the mountains and they seemed to run endlessly to nowhere. We walked passed a little temple and the hail began. Lien looked not so good—brave Nayanika got off the pony for her and walked with Aparna. Lien went ahead. The hail stormed on. Ayesha stuck out her tongue to catch a few drops. We trudged on with a little march of our own…Take ten steps 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9, 10. Now rest for a count of ten. Take ten steps more and rest for ten…We dared not stop in case we could not get up anymore. I could see Ayesha’s little nose freeze up. Suddenly I realized we had been separated from the group. The last person I knew who passed me by was Narayan and Munni returning to pick up Nayanika after dropping Lien. I could not see Studmuffin’s gang, I could not see Impedimenta, what was worse--I could not see Aparna and Nanu. So I went on with Ayesha, Jyotsna and Priyanka. These girls were freezing, but we kept each other walking on. We met a local porter who said the mandatory, “Bas thoda aage hai”.

It was damp, cold and we began feeling snow on us. Despite being dead tired, Ayesha was thrilled to stick out her tongue and this time catch snow. While the rocky face of the mountains loomed high on one side, there was the sheer drop into the valley on the other side. We kept one hand on the side of the mountain and stayed away from the ledge. Our map had said that it was an 8km walk from Tol Pani to Bedani Kund—but this felt much more than that. We got to the end of the narrow mountain track and stepped into soft rolling hills. It was a meadow but we did not see camp anywhere. I did not know which way to go. There was no welcome banner like in the other camps. Before panic set in, a very calm Ayesha said, “Let’s follow these mule tracks and fresh mule poop—it’s bound to take us to people.” We whooped and hugged her and let her lead as she had done for the past two days. We walked and walked till we caught sight of one of the most wondrous sights ever—the toilet tents of Camp Bedani Kund and we walked on to a camp that seemed to be in a swirl of bad-tempered clouds.

We had reached Camp Bedani Kund all right but life was just about to get really heated up in these cold mountains.