i woke up to a sore throat and slight cold...which i ignored. dear body had endured a lot, so a small dumb cold was allowed...poor thing. i was practical and took the medicine from my collection (a very helpful one by the way as others would agree)....
breakfast was simple as usual. in breakfast we always had some combination of indian bread and potatoes! seemed like hospital food....all the right nutrients but all wrong taste. you can even replace that with NO taste. but then again...getting that stuff and making it so higher up the sea level was in itself commendable.
again the rushed routine of getting ready for the next camp...and bravely we marched off at around 8 am in the direction of Ratapani....
ok so i am climbing....climbing....stopping to breathe....climbing!!! the scenery becomes more romantic....and the jungle becomes denser.....the height increases and the cliff becomes steeper. again i am climbing...on and on...no respite. i thought to myself, the next flat-groud would be coming soon....but no. thankfully Nirav, a fast climber himself, chose to stay back with few slow-pokes, one of them being me that day! he literally pushed, pulled and dragged wherever necessary...and gave me electrol water and glucose if needed.
by lunchtime, my legs were protesting to climg any further, and my lungs were bursting. i almost went back to my medicine lecture about lung diseases and tried to checklist the symptoms. typically, i felt like i was having pneumonia, emphysema or both. haha...a typical doctor....while Nirav maintained his stand that i was "doing just fine" and tried to fool me with "oh...its just 10 minutes away now! there comes another rest point! see? all are waiting" and it turned out that when we all reached to the "rest points" the others had already left after resting. my gang was atleast half an hour ahead of me....i was angry about that! so much for their "we will wait for you". i ignored that in the light of all their other baby-sitting of mine :) :) oh well...SIGH....each one to his own. besides....i wouldnt wait for anyone either, if i had been faster on that route...it was just too much, and we waited for just one sight. the YHAI banner or tents.
after a winding turn of steep climbing around 12 30 pm....when i was considering going back and not climbing anymore, and then laughing at the stupidity of that thought, Nirav informed me that we had reached the lunch point. my pace had decreased exponentially, so had my lung capacity....while Nirav's help had increased, along with his patience! seriously that guy had the patience to wait for me, to urge me on, and to offer his hand to literally lift/drag me where needed!! i owe him a treat. as i took the last step and reached the lunch point i saw some 7-8 people propped up on the trees there eating from the packed lunch....and suddenly...
suddenly a wave of tiredness washed over me, i threw my bag down, and the group leader helped lift the bag up a few steps to the lunch area....i was breathing heavy and suddenly my eyes closed, darkness...and i swayed side to side...almost falling and i felt like thats it game over.....a strong hand caught me, and i heard Shashank's voice "sir, she is fainting i think!" and he sat me down...within a few minutes i recovered, to find Shashank staring at me and laughing, offerring a biscuit and some glucose water...
relief washed over me. but i was unsure of the next few hours that were still remaining to reach Ratapani. i almost cried, thinking, there was no way but forward. after resting for 15 minutes...i picked up my rucksac again and set out, slowly, unsure, into the steep jungle again.
climbing again....and more climbing. till i felt like maybe my feet would permanently deform to acute angles....at this point, i did not care about the scenery....and cursed every day of the gym that i might have skipped. each step was an endurance. the human machine is unbelievable and i swear by that. i cursed the steep slope once more, futile effort to move faster was broken by gasping for breath as my lungs protested.
the worse was yet to come.
one hour after lunch point, walking became pleasant because finally, steepness decreased and a relatively level trail emerged. that was when it started raining.....i was like. okay so is this the last day of my life? this is how it feels...to be exhausted.....took out the damn rain-cover from my sac and put it overhead. as if things were not enough, we had to hold the rain sheet to ourselves while walking now!
then the WORST came.....and everyone almost died. well i am not talking about seasoned trekkers (who found this part "difficult") but i am talking about the nightmare that the first timers faced.
and no, just doing Pindhari Glacier trek 6 years ago didnt make me seasoned. i was a first timer...or worse probably.
going back to "the toughest part"....i am referring to the "easy gradual trail" leading to a stretch of ROCKS overlooking a steep vertical cliff....which we had to cross finally before reaching Ratapani. it was exactly like it sounds....we almost died.
rock over rock over rock, we had to get foot and hand grip on the slippery-with-rain rocks...and haul ourselves up, rucksac,rain sheet and all, to the top. one miss....and nobody would claim responsibility for death. this was when the clause "YHAI is not responsible for accidental death blah blah blah" that i had read in the brochure, came up magnified in my brain...and i did not know what to think. like some kind of angels, Nirav and Ranjit climbed first, bit by bit and then held out hands to help the others...if they would not have been there to pull us up, we would have fallen down the cliff and died for sure.
my legs wobbled, and we were instructed to keep our bodies closer to the mountain side, and proceed foot by foot, and not look to our left side where there was the sheer cliff drop.
everyone prayed silently and i could see my fear reflected clearly in their eyes as well....after 20 minutes of that rocky steep patch...we reached the top to see the famous BANNER....YHAI WELCOMES YOU TO RATAPANI....
i would have collapsed....but i could not believe it yet. my feet kept walking, my body just followed. i was not smiling, it was not even funny then. it was strange emotion, like i wanted to shout with joy at seeing the campsite but i could not because i was in pain/tiredness/whatever stupid feeling. i felt worn out and rubbery.
i walked silently to the girl's tent....taking one look at the gang that had reached some time back...and then ofcourse. collapsed. shoes and all. threw the rucksac....sat still in the tent for half an hour before i could grasp the fact that i had made it, finally, to Ratapani.
i felt feverish, the cold was at its peak and i had a headache. few raw areas on my feet prepared for their first blisters....and i couldnt care less that my hair looked like a wig. or that "being groomed" and "washed" was laughable against "being alive" out here....maybe this feels like a dramatic exaggeration, but yeah, damn as hell i was proud of myself that day to have trekked till Ratapani, to be alive, and for people like Nirav, Shashank and Ranjit.
i came to know that two people had taken the help of "porters". well porters are local people who are ready to earn some money by carrying your rucksac to the next campsite. i was mentally blocking out that thought due to my ego in the way, thinking, OFCOURSE not, why should anyone hire a poor someone to carry their load?! cant carry your own bag, then dont come trekking! and i was sniggerring inside, at the people who had hired them. i mean COME ON, how worse can it get?!
gave painkillers to many people that day! even the tough ones got muscle pain after this trek. and headache due to a nice rise in altitude.
Ratapani campsite is beautiful. resting on two lush green hills...with steep slopes on either side...and snow capped mountain peaks dominating the background picture all the time....running water brought in from the stream through a pipe, a makeshift canteen-hut like on all campsites...and tea,coffee, maggie noodles and omlette serving available as usual.
early dinner around 6 30 pm from now on, because the sunlight disappeared early and the cold set in faster as night approached. simple dinner...hospital food again. and within an hour, bournvita time. i wonder who came up with the idea of bournvita! all the campsites, all the altitudes, everytime before sleeping, BOURNVITA. i felt like a kid....i wanted coffee! but coffee was a luxury and as soon as their few pouches got over (other coffee lovers were with me as well) there was none left for me.
at sundown and after a mug full of bournvita, we retired into the cold tents....we were handed out sleeping bags and the famous thick blanket. unbeatable cold! it took me 15 minutes to warm my sleeping bag with my body...not caring to go out for any damn nature's call, i just shivered and pulled my blanket closer. persistant throat pain was a warning sign for me...i knew what was coming. fever.
just shivered and tried to sleep after the girls' talk died down....Rasika, Tejashree, Pooja, Chetna, Manisha,Manju, pravina, Surekha....wonder where they found extra energy from! awesome group....but i was too sore-throaty to join into the chirpy talk...
frankly, the shivering never stopped. again in my mind i went back to my medicine lectures talking about uncontrollable muscle twitching and hypothermia. i was preparing a mental checklist again wondering if i had any of those. how would i come to know if i had hypothermia??!! i didnt know! i panicked.
miserably cold night....shivers and suddenly dawn. i wondered if i had slept atall. we got up for "bed tea" and i know i have dragged myself out literally...i found out that others were not so healthy as well! shashank had a headache and cold, my gangmates had headache and cold....except DH. and Shiva has to be the healthiest person i know! he acclamatized to every campsite so fast...and moved around in a single layer tee while others went for woolens "obviously!" ......amazing guy....
as we got ready after breakfast to move on to the next campsite, i found myself unable to walk without swaying and wobbling. i found myself having splitting headache and fever.
and so i found myself staring at shashank...who had just informed me he was getting a porter....and i found myself staring at the porter girl...then staring at the trail that led to next camp. i was back to my legs....and then the throat ache. sometime THEN, when the line-up had begun, for starting off, my best judgement came to my rescue, the ego was thrown to the birds, and i found myself telling shashank that i need a porter.
he urged me on....and i found myself asking the porter to carry my bag, negotiating with her for some 250 rupees...i would gladly have given her any amount she wanted that time!
the porter was going to carry my bag.
the porter was going to carry my BAG.
now all i should do was....to carry myself.
xoxo
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