day three - june 3 2011 - morning exercise, acclamatization, orientation

okay so the first thing about the next day was...morning exercise and bed tea. i had a good night in the tent, with a little bit of shivering. we had been given 2 thick blankets for help. so at 5 30 am there would be a call for bed tea.

NO they would not give us tea inside the tent like it sounds....but more like a ...."wake up and get your mug out to the tea pot " thing. from the first day, for convenience, we all drank tea from 2 mugs. 4 people. and from that day started the tradition of sharing food with minimal containers. one plate, 4 of us. anyone would take turn to wash....and unbelievably sweet of the guys to not send me for washing too many times. i mean who does that?!! my guy gang...just too caring for words.

so "bed" tea. then in a few moments we were to get dressed and wear boots and fall in a line for morning exercise. a gruelling one hour routine where we jogged in a line to a small clearing in the forest far away from campsite, then the instructor there made us do various exercise rouitnes....for an hour.

it wasnt even a trailer of what was to come.
there was to be acclamatization walk at 8 30!....which was a killer. climbing and going on and on and on...on a trail through the woods....it was supposed to be 1/3rd of what we would be doing everyday....basically today was the test. if we couldnt do this properly, forget about higher camps....

the scenery was breathtaking already. tall pine trees, crystal clear river splashing across rounded stones...wild flowers, forest chill, moss on stones and cut tree surfaces....fallen logs of wood adding to beauty

it was tiring...i felt my lungs would burst and i couldnt walk so well....i regretted the days i skipped gym....dh and others held my hand while we walked and climbed, and suddenly it felt simple again, as if there would be no problem, i was cared for and i got the renwed strength to continue with the trek....i was proud of myself when we returned from that walk. i felt like..."bring it on! i can do the rest too!"

by then we had met a lot of our group mates and well, again, we slept, had lunch....simple stuff. hung out, laughed, went to the market again, sightseeing, then time for evening tea, and then was the orientation lecture...where they explained about SAR PASS and what all precautions to take and a basic description of the trek....what all was said was scary.

i hadnt known that this was the most difficult level trek offerred by YHAI. i wasnt prepared for that.

people introduced themselves....it was a decent group. then again dinner and lights off at 10 pm....when we got into our tents and just slept away....because the next day was to be important. we had our rock climbing and rapelling sessions the next day....and from what i had heard, it was fun...

xoxo