Apr 7th - Day 3 - Camping in the Eastern Himalayan Ranges

Day 3 -

Trek: Barsey to Joreybotey (6 Hours, 3029 m)

Today’s walk is an easy one but long, mainly through rhododendron and mixed temperate forests. Towards the end we get our first views of the imposing Mt. Khangchendzonga

Day 3 technically begins with Venky’s cellphone alarm going off exactly at 3:30AM in our tent… some kind of indian fusion music with Venky in the background going “Kidhar hai Bhenchod” (“where is it %^&*). By the time I actually woke up around 6AM, we were greeted with pouring rains. As we all huddled together in the dining tent for tea, Piran announced that there was no way we could proceed today. “Let’s watch the weather till 7PM today, and then decide what to do”. We were already starting to wonder what Plan B would be.. would we be stuck here for 5 days, or can we do an alternate route? Given the weather, there was also talk of staying in the Trekkers hut above, where we would not be in damp all night. Piran was going to look into that.

The gloomy mood in the dining tent was complemented by the gloomy weather outside. But I was standing out in the rain, enjoying watching the entire tree covered mountainsides in rain. We could only see one mountain range in the weather as everything behind was hidden by the clouds, but even what I could see was looking amazing in the rain. After all, we had spent one night camping in the Eastern Himalayan Ranges and the sights were bound to be great. I walked up to the Forest Guest house above to check it out and to just get some walking around done. Breakfast showed up. Omelettes and bread and porridge. Everyone pounced on the food and soon we were done with breakfast.

Monozh (guide) suggested we go on a day trek while we are waiting here for the day, so we all got ready to assemble at the Trekkers hut above.  For the first time in 3 days, we were out of mineral water, so the water purification system and pumps (that Minoti had brought with her) made their appearance. We got water from the tap at the trukkers hut, pumped it through the purification system, added iodine etc… and the dude opens up shutters to his shop to reveal a lineup up soda and bottled water !! Quickly we buy up all the bottled water available (4 bottles) and we are off on our day trek.



Walking in the mist on Day 3

The gentle hike on Day 3 as we wait it out

A constant feature of the trip is that everytime we get into a trek/hike, we end up in the most amazing paths through trees and mountains (and muck). The weather here changes every few minutes from a little sun to cloudy to fog enveloping you to light shower to a clearing again. Each time I see the fog go through the trees and hills as I walk through them I am reminded of the chinese paintings I have always seen with mountains and clouds. We are constantly with a feeling of walking through the clouds. We stop at a small clearing and do some Budhist chanting (in an attempt to call upon the clouds to clear). The chanting reminded me of Bhramhari chanting as I joined in to enjoy the vibrations. We found a small lake, and walked past several photo-ops (a slow trek it was). At some point in time, we turned back to the campsite to complete a roughly 3 hour trek.

And we hang like monkeys

More Monkeys

The Rhododendron Tree

Back at the campsite, it was Yoga time. We had a good Yoga session today as it followed a long walk and everyone needed a stretch. The sun was also in and out and we were enjoying just sitting out in the campsite.” The Kanchenjunga range is way out there” someone pointed out, but we won’t be able to see it unless the cloud clears out. We were still seeing intermittent showers, so Piran was speaking of abandoning the trek and going down to ‘Hee Village’ below the next day L. You never see weather like this in April. This has completely taken us by surprise, but if it stays dry today, we can go ahead tomorrow (fingers crossed).

Clouds roll into our campsite



Yoga at the Campsite with the hills in the backg

Viji and I retire for a nap for the afternoon, while Mona and Venky are back to purifying water. We can hear them in the background trying to figure out if that can has water or kerosene, completing the purification and filling up bottles. I get out for a bit and the men are all grouped up discussing all the things that men like discussing, namely everything related to technology and politics… and I jump in wholeheartedly.

Blogging while waiting it out at Camp

We haven’t had much sun all day, and as the night starts to cover us, we are once again discussing what are options are for the next day. Should we go ahead, go down to Hee? The main issue is that we are moving with a large contingent of porters carrying supplies and getting them to cover the mucky ground is an issue… and if the sky opens up again… we could be in real trouble. Piran even suggests that we could split up if everyone is not up for going on, but we once again decide to leave that final call for the next morning… just as a shower begins overhead. Dinner (Rice, Boiled+Fried Egg curry, paneer + Gulab Jamun) happens while we all mulling over what might happen the next day. Each time we have a meal, we are reminded of the total hospitality we are receiving at the hands of the local Sikkim ‘support staff’. These are such genuine folk… smiling and trying hard to make each experience unique for us. If nothing else, we are enjoying the good nature of people we have never met before.

Finally we retire for the night… Since Minoti’s tent is damp, we now have 4 people (Venky, Viji, Mona and I) in our 3-person tent, all tightly packed up. Yes, it did help with the cold weather… but I woke up with a wave of claustrophobia in the middle of the night, turned my head over to the door and slept again. It was a real creepy feeling with the darkness outside, the small tent…and yes… there were more showers at night L