Our dream Kashmir trip became real on July 26th 2.30 pm when our vehicle was stopped by the road side as a convoy of army vehicles were passing. A common sight but we had goose bumps as we had never seen any army movement. There were army jawans standing on the road to make way for the convoy. Srinagar was hot surprisingly. The road sides were lined with Poplar trees or lush green paddy fields as far as we could see with long stretches mountains on the periphery.

The plan was to spend a day at Pehelgam and a day at Srinagar and then to Sonamarg base camp to report on July 28th for Kashmir Great Lakes (KGL)trek. Lidder river rafting, bargaining for akhrot price by the river side, walking by Pehelgam’s abandoned old wood homes , having our first kawa, early morning walk to find a small bakery making fresh bread, walking by Dal Lake, the famous shikhara ride, fresh fruits in variety of colors, many such soothing memories with friends Ketan, Haresh, and Jignasha whom we met at Srinagar airport. They were my trek mates and we were meeting for the first time. Ketan Soneji is a very young 60 year old passionate mountaineer who runs his own company in Pune. Dr. Haresh Shah is an avid marathon runner, bike enthusiast, and also the Dean of ESI hospital in Mumbai who happens to be 62! Jignasha is a lovely Gujrati chori, gymming, dancing, vibrant girl on vacation from Ahmedabad Government job for the trek. At home, husband’s favorite dialogue for my trekking enthusiasm is “ ek screw dhila h” so to have met all these normal people made my mission KGL certifiable. No doubt Husband dear had a gala time with the group…

We travelled to Sonamarg after dropping husband at Srinagar airport for his return flight. It was raining in Sonamarg and we could see Sind river gushing thru with mud colored water .. must be the result of the landslide somewhere in Kashmir – just assuming! I was very glad that I am finally at the base camp – Hotel Sonmarg Palace – with Sind River in the backyard, snow around, mountains with clouds floating by! Very picturesque …

One person I must mention specially about at this juncture is about YHAI’s Base camp leader Gulzar Kashmiriji.. He has 101 things to attend to any given minute at the Base camp but has anyone seen him lose cool ? He is assisted by a smart lady Lakshmi Mordekar and Shourya Kathiya- young, handsome guy who also happens to be a casting Director in Mumbai. These three people run the show – checking documents of participants coming in, registering them, boarding, schedule for the next two days, orientation, clarifying doubts, seeing them off for the trek on respective dates, batches returning from the trek, taking feedback, distributing certificates, coordinating with YHAI and God knows what all …. phew!!!

Day -1 – On your mark, get set go!

We were batch number KGL 9 – 20 of us. On 29th morning, by 6 am we were all ready, Lakshmi started off the morning warm up session and handed us over to Gulzarji. We were doing pushups and in 5 minutes all our sweaters came off – such was the intensity of the exercise session 😀 Not following his instructions, any mistake by any team member, we were all made to run 50 to 100 meters !!!! The group was made to do so many twists and turns, jumps and squats, I cried in pain when made to do frog jump! But was it a memorable session – Lifetime memories made in this one hour! I lifted a teammate who must be at least 70 kg, on my back and walked approx 50 feet! That was the spirit of the session. Finally we got a compliment from Gulzarji – I am sure all of you in this batch will complete the trek! 🙂

Day 2 – Dreadful .. keeping fingers crossed

Shaurya took us for the acclimatization walk meant to bring our body adjust to the elevation. We carried our back pack and trekked up and down the beautiful Sonmarg valley while the usual tourists sat on pony to reach destination – Thajiwas Glacier. As we sat down by a beautiful river side and got to know the batch mates – a mix of young and very young ( age above 60) enthusiasts! Even did a bit of Garba there as we had 5-6 Gujrati – manus. Gulzarji sat with us in the afternoon to orient us about the trek. But by evening I was very scared. I saw two girls return from previous batches. So lot of questions were pestering.. should we carry our back pack or offload to Pitthu? Will I be able to complete the trek? It was then I saw a lady much like me who just was back to base camp after the trek and I ran to her to check first thing – “Did you carry your back pack ?”– She looked into my eyes and said “ I always carry by backpack” and added – ” the trek is tough, steep ascents, but I just keep walking .” That was enough boost for me. Most of us girls in the batch were ready to carry our own weight. We were bonding well .. I became very pally with Supriya Das- a first time trekker who came because her husband Arup compelled her to join the trek. I weighed my back pack and found it to be 5.6 kg… shifted few more things to be left at Sonamarg. Meanwhile Lakshmi had walked in to our room and we girls had so many queries to her. She gave many tips and one very important one was if any of your clothes got wet, keep it in between the folds of a blanket inside our sleeping bag and sleep on it… by morning you will find it is dry.

Day 3 – Couldn’t sleep

With a thudding heart, excited to see the most beautiful trek in India – the Kashmir Great Lakes, we were ready by 8 am, with pack lunch, water bottle, poncho in the outermost pocket. The walk was fine.. it started raining before lunch and the muddy path was slippery making me very tired. On reaching Table top which is the last point mobile network is available, all of took break as a small makeshift shop had coffee, maggi etc. One among us -Mahendra bought us coffee.. it was a great cup of hot brew. Lunch point was on a rocky terrain just by the river, and it soon started raining heavily again. Poncho’s were out fast and we continued our trek. Often it was just me, Supriya and her husband Arup.. rest were walking very ahead or trailing back. Rain continued to lash and somehow we just made to the Nichnai camp, shoes and pants wet, but thankfully back pack was dry. One girl – Smitha – a techy from Banglore, had severe pain in her left knee and couldn’t walk a step at one point, our guide had reached Nichnai camp for a pony, and then went back to bring her back. Oh her story was part hilarious and part scary – how she sat on a rock in the rain alone trying to keep warm for more than two hours and waiting for the guide to return to her. But she kept laughing at her plight as she narrated her story ….Hats off Smitha! There was another girl Megha from the previous batch KGL 8 who got scared, stayed back and didn’t want to trek ahead. Meanwhile outside the tent was a beautiful setting sun amongst the snow clad peaks, a treasured sight. But I was tired, cold, and not feeling hungry, just wanted to sleep. I just took a glass of dalia which Supriya brought me .. Socks, pants etc were left to dry on a string in the tent and i got my oil bottle to massage my feet, rubbed the sole with it, got into the sleeping bag, thanking my Gods that one major day ended without major hassles.

Day 4 – Trekking in rains

Said bye to Smitha and Megha – both were going back to the Base camp. Breakfast was maggi / sabudana kheer (something similar). Packed lunch was pulav. Wet shoes, and wet socks is all I remember on day 4 till afternoon but prior experience said it will soon dry. We reached lunch point, again by a river side, too beautiful a site. There was a shepherd on his horse with atleast 100 sheeps, wanting to take them across the river. I sat watching how the sheep were hopping on the rocks in the river and coming to this side. I couldn’t eat the pulav, felt like vomiting on the thoughts of food! Ketanji gave me a piece of chikki and few kishmish and I chewed on the anjeer I had. All thru the day I was with Supriya and Arup.. sharing water bottle which was nearly after every 10- 20 minutes The last part of the trek was exciting because we were going to witness our first alpine lake – Vishansar Lake. But it started raining again and there were further rivers and streams to cross and our shoes and pants were getting drenched. We reached the second higher camp site in good time and when the Camp leader – Kunal Pandya called us out from tents for orientation I was shivering badly in my wet shoes. He stated Vishansar Lake was just 15 minute walk from the camp site but he looked at me shivering and said ” aap tent mae baith jao.” Many from our batch agreed to that. But I was damn sure I will not sit in the tent .. afterall I had taken all the pains to reach this point to actually see the beauty of the alpine lake. I said “I am not sitting in the tent.. i can walk.” So we started walking, then Mahendra, a police personnel suggested to me – ” aap thoda daudo – aapko theek lagega” I didn’t hesitate a second and ran with all my might and later walked  with gusto 🙂 I reached the lake and had my fill of the beautiful jewel in the midst of the mountains – thanked my Gods for allowing me to be here in this delightful place and after 5 minutes returned to the campsite alone. By the time I returned, I felt pretty fine, my pants were dry to an extent. Then Kunal said ” Actually one must not sit inside the tent if you are wet/cold.. get into warm clothes walk, keep active, else the body will quickly freeze.” So i changed into my warm clothes and remembered Lakshmi’s words.. neatly laid the wet pant inside the folds of the blanket.

Day 5 – Dream come true

I usually woke up to Supriya calling me ” Didi uthho” J  and then she would continue her activities, changing into trek clothes, packing all into the backpack, singing bengali bhajans in her melodious voice. Our Camp leader Kunal checked if I am all fine, fit to trek else he was ready to arrange a pony. But I had no discomfort and I was ready for the trek ahead. We crossed Vishansar and trekked a bit further to reach Kishansar and on walking few feet up we could see the trek up to Gadsar pass – OMG moment …our highest trek point @14000 feet from where we would be able to see both lakes. Men walking up looked like ants from where we stood. The ascent to Gadsar was a criss-crossed mud path. We walked up slowly, very grateful that it was not raining. Trek up became memorable when Maratheji sang ” O tum kya jaano / Mohobbat kya hai .” On reaching Gadsar pass, the view down was the dream-come-true moment for me. Vishansar and Kishansar in its sapphire-blue-green combo was a picture I wanted to see for so long. This was my gift for my 55^th  birthday ! We stood looking at God’s special corner, tucked in between these mountains, untouched, glorious, and stunning vision. The difficult climb was forgotten, instead we stood mesmerised by the beauty of the alpine lakes in its resplendent beauty, shining grandiosely from this height. The descent from Gadsar Pass was quick and for lunch we sat down at a lavish site – a small lake, flowers, cool calm atmosphere.. herd of sheep and their antics … YHAI has this trend of giving us beautiful lunch points. As we walked ahead another wonderful lake came into view. This was the Gadsar lake – fantastically serene and simply grand with little floating icebergs. Standing by the Gadsar lake I felt the whole trek is worth the pains jusssst for this vision. I didn’t want to move from this area sprinkled with the yellow and violet flowers, stunning landscape, surrounded by mountains, clouds in the blue sky. I distributed dried cranberries to my trek mates as day 5 became one of my very special days in life .. “aaj meri taraf se party h !” 😀

to be continued .. I know it is too long