My first exploratory trek in Himalayas #2

In my previous post, I had narrated about first 2 days journey of passing through various beautiful landscapes to reach the campsite, Saru Tal from Dehradun.
If you have missed my first episode of Himalayan trek, please read My first exploratory trek in Himalayas #1

Day 3: Trek from Saru Taal to Badang

After spending a beautiful night camping at Saru Tal, next morning we started our ascent towards Badang approximately 3000 meters above the sea level, our campsite for day 3. Compared to previous 2 days, day 3 was relatively short in terms of distance covered as we had to stop a bit early due to the availability of water.

Our hike started with rocky trails and stiff ascent for the first couple of hours that eased a bit once we entered the pine forests.

Rocky path en route Badang

Looks like ancient ruins, but no idea how it is formed as there were no human traces nearby!

A lot of obstacles on the way!

After walking for a couple of hours we entered the dense forest and the terrain eases up for a while. Forest had varieties of species of fauna and the rare Himalayan Langoors. Unfortunately, I was not equipped to capture these rare species from distance and it was a dense forest. I could only see through my eyes at distance and feel happy for it.

A fellow trekker leading the way

After an hour through these forests came out to another two kilometers of rather a stiff climb to reach lush green meadows surrounded by the beautiful deodar forests. Soon we realized that this was our campsite for day 3.

Lush green meadows of campsite Badang

View in front of the tent… as the evening falls!

Now it had become a routine for us to pitch the tent and have a campfire and celebrate life in mountains. Memorable experience and days. I relaxed the night out by just looking outside feeling happy for being able to experience all these.

Day 4: Trek from Badang to Dhal Dhar to Devbhasa

We started our day early as we had a long stretch to cover. In addition to the previous day's relatively short trek, now we had to gain distance and altitude. The first glimpse of snow clad mountains, the mighty Himalayan ranges were seen as we started our hike on day 4.

Early morning rays penetrating the dense forests

The first glimpse of snow clad mountains, but a long way to go!

I was very much excited as we continued our way through forests again. It was not easy due to night snow fall that caused slippery pathway but we were at it soon and continued our journey. On the way, we passed through some eye-catching Himalayan flora. With the sunshine and perfect weather, we enjoyed the walk for an hour through the forests.

Forest opening up to mountain ridge

Walking through the forests opened up to the mountain ridge. This is where the real shift in the landscape begun. We were at an altitude of around 3050 meters and had crossed the tree line. The air became thin and body needed time to get acclimatized. Soon I felt we were high, could see the mountains to the farthest edge. No more trees, only meadows or Rhododendron shrubs.

View from the first mountain ridge we joined

Walking a kilometer ahead we reached a place called Masundha Dhar. From here the trail goes as a ridge walk from one mountain to the other with breath taking views of the surrounding valleys.

Walk through the ridges

The massive peaks of the mountain called ‘Swargarohini’ can be seen from every step of our walk. The name Swargharohini comes from the ancient Hindu mythology, where in during the era of ‘Mahabharatha’, after the end of the war there is evidence that the Pandavas (the good people that won the war) came to this mountain top and took a Stairway to heaven or attained Moksha. In the ancient Vedic language of Sanskrit, the meaning of word ‘Swarga’ means heaven and ‘Aarohini’ means ladder or means of connection. So collectively it means the path to Heaven. A Beautiful description isn’t it? 😊

The massive peak of ‘Swargarohini’

View down from the ridge – A wrong step, our existence is no more!

We continued on this trail for next 4 hours, from mountain to mountain with surrounding beautiful panorama of mountains. Oh, what a feeling it was! Sometimes feelings are beyond the words, they have to be just felt! So as we move on, I will post more photos that will speak for itself!

After taking a short break for snacks at Dhal Dhar we continued our journey towards Devbhasa, campsite for day 4. All along the way, we were witnessing some stunning landscapes. The photos below are some moments captured through my lens.

Close-up shoot of the glacial troughs

Few more of these Scintillating views along the way,

Mountains en route Devbhasa

It isn’t a volcano, just a coincidence!

So after a hard 2- hour climb, we finally reached our campsite ‘Devbhasa’. This was one of the best campsites I ever spent a night at. The campsite is situated on a very small plain adjoining 2 mountains and all three sides covered by mountains. Again the name has a specialty, Devbhasa in Sanskrit means ‘where the god lives or the home of God’. I can confirm it is, it did certainly feel God lives there with so much of positive energy around.

Evening view of campsite

Evening rays over the snow-capped mountains from Devbhasa. I promise, I never edited this!

How beautiful is this twilight?

Relishing the views we spent our night here at Devbhasa (3600 m elevation), even though we could not sleep all night due to extreme wind, it was such a wonderful and memorable experience. we all were eagerly waiting for the dawn as it was a big day - summit climb to Bharadsar Tal that I will be narrating in the upcoming article. Stay tuned! 😊

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Chaithra Bhat