A budget trip to Triund (Mcleodganj) from Delhi

We crossed through the Bhagsu market, then the Bhagsunath temple and finally reached the Bhagsunath waterfalls. Sitting near the tip of the waterfall, a different vibe embraced me and the wind prompted my heart to look at the world in a different way. Another thought that came to me at that time was that we have almost completed the half of the trek but the guide exclaimed, “This is the starting point of our trek and it will take another four to five hours to reach till the top.” Honestly, I was excited. I wanted to reach the top although; my friends made it clear that we would start our descent after about an hour of trek. I was slightly disheartened but, I had to agree since we were a team. Without wasting much time, we continued our trek. When I crossed the waterfall, I could see that few of the group members were struggling to cross the rocks of the waterfall and one among them was my friend, Aakash. I assumed two reasons for his struggle. Number one, he is not very experienced in doing much physical and challenging activities. And number two and more importantly, he was wearing canvas shoes which according to my experience is slippery at its best and has zero or near zero grip and thus, not very advisable for trekking. Nevertheless, I loved his zeal to challenge himself. So, after crossing the humongous rocks of the Bhagsunath waterfall we began walking further.

Quickly, I counted the number of people present in our group. There were twelve members:  Two couples, one in the mid-twenties and the other probably late-thirties (didn’t ask them), four young men who came for a bachelor trip (I dreamt and envied), the guide – Mr.Praveen and three of us. Interestingly, the four young men were ex-Kirorians (the students of Kirori Mal College are known as Kirorians) and I managed to remember one of them. His name was Rishabh who was Physics student in KMC and is now working in State Bank of India, Mumbai (I guess). I managed to remember his name because of two main reasons. Firstly, he was a well-versed and confident fellow who knew and dared to start a conversation with a stranger and hence, he had initiated the conversation with me. Secondly, not bragging but, we both were literally leading the group during the trek, mostly, if not entirely. Yet, it must be noted that though I escalated above the hill much before the group, I always made it a point to stop, sit and wait for my friends till they reached me. This action ensured that we moved forward as a team and also, I could rest a little and boost myself for the rest of the trek. To conclude, we three were the youngest in the group.

Now, we are walking until we reach and we all decide to take some rest. I was amazed to see the shops in the hills but more amazed to look at the cost of the products there. It was either twenty five percent more or double of the amount in the lower areas. Whatever be it, I deduced that they deserve to charge more since they have to carry the burden of bringing the goods all the way from the lower areas till such high altitude areas.

We began to walk further. The road becomes narrower, weaker, more rugged and steeper which means scarier. The narrow lanes were surrounded with dense vegetation of oak and deodar and we could only hear the pounding of the Bhagsunath waterfall over the rocks. The morning rain had made the roads slippery and muddy causing numerous problems to all of us. I noticed that my canvas friend, Aakash was struggling to walk in the terrain. He was slightly exhausted and slightly scared and this combination inhibited his motivation to walk further. He kept saying, “Just a few more minutes.” Anirudh was helping him but I was busy leading the group. So, I decided to slow down myself and help a friend in need. I held his hand and encouraged him to not give up and keep walking at least for more thirty minutes. With this ardour and passion we kept walking. Although I discontinued holding Aakash’s hand very soon, I made it a point to keep encouraging him to at least reach a specific targeted point.   

We kept ascending and resting in few points, specifically in those areas with shops so that we could drink or eat something or areas with boulders where we could sit or areas providing captivating sights of Dharamshala and its adjacent areas of Kangra district. The Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamshala located at an altitude of 1,457 metres above the sea level appeared small but stood out among the numerous other colourful buildings and structures of the city. Back at home while watching cricket matches, the simple fact that international and national cricket tournaments are being played in a stadium at an altitude of 1,457 metres above sea level used to amaze me. But, now we are heading towards an altitude of 2900-3000 metres above sea level, which indeed is double of the height of that stadium. An inexpressible mixed feeling of pride and joy had clasped my senses.

Time passed by and now few more structures became visible such as the Maharana Pratap Sagar Dam and the Kangra plains. Most of us were extremely worn out including me. I was left with minimal energy and stamina and all I could do was boost my will power. Few of us were panting and almost gave up. But, our guide was very motivating and encouraged us to buckle up and be innately strong and optimistic as we were just thirty minutes away from the Base Camp. From there, we could have the astonishing view of the snow capped lofty Dhauladhar range. So, we all started to walk again.

And, within thirty minutes we were all there, at our Base Camp. No sooner did my eyes gaze at the towering Dhauladhar range than my eyes remained affixed and my heart was satisfied with all that effort. The windy atmosphere, gushing through my skin and blowing my hair, made this episode of my life even more invigorating. And, a significant realisation of me needs a special mention. As mentioned above, three of us had initially planned a day hike only for about an hour and then descent before the sunset. But, here we are. We didn’t realise that we had reached the base camp. We were so satisfied that we became speechless and simply stared at each other and smiled. Although significant, this was not the singleton realisation that I had. There were few more. One of them was that it would not be possible for us to walk back downwards. Therefore, we had to spend our night at the base camp with the group which means we would be sleeping in the tents. I became super excited and contended though; my friends were slightly hesitant about it and it was obvious and genuine as the weather over there is really very erratic and it may cause a troublesome night. Yet, we would stay at the tents and things couldn’t get more exciting after a four hour uphill trek. Another realisation was showered upon us by the guide. He told us that we had taken a longer and difficult route to reach Triund top. The shorter and easier route had been destroyed by the rains. Adding on to this and to everyone’s surprise, we hadn’t yet reached the Triund top. We have to trek another two hours through the rockier and steeper hills to finally reach the Triund top from where we can have even more breathtaking views of the Dhauladhar range, Kangra valley and never seen before sunset. Well, my body was tired but my heart was electrified.