Trek to Chandrashila to do a Sirsasana

Last month I went for trekking in the Himalayas for the first time in my life from 19th Nov to 23 Nov 2016. It was a great experience, augmented by great personalities Agniswar Mitra and Sunil Jain.

The plan for this trip started when Agniswar asked me if I would like to go for trekking in some place. I started training for this trek in Udaipur by walking 3KM a day carrying 22KGs weight in my backpack. I got many curious looks ( I am used to it) in the colony where I live.

Mr. Sunil Jain, who is 62 years old also joined and he trekked both Tungnath from Chopta and Sari Village to Deoriya Taal in the same day. Respect for him.

I started my journey for the trek from Udaipur on 17th Nov 2016 by Mewar Express. I have been travelling on this train so much that, the TTE did not bother to check my Identity, rather told me, “We dont need to check your ID, you seem to travel more on this train than I do.”. I agreed.

When I reached Hazarat Nizamuddin next day, I went to stay with Kaushik Deka, senior journalist in India Today, at VasantKunj. There Agniswar Mitra joined me, who now days call himself Agni Da Mitra. I am still trying to find out why he does so.

We then left for Haridwar by train from Hazarat Nizamuddin railway station at 9:10PM and reached Haridwar at 3:20AM on 19th Nov 2016. We went to bus stand nearby and found out that bus to Rudraprayag would start only at 6AM. So we went out after calling Mr. Sunil Jain, who was already in Chopta trekking up to Tungnath. As per his advise we took a shared Sumo to Rudrprayag at 5AM. We reached Rudraprayag at 10:10AM and negotiated for another shared Sumo for Rs. 1500 who dropped us at Sari Village at 1PM. It took approximately 2 hours from Rudraprayag to reach Sari Village.

At Sari Village met up Sunil Jain, and started to trek up to Deoria Tal at 4:20PM and reached there by 6PM. I was trekking with weight of 17KGs on my back and Agniswar was carrying 12KGs. It was really tough for us, but then when we reached Deoriya Taal, we forgot all our hardships.

We put up tent, took selfies and went for dinner at cottage house of Mr. Rakesh Negi. It was one of the best dinner we ever had around a bonfire where hunger was our main food. We met few fellow trekkers as well as group of students from IIT Roorkee.

We slept really well after all the travel and trekking previous days inside the tent. The morning ritual was interesting as we had to go to the open, carrying chilled water bottle. The view of sunrise on CharBhuja, Kedar, Trishul peak was amazing experience!

On 20th Nov 16, we went for birding walk around Deoriya tal. I saw birds like Black headed Joy, Hill Partridge, Chestnut headed Laughing Thrush, Great Barbet, Himalayan WoodPecker, redHeaded Bullfinch, Whiskered Yuhina, White Throated Thrush, White Collared Blackbird, Yellow Billed Blue Magpie.

Next day ( 21 Nov 2016), we started trekking for Bhujgali at around 9:20AM with a guide Sandeep Bhatt. I carried approx 14KGs this time while Agniswar carried 8KGs. Our guide was kind enough to carry my camera and tent.
It was not very difficult trekk, though the last 2KM trek was really tough, not only because it was steep, but also it was our 8th hour of trekking!

We reached Bhujgali at 5:20PM and it felt like heaven! It was already cold at the height of approx 3000meter. We stayed the night with Mahaveer, a small tea seller with extra room.

Next day,on 22 Nov 2016, started the trek to Chandrashila at 4:40AM and reached our summit at 6:30AM. I finally did the Sirsasana and came back at 8AM toBbhujgali, on way, I saw few Himalayan Monal. Reached Bhujgali at 10AM, rested for 2 hours and trekked down to Chopta. From chopta, took a hired taxi to Ukhimath and then reached Rudraprayag at 6:30PM, stayed the night there and next day took a bus to Haridwar from Rudraprayag and reached there by 1PM. Took Holi dip at Ganga and started to come back to Delhi by Shatabdi Exp at 6:10PM. Reached Delhi at 11PM and parked ourselves again at Kaushik Dekas house again.