Quietness - Achieved on Sandakphu Trek
The mind is always telling stories, either externally or internally. Well sometimes we just need to be quiet.
Quiet away from all the happenings.
Recently I finished a trek in the Himalayas, it was the Sandakphu Phalut trek with Indiahikes. My main intention of going on this trek was to get away from the mind chatter I always have.
A chatter either to communicate to the outside world or to myself.
This is a write on the trek I undertook between 15th and 23rd Dec 2022, with my wife,brother-in-law and dearest friends
The trek itself is roughly about 80 km long stretching across 6 days. It starts out at the little settlement of Sepi Gaon. Sepi itself is 5–6 hours drive away from Darjeeling. It is a beautiful journey filled with Pine forests, wildlife etc. Here was the first day of briefing, we were given eco bags to pick up trash on the trail. Indiahikes as a trekking organization has great values. Sustainable trekking is one of them. they encourage trekkers to carry their own bags, as well as pick up trash along the way. It is surprising to see how much trash we generate even on mountains, where it is hard to carry packaged food. One way is to avoid packaged food itself and eat local rather than consume from corporates.
The beginning starts with a map.
A beautiful yet clod sunrise invites us. Sepi is really a small settlement there is nothing much for the people to do other than have small patches of land, and serve the tourists during the trekking season. A constant feature is the vegetable Chayote. It is strange to see so much of it grow at this altitude almost wild. They make a wonderful dish(subzi). Lest did I know this would be my staple for the next 6 days :-)
We started early in the morning after breakfast, very soon crossing the bridge at another village SriKhola. The current bridge is a suspension bridge which is only a foot bridge. On the Sepi end, there is a metalled road, where goods are delivered, such as medicines, food, gas cylinders etc. On the SriKhola end(far end in the pic below), the residents of SriKhola, carry these to their homes. the hard part of hear, is that they have to carry this almost 1000ft up the mountains. Imagine carrying a 50kg bag of essentials, just to survive. I asked one of our guides who was from this hamlet, why do they stay there? Well the answer was “that is all we have”, he is well educated, has travelled the country, yet he came back as this keeps him close to his loved ones.
A really gruesome situation is when an elderly person or a child falls ill. SriKhola has no health centers, the nearest one is nearly 10km away, again a doctor is not available, the nearest proper hospital is 40km away. In the mountains 40km is nearly a 3 hour journey. There are so many who have died on the way :-(
A new bridge is being constructed as you see on the right, hope this eases the transport situation.
After lunch, we trekked upward towards Sammanden, our next stop. We stopped by beautiful ice-cold streams, fed from the glacial melts from above.
On the way we pass through deep pine forests, and that is when I realized the meaning of silence. I had no one around me, there was no wind either, all I could hear was my heart beat. And then the silence hit me.
It was like scary as well as the most peaceful moment all together. Not a sound, not even my heart beat when I was relaxed. My mind experienced something of a meditative state within a few seconds.
Sammanden again is a sleepy hamlet. A few tea houses, we were staying in 2 of them. A really cosy place, with minimal facilities. Nothing to complain. My stomach was giving me trouble, in the mountains, I always have this fear of consuming milk or spices. My stomach always has troubled me, this time too I had that feeling. But something about the silence in the forest had changed my mind. Time to overcome the fear of milk and spices.
Next morning, we started to the next camp of Molley. It was going to be a hard day. 14kms of trek, but through some of the most beautiful mountain forests. We walked through Pine Forests, then Bamboo forests and finally through Himalayan Oak, before reaching Molley.
The only settlement at Molley is that of Sashastra Seema Bal and our camp. There is nothing much at this altitude, we were reaching above the tree line into vast meadows.
The temperatures were dropping as we were already at higher altitudes. Indiahikes really takes care of this on winter treks. They provided us with Liners, Jaqana bag and then a sleeping bag which is designed for -10C. Inspite of all this we felt cold, even after layering up in the evening. Deep respect to the SSB army people, who man the post there. The reason for SSB is it is the India-Nepal border close by, they are always on vigil though the borders are actually open.
Next day, was a long early morning. We were up by 3:30am to get ready for an early morning move. Typically Indiahikes mandates timings of 06:30,07:30 and 08:30. Which means wakeup by 06:30, breakfast by 07:30 and move by 08:30. Except on summit days, there have been treks, where I’ve started as early as 00:30 from camp, to get to the summit for sunrise. As this was not a summit trek, we had the luxury of waking up at 03:30 to have a 05:00 start.
Sunrise was just mesmerising. It was an amazing sight, one which changes lives. I saw people earing up at the first sight of the sleeping Buddha(which has Kanchendzonga at the centre) as well as the sunrise.
Enjoying the silence and sunrise, we headed on to Sabargram, which would be our camp for the day. However we had no time to stop, dropping our bags, and only with our day pack, we took the hard route of climbing to Phalut(Phalut is a good viewpoint for the Sleeping buddha as the distance is about 38km as the crow flies. In the pic Phalut is the peak seen clearly on the left side with grassy patches.)
It was a long hike, along a rocky path, I hardly knew anything about Yaks, but learnt a lot on this trek. Yaks are domesticated, and they stay about 10,000 ft, if they come below they lose all their wool and are useless. The domesticators are typically from Nepal, they are the ones who know how to control the Yaks. There are special barns/stables created for the Yaks in these regions, these are typically community based units, where different herders share the place. Each yak has unique marking on them which a owner is able to identify.
Most of all, they run like crazy, I thought being big and heavy animals, they run slow, nope, they are fast, not as much as horses, but are fast.
Phalut was a blow-out the clouds had come in and the view was completely off. Some of us decided to stay at the the tea house and not go to the real top where the views would have been great. Again another SSB camp patrol has hiked nearly 6km just to carry 3 packets of Parle G, to have it with their Chai. Deep respect to these guys who stand at the borders, with all the hardship just for the rest of us.
Back at Sabargram after a hard day, and the cold was much harder tonight.
Today also is another long day to Aahl, we climb higher as we need to reach the highest point of the trek Sandakphu. The stay at Aahl is not a great one. All along the way after Day2, we do not get wet toilets. Basically a hole in the ground, with a flapping tent for privacy. On previous treks, we had a spade, basically dig a hole in the ground, do your business and cover it up. Such experiences, give meaning to life, that all the so called inconviniences are actually not. I have a theory “Getting used to a Garbage Dump. If one stands long enough next to a garbage dump, eventually we get used to the smell, and overcome our mental states of yuckiness. I believe pushing oneself to these states is extremely important, to know what is important in life. 6 days of no bath, wearing the same clothes everyday, and a hole in the ground gives life it truest sense.
From Aahl, Sandakphu was not a hard climb. The road is even partially motorable, where a lot of so-called Land Rovers ferry tourists to Sandakphu. Most of these land rovers have long replaced the engines, and the bodies with local ones, by still they carry the badge and shape.
Aahl and Sandakphu were also moments of getting mobile signals to call back home. It is quite emotional for a few of us. In the past treks in some cases, I had called my wife, only to not speak overwhelmed with emotions.
At Sandakphu, we had a really nice time connecting back with family, and also knowing that it is all the way down from here to the last but one camp, Gurdum. Lest we knew how difficult that was going to be. The path all the way down goes back from Oak, Bamboo to Pine forests, all the while showing the last glimpses of the Sleeping Buddha. It is a really enjoyable walk, till we hit the steep downward sections, which are brutal on thighs, knees and toes. All the preperation of running shows up here.
A dog continuously followed us through the entire trek. Again as usual, we humans do not have any understanding of nature, as we have far lesser sensors. The dog (in the pic), sensed a bear and went barking up and down the entire line of trekkers, to warn us of the danger.
Some expereinces which I want to cover on a separate note, is that this trek constantly weaves through the borders of India and Nepal. There are marker stones all the way(pics below). But it made no sense. The local people on either side of the borders were warm and living a day today life even in the hardest of places, with a smile.
We have finished the trek. The filters of real world were removed for a few days, and am sure it will come back in.
Waiting for the next trek to remove the filters again, with family and friends.
PS. All Photo credits to Ashwini, Dhuruva, Bharath and Venkat.
