Into The Wild

Day 5 : Trip 769 km

Chhatru - Batal - Chandertaal ; 10.09.08

The guys, prominently Gyan and Kenny, woke up early at about 0800 hrs, and went about looking for "dump" sites. Vikram joined in the fray too!! While we went about loading our stuffs and soaking in some early morning sun. The tents were soon dismantled and packed onto the bikes. People wanted to laze around for some time, and so we did. No one was complaining after all! At around 1100 hrs , we set off on our journey towards Chandertaal, determined that we would make it there at least today, and we couldn't afford another day's delay in just getting to Chandertaal. Just 2 km into the ride, we arrived at Chhatru, and stopped at a Dhaba that was serving lunch at that time. We joined in, and had some absolutely smashing rice-dal-sabji combo meal. Kenny and Vikram opted for panranthas though. Music in the background was nice too!!!

We decided to hit the road soon. We drew attention wherever we went and that was a good feeling...till we came across the roads - or no roads at all- at Chota Dara. It was rocks and pebbles all the way, and we had such a tough fight to keep our bike's balance. Anshu had a couple of falls here....and after a hard hard ride, we made it to Bataal. There were a bunch of foreigners trundling along the same route in a Sumo ahead of us, and there were quite a number of shots taken of us!!! The same foreigners had been waiting at Bataal for some refreshments, and I made a grand entry there ,being the first to reach. One guy clicked some snaps while I came over. Wonder if they might come in some mags!! Fantasies, fantasies!!

There was a wonderful sheep dog at the tea stall and I had a gala time playing with it. Even bought him a pack of biscuits, which he hungrily lapped up from my hands. Dogs are such wonderful beings!! Anshu played the proper paparazzi here, holding the camera still for a long long time and clicking away at the "gori firang", a snap much prized by Jill!! Post tea at Bataal, we proceeded towards Chandertaal after arming ourselves with info on the approach road to the lake from some Sumo drivers. The road thereon proved to be another challenge altogether- high altitudes, narrow tracks, steep ravines, rock/pebble infested, water courses/ falls through the roads and no signboards. Some 15 km into the track and still no sign of the lake,we sent Gyan and Jill ahead of us as scouts, while I scaled half a hill top to scout for our scouts. Sometime later I could see them returning, and both gave us different versions of their scouting. Jill was absolutely pessimistic about going ahead towards the lake, while Gyan was raring to go citing Chandertaal as one of the major vantage points of the whole trip. A consensus was arrived at. We moved on towards the lake. We could spot a glacier and a small lake below it. Not finding an approach road to the lake, we moved a bit more ahead in search of a link road. Further ahead, just opposite to where we were looking, I found another lake - Chandertaal- in exactly the opposite direction where we were searching for it!!!!

We went about looking for an approach and was wondering how to get to the shore, when Gyan went ahead looking for a trail. I went in the opposite direction following some jeep tracks. I found a Pajero already parked at a cliff side, and a trail leading down below, but not negotiable with bikes. It had to be done walking down. We knew carrying our stuff down wouldn't be the issue here, but carrying it up the next morning would definitely be. But hell, we needed to camp by lake Chandertaal, so we started flinging our sleeping mats and bags down the cliff!!! Then we parked our bikes and left with the Jerry cans down below. Jawed was shit scared someone would harm his bike and told us that he would be heading back to Bataal!! He was already under an attack of AMS and it took some hard consoling that nothing would happen to his bike and that every one's bike and the Pajero was parked there - no one would single out his bike.

Reluctantly, he agreed, and proceeded downhill. Gyan and Kenny and Anshu were making a furious pace setting the tents before nightfall, yet again. The night won and we had to set up the tents with the help of the moonlight and our torches. Into the night, and some 45 minutes later, the tent was up and ready. People piled inside with their precious cargo and carriage. Jill was huddled up , down with AMS and with a sullen look. It took a lot of cajoling and all just to make him talk. I set up the stove first, and this time I lit it up like a pro!! No hassles, just the warm blue kerosene flame from the stove. Started boiling the water again for the noodles. We had carried some cooking oil from Chhatru for the canned fish and the pork. Dumped a full pack of Top Ramen Smoodles into the hot water and the noodles were ready in ten minutes. Passed on the food to the people around, but they had lost appetite - partly because everyone was down with AMS , particularly Jill and Vikram. Still, Kenny, Anshu, Gyan and I managed to finish the noodles and I made some tuna for Jill, followed by pork. Vikram felt better after popping in a pill of diamox , and had revived some of his appetite. So he helped me finish off the pork. Anshu and I had gone off in search of some firewood here too, but alas, firewood was one thing that eluded us where we needed it most. The temperature started plummeting rapidly and everyone made up their sleeping bags. Vikram went off for a leak somewhere near the lake shore and after coming back he reported seeing a canine fleeing off from his torch beam. lLater on he told us that it might as well have been a pack of wolves. Well, I was spooked for sure. I was cooking all the fish and pork and I was hoping nothing comes close to the tents sniffing at the utensils and taking a peek inside the tents!! I wanted to see a snow leopard, but not this way!!!!

After the meal, Kenny and I decided to take a stroll down the moonlit light. It wasn't a signt to be missed for anything, specially after camping right next to it. We took 2 flashlights and went off to the lake shore. It was a clear night, the lake waters still and deep, moonlight shining off its surface, no ripples in the waters, the mountains bearing minute traces of their true colours in the moonlight and a chilly wind hit our faces. There was a rivulet that originated form the lake and we shone our torches on it. The water was crystal clear and we could see hundreds of underwater organisms in the light. Freezing water it was , but there were so many organisms teeming underwater and I could not make out what exactly they were feeding on. Suddenly Kenny tells me "Don't run". I ask "Don't run from what?". "If anything wild comes along", he says. Shit scared I was!! It took me some guts to walk to the absolutely silent and lonely lake shore, the tents some 100 metres away and this guys was talking about wild canines!! Still I managed to rake in some of the absolute essence of the beauty of the moonlit lake, before the uneasy calm managed to ruffle my nerves. I also let my fantasies run wild, thinking that the lake might harbour some Lochness-kind-of-monster and that we'd be the lucky ones to take the first ever snaps of it!!! There's one thing about this lake....you just cant make out where the water starts and the shore ends - day or night. The water's just so clear, its just amazing. I told Kenny I was going back into the tent and so he followed me. Once inside, I barricaded the zipped openings of the tent with my backpack and stuff, careful not to take a chance. Took a diamox and tried to sleep. But I was getting cold feet, literally. It was so damn cold, I couldn't sleep a wink the whole night. Tried best to keep myself warm inside the sleeping bag, but it felt like someone had put in an ice pack right inside the sleeping bag. I had no choice but to squirm and twist inside the sleeping bag for the rest of the night, body warmth slowly seeping away from my body.