dhanolti.html

Tripod is a cool thing, really...

Well, I had to finish a lot of work today and I thought I would give this travelogue-writing a miss or atleast a postponement and get on with more pressing matters. But, since the after-effects of the trip are still present, my brain is unable to cope up with the complicated for and while loops. So, I have decided to just get on with stuff like writing which does not need me to think.

So, for the uninformed, I spent this weekend at dhanaulti and around. For quite some time now, I had been trying to go for a longish kind of trip (7 day trek kind) but was unable to get the quorum required. So, it made more sense to drop the fancy plans and just move out of delhi for a weekend as we could register the quorom of 4 for it. Thankfully, the destination did not matter to any of the four (four == makku, mohit, shourya and obviously me as well) so we just settled on mussorie, and in case it looked crowded, we would move to dhanaulti for a laidback kind of holiday.

An ambassador was hired (a bad decision, but more on that later) and we left delhi around 9:30. Actually, we left south delhi and promptly got stuck in the traffic-jam at sarai kale khan. Now, makku has a lot of fundas in store, which can actually make u forget the slow-moving traffic and the oppresing heat at least temporarily. So, after a discussion (more like a monologue by makku) on religion and other not-so-mundane matters we found ourselves out of delhi. btw, presumably the isoclines are very adjacent in the delhi region, so if u move even a small distance away from delhi, the temperature difference is very sharp (info courtesy who else but makku). The proof (by example ) of the fact came at dehradun which was clearly cooler, though one can not

ascertain if it was because of the time (4 in the night) or the 'adjacent isocline theory'. In the meanwhile, our driver had to pay a bribe at UP-Uttranchal traffic outposts because (a) the taxi had a private car number plate (b) the insurance had expired (c) the driver had no hill-license. The first of the reasons that hiring an ambassador was a bad decision. Actually, there were a lot of firsts for me in the trip but I will mention them as and when I find them suitable in the narrative.

So, we reached mussoorie around 5 in the morning and stopped at the petrol pump. The petrol-pump guy promptly told us that since there was no light, he would take at least an hour to fill our tank. Now, this was the first time I had taken a tripod with me and so I had to use it. (the first of the firsts)So, I just took a walk with my camera-bag on my back and the tripod in my hand. Now, there are various advantages in carrying a tripod, the most common of which is to avoid the hand-shake in low-light conditions which I used there. Having taken a couple of snaps, I heard Mohit calling me and beckoning me to come back. It turned out that mohit had been presistent with the petrol-pump wala and so the petrol-pump guy filled our tank so that mohit would just go away:-).

Since, other were still dozing off, I had unilaterally taken the decision earlier, that we would give mussoorie a skip and go to dhanualti directly. I was really unhappy that others were sleeping and I was not, and probably there is god as soon enough, we got stuck at, what else, another traffic outpost. This time the negotiation

for the bribe amount took much long (more than an hour or so) and the idea that we may need to leave the car there and get some alternative means of transport was debated upon. However, after much delay, we moved off and the rest of the journey passed away uneventfully. The USP of the mussoorie region is probably the fact that it is much greener than the other hill-stn zones (nainital region, shimla region and manali region) that I have been able to visit. Also, the valleys are larger and one is able to look at much larger distances, mist willing. A trip from July to September is not rewarding if one is interested in watching snow-capped peaks. Hoever, for the mystic people, the mist, the mosses and the sparkling green is reward enough. Dhanaulti is one of those places which caters to people who are not really adventurous but are more interested in the greenery and the flowers which bloom there. We checked at Dhanaulti retreat, which is a nice enough place, though a bit away from Dhanaulti market(mkt is just a few shops anyway.)

However, a trip without a trek is something that I have never done before, and I was not about to blemish my record now. (though it later turned out to be one of the most physical weekend trip I have ever taken.) So, we proceeded to surkanda devi mandir which was 7+2 km away (7 road + 2 trek). There is a widely believed theory that temples are built at places which offer a commaning view of the environs and this temple at 10000 feet was no exception. However, the drawback is that you might get stairs and mules along the way which kind of takes away the charm associated with walking. Walking for me is pleasurable when one is kind-of-alone, (you can shout if you want) and/or you have to look ahead to decide which way to go, something which this path defintely was'nt. However, keepinng people like us in mind, there was provision for short-cuts, which since I was carrying both my tripod and camera-bad, added a bit of excitement. Also, once you are at the summit, you can move off from the temple complex, find a

lonely place and experience complete serenity. Here comes another first. I tried to capture a shot of a bird in flight, with the mountains in the background and failed miserably. btw, this first is abt the attempt and not the failure. :-(

We came back around 3 p.m. and the lack of sleep in the night necessitated a small rest before we could explore dhanaulti. It also had started to drizzle and it was only around 5:30 that I decided to move out again. As I could not manage to wake-up makku,

I left alone with my camera and tripod. Now, an important use of tripod is, it gives an impression of a professional. I have been using my camera for quite some time now but have never been approached by people for photography tips whereas, in the span of two hours I gave photo fundas to three groups. Dhanaulti has lots of deodar trees which are beautiful in there own right.

However, there is a small patch of pine trees which drew my attention. In the afternoon, we had been told that there is a waterfall nearby and I could hear a rustle from the hilltop which had the pine trees. I presumed that the waterfall could be on the other side of the hill and climbed it after taking a few snaps of the pine trees. When I reached the top, I realised the sound was nothing else but the rustling of the leaves in the wind. However, I was rewarded for my efforts by getting a unimpeded view of the vast expanse. Being alone at the top of a hill with the whole landscape covered by one sweeping glance gives you the usual "king of the world" feeling, aka Dicaprio in titanic. Only the sound of the sea was replaced by the sound of the wind with the chirping of the birds adding some background music to the score. The strong wind was because of the fact that this face of the hill was not blocked by any other hill that could reduce the intensity of the wind. I, then, proceeded to setup my tripod and attempted to capture the vastness.

Now, comes the tripod part. After some time, another group came on the top and asked me "Are u a professional photographer?". (What??, I was as surprised as you all are, believe me)I was honest and clarified that it is just a hobby. It did not deter them from requesting me to take a snap of a phantom-shaped hill with their camera as they felt I could do justice to the scene:-)). I did not disappoint them and took a snap and then readily proclaimed that if the snap does not come ok, it would be becaues of the fading light :-). However, I volunteered to use my tripod

with their camera explaining to them that it would produce better results because of less shake. The group thanked me profusely and as I was climbing down came the 'professional question' again, albeit from another grp (actually just 2 people). I had to explain to them why u need a tripod, what camera one should buy and some other stuff... giving fundas is so much fun. :-)

Finally, before coming back I took some more photographs of mist-covered hills, answered another query from another person abt the camera being a film camera and the tripod etc. morale of the story is, carryying a tripod is good for your photgraphy ego.

Later we proceeded to have our dinner at the market. On the way, makku intelligently pointed out that we should take a torch as it would be pitch dark while coming back, an idea which was vigorously opposed by the rest of us as it would take away the excitement. As it turned out, the excitement was more than we could handle, while coming back. This is not the first time I have walked in pitch dark. We had strolled back from hunder (near Leh) and also came down the stairs of Sanchi stupa at Leh. However, we did not have a sheer drop on one side of the road at either of these times. So, it was a case of saathi haath badhana aur niche mat gir jaana. At a turn we encountered dense fog and our very own babu mossay (shourya) suggested that we should just stop there. Now, waiting there for the whole night did not sound such an appealing idea to the rest of us and so we groped and crawled along and, to the dismay of the readers, we reached the hotel safe and sound with no further events. When we reached the hotel, India needed 120 runs from 14 odd overs and we bit our nails listening to the radio commentary, till zaheer took the 2 runs and took India to victory. All in all, it was a thrilling finish to an exciting day.

The next day we planned to leave early to Kempty Falls, a drive of approx 40 km.

So, we got up early at 5:30, went for an early morning walk, savoured the silence of the morning, came back and were ready by 9. However, our dear old ambassaor was missing and out hotel-owner informed us that the car had developed some fault and was taken for repair by the driver. Makku and I went out after the driver and found him in the market. It turned out that the battery was dead and he was looking for some lorry which could pull the car, (as in dhakka dena) so that it could start. As time dragged on and nothing to do, I proposed the 'ambassador theory' that taking an ambassador on hire is a bad idea as no taxi-wala buys a new ambassador in delhi and so all the ambassadors are old and unreliable. Hoever, after a delay of 2 hours, the car finally breathed into life and we were off to kempty falls. When our destination was approx 10 kms and I was lazily looking out, Mohit proposed that he could see where we were headed to, and we could trek, using short-cuts, upto there. Now "headed to" is open to interpretation and I assumed that he had sighted the fall, and so, I volunteered to join him whereas, makku, very intelligently refused to do so. When we got down from the car, mohit asked me if I had told the driver where we will join them on the road. now now, headed to, in mohit's version was "the road" and not the fall. So, it occured to us, that we were looking at the not so very interesting prospect of walking 10 kms by the road. As we had no other choice, we took our shortcut and hit the road at a point from which Kempty was another 6.5 kms. We proceeded to take another couple of short-cuts which brought us to about 4 kms from the fall. The success of our third short-cut had increased our confidence in our 'short-cut finding' and trekking abilities. We could then see a worn-out trail going down the slope and a set of pepsi signboards (those could even be coke's) probably around 750 metres down in that general direction. After much deliberation, we concluded that the trail could lead us to the signboards, which should be the fall anyway. After all, the fall looked like the only logical place for a trail to lead. Trails are really funny things. They tend to outlive their usefulness and are around even when people have stopped using them. Also, they really believe in relativity, i.e., a trail for a horse is not meant to be a trail for us. So, this trail was on a gravelly slope and had a steep incline. My stategy in trekking has been that one should talk a short-cut while going down but not while coming up. The reason being that, in all probability, if one can go down a slope, one can also come up. The non-determinism stems from the fact that the theory does not hold for sliding descents, especially on gravelly slopes, where coming up is kind of impossible. So, once we had started our descent, there was no looking back. Another funny thing about trails is that they have a habit of disappearing suddenly. The disappearing phenomenon is because some parts of the trail are more (or less) marked than others. My theory for the more marked part is that these are marked by flowing water in the monsoons. Moral of the story is a trail now may not be a trail tomorrow or, in our case, a trail here may not be a trail 10 metres forward. And so, our trail disappeared and here started the guessing game of 'Where is the missing trail?' The game would have been simple, but for the 'pseudo-trails' factor. Pseudo-trails are not made by humans/animals, but by flowing water. Experienced trekkers can make out a pseudo trail from a real one. However, as i have pointed out before, I am just an amataur, who was lost in a jungle with no roads visible and logic was at a premium.