1-4 Martoli

Day-1 ... 15/05/07 ... Trek from Selapani to Lilam ... 8Kms

Looking back at the first 100ft of the stony trail leading down from Selapani into Gori Ganga Valley.

Looking back at the trail .... blasted out from a huge rocky mountain face and Gori Ganga roaring below.

Within half-hour of trek start, we came across this waterfall...... roaring down a huge rock face on the trek trail.

The suspension bridge we had to cross, as we leave Jimmyghat

Balwant & Debu .... at Rargari

Balwant & Debu .. a sit-down rest pause .... on the trail

See that small wooden bridge, way down across two rocks? ... its for crossing Gori Ganga; used by HEP project workers, to work on both sides.

After about 4hrs trek, from Lilam, we reached this teahouse at Rargari (pronounced "railgadi" by locals) at Gori Ganga river-bed level. We had breakfast of roti-sabzi here.

The PWD Resthouse at Bugudiar where I stayed last night

The Nahardevi Teahouse appears on the trail after 1.5hr trek

Just ahead, is a steep ascent stretch ..... looks more scary as it is not visible ... and is in the cleavage seen in the rocky face at center of the picture. Actually, it turned out less difficult, than I had imagined.

The temple on the trail 1km past Nahardevi Teahouse.

At Sunset time the sheep were gathering in the meadow above my PWD Cabin to sit down for the night

See that small wooden bridge, way down across two rocks? ... its for crossing Gori Ganga; used by HEP project workers, to work on both sides.

The first of the 6 snow bridges, we had to cross on the trail, appeared just past the Naharadevi temple.... wasn't tough, as snow was packed hard.

That's me and Balwant on another stretch of snow, past Nahardevi

A huge waterfall ..... flows into .... and then under the snowbridge

This yellow flower was a pretty common sight on the trail.

We reached Martoli at 10 am after just 3.5 hrs trek. The village on pleasant green meadow, with many stone-houses .... but most were deserted and often dilapated.

Narendra displays old utensils, tools, toys and shoes, used by his ancestors before 1962 when Martoli was a thriving hub village, on the indo-tibetan trade route, before the war.

Looking back at Rilkot, 1 hour after leaving it ... as white specs way back on that green meadow (near the center of the picture).

Debu, Balwant and Narendra Martolia ...in front of his house ..in which we stayed the night.

Thats the full view of Martoli GH with its front green lawn.

Narendra Martoli (the owner of the GH where we stayed, in Pic at left) seemed to be very knowledgeable about Martoli Village and its importance in the Tibetan trade days. He has a collection of old tools and artifacts that he is willing to show to an interested tourist. He also suggested that I meet a gentlemen named Mallika Varti, near Shamali Bend, in Munsiary, who has a huge collection of information on local birds, snakes etc. Unfortunately, I could'nt meet Mr Varti.