Ghastoli to Badrinath and futher

Although the pair of TNFs in the picture are 4 years old, I did not expect them to wear out so much that I had to tie the sole to the body with a string. Such is the terrain on this amazing trail.

Himalayan glow on our faces at the Indian Army Transit camp, GhastoliBravest of the Brave, L to R : Duarte, Kedar, Devyani,Carla,Dada, Krutika, Ram,Anuj,Milind, Me, Vikas.

18th August 2018

We had a full barrack to ourselves last night. Excellent dinner with dessert made me sleep like a child. Dada and Devayani did not make it to the barracks last night. So we were assuming that as per our plan the bivouac at the place where we kept a tent and other stuff. Fortunately they had all the food prepared for us with them. Kedar along with Buddhi went back with a thermos full of tea from the Army canteen at first light. It was a tense breakfast table at the Army mess that morning, now and then some one would wipe away the water vapor on the window pane and peep out hoping to see them back. After so many days in the mountains you tend not to keep track of time. I dont remember when they came back but they finally trudged along with Kedar and Buddhi. Alas sigh of relief,

Didn't I tell you the Army treats you like kings, they did allow us to hop into 2 Army trucks and get back to Badrinath.

When we reached Badri, we found at the traffic on the highway to Rishikesh is closed at multiple places due to land slides. We had a flight on 19th evening from Delhi, I had no intention of hopping on to another vehicle and try and make it to the flight. Also I had missed visiting Badrinath last time around so I decided to stay back. We split into 2 groups Anuj, Kru,Kedar Duarte, Carla went ahead and reached just in time catch the scheduled flight on the 19th. While rest of us rested one night in Badrinath and the next morning jumped over 3 huge landslides and switched vehicles at every jump to reach Rishikesh just after sun down. We took a red eye bus to Delhi and then flew back home on newly booked spicejet tickets 20th morning.

At the airport, the lady at the check-in counter and the security officer struggled to match the glowing faces to the identity card's picture. Finally they allowed us to board the home bound flight.

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