All good things come to an end - Last part of the trip

November 01, 2020

Around 3 am in the morning of our last night in the camp, it started to pour! Thunder and lightening resonated for an hour and half in the valley. It was the loudest thunder that I have ever heard in my life. I was sure that we would be drenched in the tent or the tent would fall down because of the heavy wind and downpour. It stopped at about 5 - we manged to doze off till 6.

When my eyes opened, I saw a sheet of white near the opening of the tent and scrambled to get out and we had a surprise! There was a slight sheet of snow all around us in the valley. Some of the mountains near the valley, that had been dry last night were now covered with snow here and there. It was all so beautiful. The skies were a bright blue - the rains seemed to have washed away all the fog of the previous night!

Lily was undisturbed - searching for grass beneath the snow.

I waited a long time to take a photo of the sunrise and a time-lapse, but had to give up for it was still freezing. But managed to capture just a few pictures around sunrise

Once the sun was bright and out , we had fun scrapping the snow off the sides of the tent and off the ground. The kids even made a teeny-weeny snowman that they called "Raya". What astonished me was how there wasn't a single drop of water inside any of the tents, despite the downpour and the snow shower! Amazing!

After the usual morning routine, we packed with a sad heart - got our luggages out of the tent. As a parting gift - they served us yummy aloo parathas for breakfast, instead of the usual toast. While we ate breakfast outside the tent (as it was nice and sunny), within minutes they packed off all the tents. The guy who took away the mules had brought them back and helped pack up all the tents. It was so amazing to see how a huge tent finally got packed into the size of a backpack :) ...

A Selfie with the "Troop"

At about 9 we started our descent towards civilization. The walk down was really interesting. It went through the forest , grasslands, some steep slopes.. We saw walnut trees, deodar, spruce and many other trees. A few of them had the "fall" colours too. Kids were so energetic while going down. While I lead all of the climbs the past 3 days, here i was the last to come. I am so scared of slipping and falling that i always lag behind. For most part there was a very very rocky path created to go down. In some parts we had to climb down loose mud and some strong tree roots also.

Fall Colors in India too :)

The vegetation became lush gradually as we climbed down. Lickens were abundant on the tree trunks and the floor was flooded with bright colored ferns.

This little one managed to survive the storm of the previous night!

After nearly 4 hours of walking, we got the glimpse of the village that we were headed too. Our vehicle would be waiting there for us, with the luggage that the mules had carried in a different route.

Since we did not have our masks in our backpacks, the guide was vary of walking through the village - so we had to walk around the village. Wasnt' that a lovely idea when we chanced upon this lovely waterfall - signalling the end of a beautiful trek.

And as always - All good things must come to an end - and so did our trek. We were happy to see our driver Kumar who drove us back to "The Himalayan abode" - ah! hot water bath never felt soooooo good! It was a rainy chilly evening in Joshimath that evening. After a warm bath followed by hot tea and pakodas we settled down for a game of Triominoes. Maya beat the crap out of all of us - despite whining that we were disturbing her 4 day streak of reading Percy Jackson!! She was bent upon finishing the series before we came back to bangalore.

The next day morning we left early at about 7 so that we could make the journey to Rishikesh before sunset and we reached at 4!! We even got to eat breafkast at a roadside dhaba - so pretty much all our wishes got a "tick" ...

Back to our room in Lemon tree and the yummy food. We made one last walk to Lakshman Jhula and relived old memories - and guess what even saw a Pooja Pandal .. My Dusshera was complete! But it was so sad to see all the shops empty and the street bereft of people. To see a Pooja Pandal so empty in the most religious place like Rishikesh is so sad. Wish this COVID would end soon. We seem to be missing so much in life.