The Kanatal trip: Camp activities, food and more

Trek to the Surkanda Devi: we were pumped with all the energy that was possible and had started to chalk out our plan for the day and the day to come. 


The descend from the temple via the paved path seemed like child's play and when I saw people climbing on horses, I smiled at myself with what I had just achieved. After all we trekked 3.5 km through the forest on an unpaved path.


A unique thing I saw over there was an ornament worn by married women. A larger than life nose ring that could be well taken as a bangle for someone with a really fat wrist. Quite a fashion statement in itself.


With the regular chit chat and deciding to do the camp activities, we walked down. The driver with his Ambi was waiting at the base of the climb. As we sat into the car and headed back to our cosy lil camp, I could feel my appetite rising. Famished with the climb, the moment we reached camp, we told the camp in charge that we'll be having our lunch followed by all camp activities. For city girls, Sanghi and I definitely have a good stamina. 


The lunch prepared by these guys was superb: Paneer, Aalo fry, rajma, roti, rice and payasam. And after giving closure to our taste buds and asking Vijay, the camp in charge to save some of the leftover Payasam for dinner, we retreated to our camp to rest and soak our hands and feet yet again.Half  hour of rest to recoup we headed to our next plan of action: Rock Climbing and Rappelling.  


Crossing the pine trees standing behind the tents, we entered into a new world where I saw a new view of the mountains.. I looked up at the trees from where I stood and saw the tangled branches going up in a spiral as if a stairway to the sky above. 

Our tiny existence in this big universe and we feel we've seen it all!

As we crossed the hill and the कच्चा रास्ता, we came to a road where people would go around doing mountain biking: obscure and hidden from the world! We asked about the deserted farm land and houses in the distance and were told that locals own 3 pieces of farms in different locations and they move with the weather to sow/ plant seeds for the seasonal harvest. A tough life of a city person to relate to but sure it must be an experience in itself.

Walking a 100 mts., we finally stopped where the safety equipment was brought out: ropes, harnesses, clamps, head gear, gloves. Looking at the top of the rock like structure, I saw one of guide tying the rope around the tree and throwing it down. A careful inspection of all the prepping done by the instructor, he began with the demo of what was expected out of us. 

Climb the 45 feet tall rock, look for nucks and coners for support, always have your weight on three of the fours (legs and arms) when taking the weight of one of them and voila, you reach the top..

Excuse me?! Am I supposed to do that? I mean I have zero upper body strength.

Thankfully, the strong willed woman that I am, I decided to conquer my fear. Sanghi's fear was rapelling, which is understandable because  of her healing ankle from a ligament injury.

So we started to climb this huge rock one at a time. My turn to climb and I could not stop telling myself that I better not make a fool out of myself. I had some major expectations to fulfill, after all I am my biggest critic! 

So, it took me a while to overcome difficult bends but all in all, I really enjoyed the climb. I did not fall and was not pulled up! The one major problem that I had all the while was that my safety gear hat as loose. I had to stop every time to adjust it because it was coming all over my face and was making me eat a lotta dust. Disgusting I know ...

Descending is an easier task which I agreed with. I have done  rapelling a couple of times and standing perpendicular to the rock gives an exhilarating felling. Its scary at first but a lot of fun!

I wanted to do rappelling again and Sanghi rock climbing :)

Another task conquered, we started our trek back to the camp. Walking 600 mts. back to the camp seemed like a challenge now. We sat at the corner of the road for a lil while before we headed back.

Next activity: Burma bridge.. A lighter activity which did not require much strength but a basic balancing, it definitely tested ones concentration.

All done, we went back to our camp and rested. After an hour or two, we headed out for the bon fire. ठण्ड ही ठण्ड, awesome weather for a bon fire!! We sat there for a good hour or two chatting about  work, life, people... We were brought some snacks in a lil while: Fryams, french fries and mixed pakoras.. yum! Since we weren't much hungry, we had a some of it and just sat there and enjoyed the warmth in the chill.

After that was dinner: Some more heavenly food and a perfect end to our day! I think all we did on this trip was eating, eating and more eating.. The amazing thing was that we were done with dinner and retired to our tent at 9. WOW! Did we really achieve so many things in this lil time?

The tent was far form warm. It seemed like I was sitting on an ice cube. We packed ourselves with layers of sweater, thermals, jackets, caps praying that we don't fall prey to the extreme weather.

Good Night, talk to you at sunrise :)