Winter Adventure - Kuari Pass Trek

December 14, 2013 Joshimath to Chitrakhana (Day 2) >> Crushing toes, painful knees, sore shoulders and loud thumping of heart is all that I feel. I wipe the drop of sweat that rolled across my forehead and start walking again. A few steps later I am left gasping for breath. All I can hear is beating of my heart and occasionally a chirp of a bird or sloshing sound of flowing river. I lift my head to look around and the grandeur of the...

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Winter Adventure to Kuari pass - Joshimath to Chitrakhana (Day 2)

December 15, 2013 << Winter Adventure - Kuari Pass Trek (Day 1) Chitrakhana to Tali top (Day 3) >> After a pretty patchy sleep I was awakened by the sound of “Bed-tea”. It felt like heaven to be served the tea right on the bed while you are still trying to find a perfect warm spot inside your blanket. I was up quickly as most of the time I was worried about completing morning chores rather than completing my sleep. I decided...

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Winter Adventure - Kuari pass trek - Chitrakhana to Tali top (Day 3)

December 16, 2013 << Joshimath to Chitrakhana (Day 2) Tali camp to Kuari pass and back (Day 4) >> “Good morning, Bed-tea” is the call which wakes me up from my half sleep. Billu (trek helper) hands me a hot cup of tea right inside the tent. I am up quickly and while still snuggled inside my sleeping bag, I savor the hot tea till 15 minutes, after which I pack up my sleeping bag and get ready to move out. Couple of guys have already...

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Winter Adventure to Kuari pass - Tali camp to Kuari pass and back (Day 4)

December 17, 2013 << Chitrakhana to Tali top (Day 3) Tali to Joshimath via Auli (Day 5) >> Yes, its the summit day and also the most strenuous one. The night was pretty cold and the frozen water in my bottle which I had accidentally left out of my tent indicated it. Today’s plan is to do a 5km hike (400 mts gain in altitude) to reach Kuari pass, spend some time there and then hike back to the campsite. So in all a strenuous...

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Winter Adventure to Kuari pass - Tali to Joshimath via Auli (Day 5)

December 18, 2013 << Tali camp to Kuari pass and back (Day 4) Back to Haridwar (Day 6) >> The summit day is over and now its time to wrap up. Today's schedule is to hike across the beautiful meadows of Gurson back to Auli, where a car will be waiting for to drive us back to GMVN rest house at Joshimath. I am already dreaming of getting a hot shower. Morning starts with usual call of bed tea followed by delicious breakfast. The...

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Winter Adventure to Kuari pass - Back to Haridwar (Day 6)

December 18, 2013 << Tali to Joshimath via Auli (Day 5) Time so say goodbye to the Himalayas and head back to Haridwar. We all boarded the cars to start the gruelling journey back to Haridwar. The only thing that was different on the return journey was that hardly anyone spoke. May be we were too tired, but I think that most of us would be reflecting and thinking about those wonderful 5 days that we had spent together in the lap of...

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Road trip to Coorg (Madikeri) - A Photo Essay

Way back in April 2013 I had made a trip to Coorg. We had explored various weekend gateway options like Goa, Pondicherry, Ooty etc... and finally decided on Coorg. We decided to drive to Coorg from Bangalore. Since the we wanted to come back to Bangalore the next day, we decided to cover as many places as we can on the way to Coorg. First stop was the Tibetan colony which falls somewhere in between Mysore and Coorg. It is a great place to see the...

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