Kailash Manasarovar Yatra 2011 - Batch 1 - Day 09

Jun 06 2011 – Day 09

Journey – Budhi to Gunji – 18 kms – via Chhialekh, Garbhiang

We continued our Journey early morning. Though we are tired, we know that we are going to rest in Gunji for one day for the second medical checkup. So we continued our trek. We had to climb up all the way to reach Chhialekh. We had to negotiate some of the very tough steep ascent. With the help of porters we could manage that trail.

This is the time where porters and pony men came to help us. We realized the importance of these people. Thanks to their guidance, we could climb up. They handheld us so that we do not feel the tiredness and we could trek more easily. Breathing was a big problem in high altitude.

Those yatris who had pony sat on the pony and climbed easily. People like me want to check our fitness level continued to trek. We could climb up the steep ascent with the help of the porters and the will of the God. Without His willingness, nothing moves – right? I am true believer of this adage.

Once we reached the Chhilekh, we were served breakfast and tea. After that we had complete registration formalities with the ITBP team. They are very co-operative and friendly in completing our registration formalities. After that we continued our trek – After some distance we had to register again with the SSB team.

On the way we passed the Garbiang village. In this village, the houses have started to sub-merge. We saw those abandoned houses. The village people started living in new houses nearby areas. The village people are very friendly. They motivated us to trek.

On way to Gunji we had to walk flat terrain for some distance. This is where we saw the fury of the nature. Only for ten minutes it started raining with heavy winds swirling, along with it taking all the dust. Due to the heavy wind, we felt very cold; we could not walk. We had to literally stop. But thank God, the nature fury lasted only for ten minutes. After that the climate returned to normal. That was a good lesson for us that in the high altitude anything can happen.

On reaching Gunji we felt relieved and tense. Relieved because we have one day rest; tense we have medical checkup the next day. As usual our LO Shri APS Nimbadiaji advised us not to worry about anything – Have your dinner and sleep. This alone will ensure that your body returns to normal. We did the same thing – had our dinner and a little chit chat and went to sleep.