Kailash Manasarovar Yatra 2011 - Batch 1- Day 16

Jun 13 2011 – Day 16

Journey – Darchen to Dehrapuk – a distance of 19 kms out of which 9 kms by bus and 10 kms by trek – via Yamadwar

Today is our Kailash Parikrama (circumbulation) starts.

We got ready for our trek. The bus will take us to Yamadwar, about 9 kms and from there we have to trek about 10 kms to reach our destination Dehrapuk.

At Yamadwar, we spent some time taking photos and watched Lord Kailashpathi in the Mount Kailash. He was taking various forms due to the weather. Sometime we could see him clearly and some other time we could not see him at all due to heavy cloud.

At Yamadwar, we offered our prayers to the small and symbolic structure built by Tibetan in name of Yamaraj. After this, we started our journey. Those yatris who have booked porter and pony, got their porter and pony man. Due to language barrier we could not talk much. They do not know our language we do not know their language – Tibetan. Hence most of the communications were by sign only.

I have not booked any porter and pony. We as a team Myself, Selvam and Ganapathy Sir decided to go together as one team by trek. We decided to follow either Ram awatar or Omprakash Sharma as they go at a slower pace. The reason for following them are they are repeaters and they shared lot of information with us. I was doubling as an interpreter to Selvam and Ganapathy Sir, since they do not know the Hindi.

We started our yatra witnessing many rocks and beauties of Mount Kailash and Lord Shivaji and Ma Parvati. We felt very tired due to high altitude and breathlessness. It seems very difficult to walk. But with our luggage on the back, we chanted the mantra Om Namo Shivaya and continued our yatra.

Unlike Indian side, where you will get refreshment, you will not get anything on the Chinese side. There are some make shift shops available which sells some food items. But we do not know the authenticity of these food items; therefore, we avoided to pick them up. We continued our yatra with the dry fruits and some biscuits which we picked up while we were in Taklakot.

We took rest wherever it is required and continued our yatra – this way we did not feel much tiredness.

At Dehrapuk camp site, there is no toilet facilities. It is open toilet system – therefore, you have to mentally prepared for this.

In the evening, our LO Shri APS Nimbadiaji gave us instructions on passing the Dolma pass which is 18800 ft high.

Some of the yatris went to Charan Sparsh from Dehrapuk. Charan Sparsh is about 3 kms hike from dehrapuk. It is the place which is very close to the Mount Kailash you can get.