At a point as we pushed I saw a very incline slope so I asked him that we stop to eat. Later in the evening we found a perfect shelter, we bought some chicken to make a gravy and ate with rice. That's when it slowly starts to rain and it pured for a long time. Ramesh at first was ready to sit and relax without the tent but as the food was loaded we both needed some sleep to ride further next day.
It was our 6th day and we were just 30 kilometres away from Urgam Valley which was my first destination. Though the first 15 kilometres were pretty easy, then came the 12 kilometres of uphill through unpaved roads to reach Urgam. It wasn't easy at all and that's when the rains started pouring. Since two hours we hardly managed to climb 4 kilometres and were really exhausted pushing the loaded ride. At one point I was so tired but to wait there meant danger with roads filling up and making it a struggle to pass. We had literally put ourselves to test, both of us simply exhausted we reached Urgam and ran to find ourselves something to eat. I knew a place that sold good samosas so I guided him there. The samosas were sold out so we grabbed what we got, some oil dripping bread pakoras and not so fresh egg chowmin. I couldn't eat up, had a tea and started towards Dhaval’s room about 200 metres away. Struggle in between was an unfinished bridge we had to pass which was uncompleted on both the sides. Ramesh helped me pass my cycle, literally carried his on both corners and we finally reached Dhaval Pandey. My first fan from Gujrurat.
All we needed was some food and a place to crash. By the time I made some egg curry and rice Ramesh had already slept and I was too drunk to eat. I lay down and I don't remember at what time but Ramesh woke up to eat and he woke me up too, we ate and crashed back. We had a 8 kilometers trek the next day to bring down Brahma Kamal to this temple Phule Narayan which opens only for two months in a year and it was the day when villagers climbed upto 4000 meters to bring and offer the holy flower at the temple.
We were too tired to do anything when we woke up the next day. I needed some rest and Ramesh felt the same. Dhaval however pushed us saying it happens once in a year and we cannot miss it. Ramesh looked at me. I said let's rest till noon and start as we only had to climb, and next day go further 6 kilometers to bring the Brahma Kamal. The trek started from Kalpeshwar temple where Dhaval tagged us with the villagers. As the hike started I suddenly forgot all the pains in my body and the company of people were simply amazing. An old man aged more than 70 climbed along with his friends and he kept rolling some charas wherever we stopped. Since I'd already trekked till the temple past year, I was confident enough to reach the destination comfortably and to trek with the villagers. It was a very happy experience. We started at 3 PM and managed to reach the top by 6 before it started getting dark. Dhaval had told us to find a place as soon as we could or it would get crowded and we wouldn't find a place to sleep so we held a place and didn't try to move much. At 9 they served us some fulfilling dinner with poori, roti and dhal with potatoes. We managed to get back to our places and shrugged ourselves off.
It was close to 6 in the morning when the sounds woke me up to a very Himalayan morning, where the clouds lived forever on the biggest Mountains in the world. I quickly freshened up, before I woke him Ramesh, woke up and got ready too. Just when I wore my shoes and came near the Temple when they said, we cannot use footwear to get the Brahma Kamal, we agreed and removed the shoes and came back. Tea was served while the members selected to go bring Brahma Kamal took bath in ice cold waters and draped themselves into saffron dhotis. The scene looked so spiritually magical as they started hiking barefoot from about 3000 meters to upto 4000 in search of the famous flower and we tried to follow them with all our strength. Walking barefoot wasn't so easy and we were not used to it while the villagers simply showed off that they were made to live in the mountains. No matter how much we tried we weren't able to catch up with them, I kept following them in front but when I was unable to keep their pace I waited for the group behind and tagged along, Ramesh did his best to keep his pace too. As the vegetation started changing with the variety of plants changed into lesser variety of plants and grass as much as half a feet long, that's where Brahma Kamal begins to show itself. Everyone stopped and gathered at a holy site where they did their rituals before starting to pluck the flowers. We decided not to climb further as it looked beyond our strength while they climbed at a fast pace. We looked around to find a few flowers and were happy enough to be there and do that. The members of the procession filled up their baskets with the fragrant flowers and slowly started marching back. As soon as we started plucking the flowers, it started raining making it a struggle getting down without slipping. We slowed down while they moved ahead leaving us with a slushy and muddy trail to follow. After a point we lost count of the times we fell and the flowers in my hand were ripped into pieces by the time we managed to reach the temple. Rawat Sir has climbed up with his gang, with whom I climbed last year. He said he would stay for the night while we were set to leave. After a satisfying meal of rice with bottle gourd and curd curry we started our hike down. I normally prefer to run down at my pace rather than taking each step slowly so it doesn't tire much but I have to be cautious with each step as I move fast, one bad move can leave me on the ground. I had some experience and I remember climbing down last year which helped me glide down in no time. I waited for Ramesh who kept his pace to reach in no time. As we reached Kalpeshwar Temple I asked him if he wanted to see a waterfall but he denied. I captured some videos before we came back to crash at Dhaval's room. As we lay down with our bodies given up, Dhaval brought some Wheat halwa and poori from the temple. I stuffed myself with some halva and ate a poori, it was too oily and went back to sleep.
Both our bodies cried for some rest, it felt as if I didn't own my body, it simply didn't want to be moved. I saw some halva left from yesterday, asked if anyone wanted, they denied while I feasted on the local dish made of ghee and laid down. Dhaval insisted on eating dosa so I tried making a batter with the dhal I had, Unfortunately it had rajma making the batter unable to spread on the tawa. After numerous tries we realized it wouldn't work. I made some rice and we ate with the brinjal fry which was made for dosa. For lunch we asked Rawat Ji to arrange and he served us some delicious rice dhal and brinjal fry with some fresh cucumber. We needed some real food on the body. Everyday two glasses of milk was arranged by Dhaval, sometimes we made tea or just drank the milk itself with biscuits and snacks. We were definitely creating a good amount of plastic waste because real food was expensive and we survived the day with one meal a day. It was the first day at rest since I left Rishikesh and I felt as if the whole body took a breath. I stopped drinking as it got expensive but charas kept rolling.
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