Monday, March 16, 2015

together on the mountains

The cold winds blew against my face as I tried to keep the flaps of the tent intact. It was just 8pm,
but upon the Himalayas its bedtime, especially in the autumn.

After the first day of trek, we had just set up the tent besides a stream upon a hillock. I don't remember much about the landscape as we were too tired after all the excitement and exertion. Everyone was just getting warmed up and the mountains were just starting to become taller and more imposing.

After a messy dinner under the lamps( which attracted a hell lot of insects ), we decided to call it a day and get some sleep. This was the first time upon the mountains for many of us and first time in a tent for all of us. Many were getting accustomed to the weather, altitude, exertion and food and hence our group resembled more of a medical camp than anything else.

But being upon the magnificent Himalayas made me utterly happy and let me overlook the minor pains and difficulties.Even though we were tired, we all enjoyed the day's trek and looked forward to covering more distance from the second day.

I quickly wiggled into my sleeping bag, which was one off the 6 bags that now fully occupied that filled the tent. We grumbled about the uneven ground beneath which we could feel, and cracked jokes at each other for a while before those noises turned into slow snores.

I must have just drifted into slumber when I was woken up by the distinct noise of ringing bells. I sat
up startled and tried to imagine the source of the sound. The sound kept moving around the tent, and was accompanied by a strange crunching sound too. Now, I was really scared and tried to wiggle my head out of the sleeping bag in a hope to hear more clearly. It took a moment to realize that the pack horses were grazing on the meadows where the tents were put up. The wave of relief was replaced with one of panic when the horses started running amok and we feared getting trampled, as the stakes that held the tents were being pulled out by the stampede.

Then some of us started shouting and shooing the horses away, while some even got out and drove them away. The others lay inside, shivering, fearful of the horses, listening the noises outside. After maybe half an hour of the mayhem, everything went quite and the snores rose again.

The next day morning, we woke up one of the most wonderful sights in our life, and everyone had the story of the horses on their excited faces. There we were, together, the gang made of all kinds of people, clubbed into one cozy crazy gang, stepping out of our warm tents onto the icy grass and looking forward to taking on more and more adventures and lots of crazy fun.

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