Stevie Nicks - I cant wait

I have been listening to Fleetwood mac for quite some time now, during the day during office and then when I head out to play GTA5 on PS4, I get to listen to this song while I drive, guess which,

its Stevie Nicks - I cant wait,,, can coincidence be any better?

When a sudden encounter hampered our trek to the peak! - TTTT 41

This happened during our last weekend trek, somewhere in Dakshina Karnataka. I'm not supposed to disclose the location nor contacts to be precise. So, we had managed to start around 10 am for a waterfall nearby. After completion of a small walk to the waterfall, the plans got changed, we were now supposed to go to a peak wading through forests and route unknown.

The guide himself was skeptical of going to the peak on the same day or for that matter going to the peak itself. Reason being, he himself was unaware of the exact path/route. But our friend/organizer insisted we do it. It was around 11 40 am when we decided to trek to the peak. The forest was dense and it had great growth, hampering easy walkability. Instead we had to navigate criss cross amidst trees/branches.

We had to come down by 5pm to avoid darkness or getting lost also, we had forgotten to carry our torches as the plan was so sudden, that we had only lunch with us. We managed to cross many streams and move through thick undergrowth and finally this incident happened which literally threw the guide off guard.

When we were around an hour away from the peak, guide was ahead, and I was second to him. Suddenly there were few people who had lost path and guide went back to fetch them and told me to continue in the same path.

I had put across just two steps and found a strange shape on top of a brown leaf. I could not believe a dried leaf had such distinct lines and I bent a bit forward to closely examine.

And guess what it turned out ot be, it was a viper which in the process of swallowing a lizard fully. Then I alerted the others, who could not identify the creature due to the camouflage. It was in no position to strike as it had food in its mouth. Suddenly one person went face to face of it, to capture its image and guess what happened.

It regurgitated what it had eaten, right in front of us, and it got ready to strike. This shocked the wits out of our guide. He got concerned, if we ever got late from the peak, this would be, what we would encounter on our way back plus wild boars too. So, the guide had no clues what to do and called for retreat.

So thus, we had to come back out of the forest trail as we were running short of time, not before I captured some images too.

First one is with its prey almost swalloed, second one is where it spit out its food.

Cheers,

Is it the curse of Sage Vasisht or the people of Himachal Pradesh? - TTTT 40

It was during this weekend's trek that someone asked me about the Bara Bhangal trek which I had completed in 2015. Time runs out so quickly, its almost two years to it. The reason that person asked was that, that person too was going to do the same trek in the coming month.

So immediately, I replied, I wish I could do the trek again, just because of the lovely food which was available during the trek and due to the loads of other reasons. And the reply came within a fraction of second to be precise. The person invited me to join their trek.

Apparently I refused, the reason being their trek was only 10 days, when I did, I got to enjoy 12 full days in the Himalayas :). Simple enough reason to reject.

But now, what made me write this post was that, I was wondering what makes me go again and again to Himachal Pradesh. I have been two times and rearing to go. My other friends have managed 3+ times in 1.5 years.

First time, when we went to Vasisht area in Manali, the hotel owner told that, there is a curse upon this place by Sage Vasisht, which says a person who comes over here once, comes again and again and again. So when I went to Himachal the second time, I felt the curse of Sage Vasisht coming true.

But yesterday, when I told about my dream to trek that route again, I just felt along with the curse of Sage Vasisht there were few other things which added to the charm of being in Himachal Pradesh. So thought of writing it out here.

- The cook we have had on treks have been extremely extra ordinary. To cook at high altitude like a man possessed needs some real mettle. During our 12 day trek there was not a day when the food went a bit more or less on salt or on taste for that matter. It was spot on day after day after day. (And on one occasion,  we were literally competing for a veg biryani cooked from previous day left over rice, that good was the food, if you can imagine!)

- The people of Himachal are so so so hospitable, I could strike a conversation with the cook, guide helper etc with such an ease, I miss those in Bangalore where money over takes everything, if anything is left, I guess pride does the talking. Over in Himachal, its pure humanity I guess, at its best.

-  Loads of foreigners. You feel proud of your country seeing so many hoards of people coming to your country on the pretext of spirituality, relaxation thus providing fuel in the form of economy to the people of Himachal. Being amongst them, you get to speak about loads of things.  It might be minuscule, but it definitely matters.

- Himachal has such huge numbers of to see beautiful places, I'm sure, I will grow old before I can list all of them.

Cheers, gotta head to office :)