Our Mardi Mountain Trek
About 50 trekkers
5 days, 4 nights
Starting poin
Ashram Students and Members made it to the Mardi Viewpoint after a long three-day walk through the ridges and valleys. After the Diwali celebration, the ashram organized 5-day trekking for its students and members. All were divided into two groups to make the trekking and smooth functioning of the basic ashram activities. Each of the groups had about 50 members between the ages of 12 and 60.
On 21st November, the group got on a bus to Pokhara Valley, one of the most beautiful valleys of Nepal. The bus ride set the mood for the next few days. It brought everyone closer as each started casting off their hesitation and shyness.
The group reached the starting point, Phedi at about noon, and trekked up to Dhampus with the golden sun setting on the left and the beautiful mountain range on the right.
After a few hours of the uphill walk was just what was needed to let the muscles know what we were up to. We wanted to walk together as much as possible. The young boys and girls were more driven to get to that days destination as fast as possible. The youth energy is mostly interested in proving oneself, it gives the young mind a sense of pride. But we somehow reined in whenever they were sprinting. I told them that it was a great opportunity to reconnect with nature, hear the sound, and become one with the tails of the setting sun and the cloud.
A fine dinner and warm beds were waiting for the group. Most of the group members decided to delay the warm bed and enjoy the free dance. The sky was so clear, that one could feel that the mountains were witnessing our joy and freedom making their way through the dark night.
The next morning, the group woke up early. A long day started perfectly with a short meditation. Even though most of us carry blessing cards of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo in our purse, we were so happy that Bimala, one of the members had carried medium-sized wood printed photos.
In the hotel courtyard, some sat on chairs, some stood, and some on the steps. The gentle fragrance off the incense and beautiful flowers in glass turned vase filled the atmosphere as we began chanting some mantras. The symphony that unfolded was one of the truest experience of the trek.
Now, that the morning was perfectly crafted, it gave us a sense of purpose and eater meaning to our travel. We slowly started to move, the pre-morning light lead us through the trail. As the morning light made its way through the branches of tall and old trees and the bushes, our sight pierced through the wilderness and narrow trails to the golden and motionless mountains.
It was as though we were playing hide and seek. It made me think about my relationship with God. The trail was the world along which I was marching, sometimes with joy and sometimes in darkness with sorrow. At a distance lay those immaculate, mighty, and big-hearted mountains.
If I were to find joy in the sorrow of the world, I had no other way but to turn to the mountains and keep walking.
One of the many things that travel brings in you is the reconnecting of you and your inner child. When one travels one drops off all the baggage as one feels a sense of freedom. Wilderness is so powerful that it forces it’s way into you unknowingly to cast
Among the many clearings that we came across, some of them were spectacular. It was the edge before going downhill, through the narrow ridge, the clearing felt like the gate to the beautiful panorama of all mountains aligned one after other. A perfect capture spot!
We had already walked quite a lot, the destination of the second day was at our sight. We made our way to the Badal Dada- translated as Cloud hill. The name was perfect in its every literal sense. Some say that a newbie trekker must be careful while ascending, there is a significant probability of high altitude sickness. Many of us chose to remain oblivious and some were even heedless of the seriousness of altitude sickness. It might be just like players overestimating the home-ground advantage. And, mountains are definitely unpredictable and aren’t to be as overly familiar.
Nobody waited to reach the top before tossing away their baggage off their back. All hurried, pulled off their baggage from their tired back, and flung it to their allotted hotel rooms. It felt as if the sun was just waiting for our arrival to bid a farewell with its golden yellow rays turned red. We took the opportunity to take pictures and videos, meditate, and feel the air.
The cold was piercing enough to lodge them inside, around the fireplace with warm cup of coffee being looped around their freezing fingers, and periodic slurp of it warming their inside.
Outside, the sun was making its way between the mountains. As it sunk further it wore a vermilion attire, moving further and further away, expressing its displeasure but heart filled with love. When the sun went down, closed it’s far away lying mountain-lashes, it bade us all adieu with a promise of meeting tomorrow. The clairvoyance was exhilarating. The view from the top was inexplicable, the hills and valleys below were covered by the cloud, one could feel as though floating on a small hill-cap island surrounded by cloud.
The students and teachers gathered inside in the dining hall, around the fireplace. The joy of going within is not to be forgotten and to quench the inner thirst we sat and meditated for some time. After meditation, the young students scurried around to find a spot with their friends and started to play while enjoying the sweet aroma of curry being prepared for dinner.
The dinner was probably the best meal of what we were served in the hotels thus far. I couldn’t enjoy it as much as I would have wanted. I think it had to do with the rice served for lunch in the restaurant that afternoon. While we were enjoying the warmth of the fire in the dining room, all of sudden a young girl, Yamuna, dropped herself on the floor. We rushed her outside in the open air, adults started to throw in all the possibilities that she might be suffering from. Few of us were prepared to take her down because if it was because of altitude sickness there was no other way if life was to be saved. The air became tensed, worried, and sad. A thought ran through my head. I felt that it was not altitude sickness, rather hypoxemia caused due to staying in the enclosed dining hall warmed by burning wood. As soon as she regained her consciousness, there was another news of another young girl, Auroprabha throwing up and suffering from severe headaches. This was clearly the case of altitude sickness.
There was no other way like I said, so three of us took her to a hotel about 50 meters down. She started feeling better. Her brother and our guide Vishnu carried her, and they thought that it was a good idea for them to spend that night there. If she hadn’t felt better, the only option was to carry her two hours down to find another hotel. Luckily, everything went well.
The next day, we woke up at about 4:00 am. The puffy and restless eyes of the most assured me in a cheeky way that almost every adult had difficulty getting sound sleep. Despite the deprivation, we were all looking forward to making it to the final destination. The darkness of early morning was filled with excitement and fear. We started off slowly with our cell phone torches making us the way. The fear was palpable. We moved our steps as though we were stepping on the glass floor, careful and gentle. We didn’t want the young trekkers to ramble around along the severely steep life-risking trail.
We walked along the gentle uphill the curvy trails carved on the faces of the hills covered with alpine meadows. Seen from distance, the sight resembled a fragment of ant queue making their way through the highs and lows. The morning rays lit our faces. The comfort and confidence surged, the adults made constant nagging a once in a while thing and we marched ahead. Walking in the dark didn’t only hid the menacing cliffs but also made us oblivious to the long way that we had already made. There was no sense of tiredness, and I confided myself that fatigue has mostly a mental play.
When we made our way to the top, the Mardi View Point, the gigantic Annapurna, Mardi, Fishtail stood still in front of us. The panorama of the ranges was impossible to capture no matter how much one would widen their eyes. We scrambled around to find a camera in front and the mountains on the back. I think many viewed the mountains much more through the camera and the screen more than by the direct contact. We sat there till the thirst of the mountain was quenched.
The young ones were hungry and wanted to return early. Some were disgruntled inexpressively because after such a long walk they had probably expected to get to a place where they would be having lunch. Sadly, they had to return back empty stomachs.
After spending enough time at our final destination, we slowly made our way to Badal Dada for lunch. Some were experiencing difficulty by now, but the young ones difficulty was empty stomach. This made them run downhill to literally devour big plate of rice. Some of us had to accompany the slow walkers as some limped and lurched their way down. Photo freaks also found an excuse to spend time snapping photos incessantly.
This day was probably the day with lot of happening. The incident worth remembering was when 14 members of the group along with me took a misdirection. Initially, it appeared as though the both would join, but as we went down we were descending so fast that it felt like we were going further away and away from the route that we were meant to take. We were worried and to make the young ones feel comfortable, I cracked jokes and made fun of Vasanta Mama, who was the one who convinced us that we would end up at the same place. Luckily, our confidence took a toll when we asked a few trekkers making their way up through this path almost never taken. They exclaimed and told us in all seriousness that it would lead us to a place called Siding, about a day-long walk from the place Forest Camp where we had booked our hotel.
Now that we came to know it was all about finding a way to join the rest of the group. In the other group there was a drama and worry at its highest. Vishnu, our trek leader was looking for a way to communicate with us. They tried reaching us on our phone, but the network was so poor that it was nearly impossible to get connected and if connected one could hardly hear any voice. My phone batteries were almost dead! The young students were shouting my name. We started to hear their calling only when we finally came to an open space and a courtyard of a hotel on the way that connected us to their route.
The pace of the walk when we were lost itself suggested that we would reach the junction before them, the trail wasn’t friendly and at times it felt like were were the first one to walk through it. When we arrived at the main path, we decided to stop their and wait for everyone to come before moving further. The boys with us were carrying some ingratiates to make Chatpat(a Nepali spicy dry snacks made from noodles and puffed rice). As the rest of the group poured in, we were all explaining our side of the story and there was just too much of fun after some restless drama.
The night was falling. We started to further drag ourselves with quivering legs to the hotel. After a walk of about an hour and a half with the help of battery drained cellphone torches, we reached the hotel. We played some game after reaching the hotel, washed our stinking feet in ice cold water and warmed ourselves around the bonfire. The Nepali typical dish rice, lentils, greens, potato curry, and some chutney was served to everyone. All ate hungrily. Many slowly made their way to their bed. Some of us sad around the bon fire and played Antakshiri. It is a game in which two groups have to sing a song with the ending sound. With the joy of singing and being around the warm fire, we ended our sweet and memorable day with a good night.