Roof of the Rockies

I was woken up in my seat by our shuttle driver's voice when he announced to everyone that both lanes of the  interstate were closed down and that it could be a while before we started moving again. I was heading to Indianapolis to catch an evening flight to Denver, Colorado. As it turned out, there was a massive truck-fire on the highway that afternoon which caused the huge traffic jam and so I ended up missing my flight, along with everyone else in the shuttle! After reaching the airport and talking to the airline rep, I was put on the 'wait list' for the morning flight out.

An Adventure in Ladakh - Stok Kangri

The breathtaking (literally!) view from the summit

6,153 metres...

20,187 feet...

~ 70% the summit elevation of Everest...

That's the summit elevation of Stok Kangri, the highest peak in the Stok range of the Himalayas, in Ladakh, India.

On the top

Trek to Torna

Few days back, an email initiated by greysith was doing the rounds of inboxes of almost all active members of the college astronomy club. The content was simple - proposal for a trek; one day return / overnight, depending upon the crowd. As an avid trekker in the Sahyadris we had falconer, who suggested "Torna". He has himself been there 3-4 times (maybe even more!) and I had been there a couple of times (not very significant since he easily outranks me as a trekker!)
After much addition / subtraction to the list of people, we were finally down to seven guys, and had five bikes amongst us. Also, due to the widely accepted 'girl-girl affinity' which is very high in such situations (I'd call it "girls of any feather flock together!") all the girls from our group eventually chickened out! (alternate debated variations to this - 1)girls' version : nothing like that, we just had our own individual bindings... 2)enthu's version : abba, 'coz of your foot-in-mouth disease all girls are out! lol... 3)greysith's version : (nodding to enthu in approval) ya! lol...)

So, as per plan we all met early morning in our college. By early I mean 6.30 am, +/- everyone's deviation, ranging from falconer's '-10 mins' to...well, not-to-mention's '+30 mins'! The five of us with bikes (greysith, falconer, moiyyad, nikkit and I) were to roll off from college together, and pick up the two pillions (enthu and vrd) on our way out of the city.

Primary destination : One Mr. Lole's farm, in a village called 'Nasrapur' (where we usually hold star parties for college students and general public).
Distance : 50 km from college.
Secondary destination : A village called 'Velhe', which is at the base of the hill atop which is built the prestigious fort Torna.
Distance : 20 km from the farm.

The ride to Nasrapur was simply amazing, mostly on the Mumbai-Bangalore Highway, NH4 and partly on a small diversion off it. The cavalry consisted of an Appache (greysith riding, enthu pillion), a Gladiator (falconer ridding, vrd pillion initially), a Flame I think (nikkit riding, vrd pillion later on), a Passion / Splendor (moiyyad riding) and a Bullet (my machine). After reaching the farm and one glass of sweet tea down, we started for Velhe. We left greysith's bike at the farm for lack of fuel (he hopped on as my pillion and enthu shifted to another bike). The road to Velhe was a beautiful, torturous country road, with occasional bullock carts and villagers carrying haystacks, to add to the effect! Finally after reaching Velhe we parked our bikes at Mr. Lole's contact's place. Our trek began.

With falconer leading the way and me sticking near the tail end, we all trekked up the very same hill that the great Maratha warriors once climbed. After two hours of climbing, with few halts in between and around two-three litres of water down everyone's stomach, we reached the top. Snacks and lunch was finished with delight after a big appetite! Later on few settled for a nap and the rest went on to explore the fort. After an hour or so we were also up on our feet, wandering around, clicking photos and taking in the nice breeze. Some of the photos I clicked, including two stitched panoramas (each one of 3-4 photos) which I found worth keeping after processing, are pasted below.

Panorama 1

Panorama 2

Fortification facing ridge going to Rajgad (Budhla Machi I guess)

Behind, from left : vrd, greysith, moiyyad
In front, from left : falconer, me, enthu, nikkit

Someone who posed for us, but flew off by the time I could change lens and get a better photo!

Earlier, right after lunch we had realised that we were almost out of water and would have to fill up our bottles somewhere on the fort. There was a small tank of water, not surprisingly the home of tadpoles and their friends, and if that wasn't enough, appearing green because of the thick algae at the base of the tank. Greysith and I proudly filtered around six bottles of water using nothing but a hanky! The water was free from major suspended particles, and didn't taste so much bad either! This would be my second time of filtering and drinking "green water" atop a fort (proudly again!).

Photos clicked, bottles filled up and with a sense of accomplishment, we all started our way down. Just as we were exiting one of the gates of the fort, enthu started a 'ghoshana' and falconer and I strengthened it, with everyone joining in chorus, to let the Sahyadris know that the great Maratha warrior Shivaji Bhosle shall always be remembered for generations to come.
Maharaj, Praudh pratap purandar,
Kshatriya kulavatauns, Gobrahman pratipalak,
Sihasanadhishwar, Maharajadhiraj,
Chatrapati Shri Shivaji Maharaj ki... Jai!
Jai Bhavani! Jai Shivaji!
Jai Shivaji! Jai Bhavani!
Hara-hara Mahadev!

We traced our path back and were at the base in just over an hour. Riding back was equally fun, but almost all were now tired and hungry! On our way back, after a while, greysith and I swapped seats and he tried the Bullet. We swapped again after sometime and finally reached the farm. We were welcomed with tea and 'jambhul' which I must say were refreshing! Our host made us feel comfortable on his farm on a mat with blankets. At around 9 pm we sat for dinner- a very typical yet delicious dinner of 'pithla-bhakri' along with potato gravy and rice. Soon after, we were in bed, chit-chatting and later falling asleep under the sky. We had originally thought we would get to see a brilliantly starlit sky and possibly also do a bit of astrophotography, but the clouds had something else in mind. It was so overcast that we could barely see a few constellations and even all the stars of any single one! Greysith did try to photograph something despite the odds, but I'm not sure what he managed to get. In all, it was a great trek, and a great trip with friends. We got up in the morning, and again after a glass of tea (not so sweet this time; we had requested that after the first tea itself!) hit the road to head back home.

This time, however, every kilometer of NH4 flooded my mind with memories... memories of my bus journey from B'lore to Pune, on the last day of the last year that went by... memories best left out of this post..