day 9–parikrama 1

 

the first day of parikrama. supposed to be relatively easy. about 800-900 feet elevation over 10 KM. of course, if was not a steady incline, flat mostly, but somewhat steep in small sections.

our starting point for the trek was yamadwar; – looks like a Buddhist temple, with the associated colorful clothes hung around. many had also dropped pieces of their clothing [including some innerwear!]

after going around and chanting the mrityunjaya mantra, everyone sets off on the parikrama, which starts from about 2 KM from here.

we had decided to hire porters to carry our back packs, to reduce the strain and also ensure that there is some help on day 2, particularly with the steep descent.

it is an organized – read unionized – system. all those needing porters should pay the agent in advance and stand in line at the starting point of the parikrama. the names of the porters are written on small slips that are picked out by lots. as a name is called out, the porter gets assigned to the person at the head of the queue.

later on, someone remarked that a significant portion of the payment would be retained by the agent / union.

we had asked for 4 porters. the ones that were picked were: 1. an old man [must be around 65], 2. a young boy, not more than 10 years old [apparently the unions do not have any minimum age], 3. a boy of about 18 years and 4. a girl around 20.

all the urban experience of playing dumb charades came in handy to establish contact and communicate with the porters, who only knew their language.

except, as we discovered later – that many of them knew the ‘kolaveri’ song!

my porter, the young girl would signal at regular intervals, that she needed to pause to catch her breath. at times it appeared more frequent than my need to take some breaks.

through sign language, i got a feeling that this was her first kora [parikrama].

we got many good glimpses of the north and west faces.

on the way, we crossed a couple of streams. the walk was mostly along the river. we noticed another group of trekkers, looked like they were locals – trekking and playing with the water on the other side of the river. they not only caught up with us, but also overtook us – effortlessly.

and they were carrying their own bags!

btw, the union regulations, we were told, limited the weight of the bag that can be carried by a porter to 7 kgs.

if one engaged a pony, one would still need to engage a porter for the bag, as the pony is not expected to carry only the person and not the bag!

from our resting point at derapuk, we could see the north face and also the ‘charan sparsh’ glacier that comes down from mount Kailas. 

with many rest stops, we took almost 5 hours to cover the 10 kilometers, while those that took ponies reached the resting point first and many others also reached earlier.

there were some, who found it more difficult and took even longer.

we then waited eagerly for the briefing at night, when the Leader Sherpa, Karma, would share his decision on those who need to return and not proceed further. we were hoping that none of us would be on that list.

with a long and tough day ahead, we had to use the outdoor toilets in the evening / night itself, so that we can start early the next day.