An Adventurous Journey by a Band of Babbling Baboons: Roopkund Trek Part-1 (Haridwar, Rishikesh and

I’ve decided to write 2 blogs for this trip. The first one (this one) is all about the preparation and the 4 days that we spent before the commencement of the Roopkund trek. The second is all about the trek; our stories and experiences.

It was when we (Continental gang) were travelling in Gujarat (October 2017) that a couple of our colleagues kept us reminding of the Roopkund trek that they accomplished in the month of July of the same year. And it so happened that one of our other friends had also signed up for the same trek in October and consequently could not join us on the Gujarat trip. Now, one of the fellas of this gang that took a leisurely trip to Gujarat made a sarcastic casual remark, “We are going to Roopkund for our next trip”, and also named our WhatsApp group “Roopkund”. Little did we know then that his random comment would become one of the most beautiful and adventurous trips we ever took in our lifetime.

In the month of February of 2018, Vivek insisted me a lot to book the dates for our Roopkund trek. Reluctant me, dragged it a bit as I still thought it was a mere joke. Also, it required a good amount of physical fitness preparation for which I was not yet mentally prepared. But one fine day we decide to book the dates and in no time 13 people signed up for the trek. The next couple of months was all about the trek. As we booked our flights I also came up with an amazing 4-day itinerary before the commencement of the trek. We decided to visit Akshardham in Delhi and also pay a visit to India’s most renowned places – Haridwar, Rishikesh and Nainital. But then we found ourselves on the horns of a dilemma; whether or not to indulge ourselves in the most exciting and adventurous activities available in India – Bungee Jumping and river rafting in the Ganges before the trek. For, questions such as “What if we get hurt?”, “What if we catch a cold just before trek when we fall into the bone-chilling cold water of River Ganga?”, “Go till Rishikesh and not do it? Oh c’mon!!” and many more haunted us day and night. Nevertheless, my dear brother (from another mother) Srivatsa was very clear about his thoughts. He, Karthik and Shashank booked slots for Bungee Jumping and Rafting, for the ones who were really interested but only were reluctant due to others’ influence, without even informing me or Vivek, so-called the organizers of the trip.

Two weeks before the trip we all paid a visit to Decathlon for a mega-shopping. By then the headcount has fallen down from 13 to 9. Suhas, a close friend if Vatsa from Myntra, joined us for the trip. The rest 8 of us were from Conti. Spending about 3-4 hours we bought all the trekking stuff we needed. Faces with wide smiles walked out of Decathlon. 15 days before the trek we started receiving emails from our trek coordinator Kinshuk Kothari. Lots of information regarding what to carry, dos and don’ts, preparation for trek and what not! Only Vivek, Vishwanath and I cared enough to take the preparation part seriously. Also, our diet routine was ridiculously funny until the last 2 weeks! Finally came the day when we had to depart from Bangalore. On the 10th of May, we all took cabs to reach KIA, Bangalore. We took an early morning flight to reach the Indian capital, Delhi. That day was dedicated to paying a visit to Akshardham. After watching the absolutely stunning light show, we came back to our rooms to pack our bags. We had an overnight journey to Haridwar in the Nanda-Devi express. And that’s when the exiting journey got a kick-start.

After a 5 hour journey in the Nanda-Devi express, we found ourselves in the streets of Haridwar (meaning: Gateway to Gods) at the early hours of the day. We went looking for the booked hotel to get freshened up. After having had our breakfast, Karthik, Suhas and myself went out to find out what is the best way to spend one day at Haridwar. Fortunately, we met an auto-rickshaw guy, who not only helped us figure out the full day itinerary but also offered us to take around the town. We rushed back to our rooms to inform everyone. We started the day by taking a bath in the Holy River Ganga. We then visited Chandi Devi temple and Manasa Devi temple. We had to take a ropeway to both the temples and waiting time was nearly an hour and a half for each of the temples. Luckily, we completed right in time to attend on the most revered event of Haridwar – The Ganga Aarti at Har Ki Pauri ghat. Ganga Aarti is a religious prayer where they welcome River Ganga into the village with lots of rituals and paraphernalia. We stood there listening to the Vedic Chants, mantras and religious hymns with which Mother Ganga is welcomed. The final act of the ritual was what we all were waiting for. The Aarti itself. At the sunset, about 10 priests started swaying their hands with bowls of fire. The entire stage bloomed with the resplendent golden colour emanating from the Aarti. The entire crowd sang “Jai Ganga Maata” in chorus. The climax just rendered us speechless. None seemed to be interested in anything else. The gorgeous act of offering the prayers to Goddess Ganga came to an end after an hour or so. Having had our dinner we walked all the way to our rooms calling it the end of the day.

At the break of dawn, we were ready to embark on the adventure day. We travelled all the way to Rishikesh in an auto-rickshaw. Vivek had suffered from fever the week before we left for the trip and was still on medication. Kishore did not dare to even think about the jump or rafting. So they both stayed back in Haridwar with our luggage. As soon as we reached Rishikesh we went straight to the Jumping Heights main building for the jump of our lives. After waiting for an hour and a half, we got our turn. It was Vishwanath, who was asked to jump first. He marched all the way to the spot with confidence. It was only when he stood on the edge of the ramp that we saw him shivering. We weren’t scared any less, but yet, we burst into laughter. After a couple more guys it was Vatsa’s turn and then came my turn.

Just while walking through the aisle, I saw what was in the bottom. Holy sweet mosses!! There was nothing! As in…. NOTHING!!!!!!! 285ft of emptiness and then there were rocks and boulders through which River Ganga made her way. I stood stock-still. But there’s no looking back. I walked ahead to my instructors where they dressed me up with all the required harness and one of them asked me if I were ready for the jump. I casually said, “Yes, of course, I am”. He then gently replied, “Dude, tell me that when you stand there!” That was quite intense. I got up from my seat and walked slowly towards the edge of the ramp. They made me walk until my feet were half off the ramp. I looked down again from there and the same thing lingered in my ears – “Holy sweet mosses!! Dude There's nothing! As in…..BRO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!!!!!! 285ft of emptiness and then there were rocks and boulders through which River Ganga made her way.” The instructor started the countdown. The psychology here is, if you jump on the first count down you made it. Otherwise, you’ll never make it. He asked me not to look down but straight ahead where they had placed a yellow placard. As soon as he said the word “Go!” (I actually dunno what he said, I’m presuming he said 1, 2, 3 go!) I literally took a leap of faith. With my hands stretched out, I took a clean gentle jump through the thin air parallel to the ground without a second thought. I made sure not to close my eyes. What I experienced was just breathtaking. The moment I jumped, I felt the weightlessness in the body. The ground approached me faster than ever. I could feel my skin trying to fly off me. All I can say is, there were only feelings. Absolutely no thoughts. Well, you literally don’t have time to think anything while your brain is falling along with you at a whopping 30m/s. Just when I thought I was going way too close towards the ground there was a “THUG”! And, I was going up again. The first recoil was in action. Before I realized I had gained my weight back, I was falling into the oblivion again! After a couple of oscillations finally, thoughts came rushing into the mind. I was relieved. There was a STOP that I had never loved so much! And all of these happened in a span of 30 secs. That’s a lot less time to digest so much!

Watching others fall from below was another delight. Recapitulating your fall and laughing at the funniest sounds that they make during the fall. Unfortunately, Karthik backed out of the jump. And Suhas could not get the slot as his slot was not booked in advance. It was me, Vishwa, Bharath, Vatsa and Shashank that experienced the staggering jump. Meanwhile, our TT had arrived in Haridwar. Vivek and Kishore assured the all the luggage were safely brought to Rishikesh in the TT. We all met again to get ready for the next adventure. The stage was all said for 16Km rafting in the Ganges. Vishwa and Kishore, however, backed out of this event fearing the possible dangers of the activity. And, Vivek was up and ready for the “Dry Rafting”. He, with all confidence, came without any change of clothes thinking that he’ll make sure to not get into the river should they allow us to jump in and therefore not get wet. It was as ridiculous as it sounds here. After a brief set of instructions, we started rafting. The first thing that happened was, you guessed it right, Vivek got wet by one of the waves of the entry rapid. A boisterous laughter burst out so loud in the raft that the instructor had a tough time bringing us back to the normal state. We took the raft through 16Kms in the Ganges encountering 10 rapids. Rapids were a lot of fun. It was as if the calm River Ganga once in a while wanted to tease us of our utter helplessness. Just 1% of her ferociousness was startling. We were just wondering what would be the case if there were to flooding in the rainy reason. Apparently, no one dares to even get their toes wet during the rainy season. After almost two and a half hours of rafting, we finally got back to our TT to start our overnight journey to India’s most favourite honeymoon destination – Nainital.

After a tiresome day, we started our journey towards Nainital. Travelling through the twists and turns in the Ghat sections of Nainital, we reached Bowali at around 3 a.m. in the morning. The best part of Nainital was the home we stayed in. I had booked three 1-BHK apartments for the 9 of us. They had an amazing living room with sofas, a kitchen, a room with thick beds and bedsheets. We spent half a day on our beds ordering Parathas and Maggie. Later that afternoon we went out for our lunch and took a 1-hour boat ride in the Naini Lake before we returned to our apartments. We had to begin our journey towards Lohajung (Roopkund Base Camp) in the early hours of the next day. And that was the beginning of our first high altitude snow trek! The Mysterious Roopkund Lake Trek!

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Video : Bungy Jump and Rafting