TOURISM INDIA MARCH 2019 TOURISM INDIA MARCH 2019 | Page 46

D E S T I NAT I O N / F E AT U R E S
THE BEST TIME FOR
CHADAR TREK IS FROM
MID-JANUARY TO MID-
FEBRUARY, THAT IS WHEN
THE ZANSKAR RIVER
FREEZES AND YOU GET TO
WALK ON MASSIVE SLABS
OF ICE SPREADING FOR
MILES AND MILES.
walk, the river had entirely unfrozen
with no way ahead. After noting every
possibility, we had to decide to turn
back. In all honesty, there wasn’t
much dejection in the group, for by
now we had all realised that the true
joy and purpose of this trip was not
the destination but the journey. And
46
Tourism India March 2019
oh boy, was the journey anything but
dull! We get back to Tibb cave to face
the worst temperatures of our whole
trek. It hit -30 degrees that night. Not
a single one of us managed a wink of
sleep.
Day four marked us retracing
our original path. The dipping
temperatures managed to shake us
now, like we hadn’t been before. Yet
we marvelled in the cracks we saw
upon the chadar, the mini waterfalls,
some frozen some not, and especially
the grooves upon the cavern which the
river flowed in. At some points, the
distant roar of a helicopters blade could
be heard, and a somber mood would
fall upon the group. A chopper nearby
could mean only one thing, someone
was in danger. In this state of mind, we
arrived back at Tsomo for our last night
out in the open. We huddled about the
campfire, desperate for a sliver of heat.
A bonfire was less of an activity, and
more about survival at this point of
time. And thus, we retired to our tents,
our last night in the green traps of our
sleeping beds.
We woke up on Republic Day, and
after breakfast had the honor of raising
the flag and singing our national
anthem upon the ice. Spirits were
on a high, the gruesome journey was
nearly complete. However, our return
journey was tougher than we expected.
The chadar had not kept steady, there
were times when we waded through
water hoping desperately that none
of it ended up in our boots. Skidding
across ice and stepping across rocks
finally had us at the end of our journey.
A tearful goodbye ensued, the support
staff had been remarkable and lovely
to us, and if not for them, we would
not have successfully completed our
expedition. We huddled into the vans
quickly and set back to the guesthouse.
The rest of the time seemed to slip
by in a wink. Before we knew it, we
were awake again and on our way to
the airport. As I stood on the tarmac,
I took a look around one last time, at
the land that gave me life’s biggest
adventure till date, and I wondered
whether I would ever feel this restless
and sated all at once again. That,
remains a question for another day and
another adventure.