Nag Tibba trek. 6th of October

Hey Guy's,

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to be able to go on a hike to a mountain called Nag Tibba.  My hiking teacher/leader person, Mr Conrad, emailed me on Monday asking if I would like to go on a hike leaving Thursday morning  and coming back Saturday night.  It was short notice but I managed to negotiate my way out of a dentist appointment I had on the Friday so luckily I was able to go.  So Cory,  Isaac,  Emmett, 3 girls,  my climbing instructor Titu,  my hiking leader Mr Conrad and I left early Thursday morning.  The Wednesday before we had packed our gear food so we could leave early.  I had to get up at 6:00 so I could reach Hanifl centre by 7. Hanifl centre is the outdoor education hub for the town of Mussoorie and is a branch of Woodstock school it's about a 1km walk from school. Here we started our trek by jumping into Jeeps and riding for 2 and a bit hours.  The ride was beautiful. 

Nag Tibba peak on the left

Woodstock and Hanifl centre do about 4 trips to Nag Tibba every year but this time it was a bit special. We were doing a route that had not been attempted since 2008. It was more challenging then the normal route Woodstock take and requires 15 km of uphill climbing and a walk along a ridge.  They hadn't done the route in 6 years because last time they  attempted it it proved too much of a challenge and people had to be carried up the hill.  Luckily, no one had to be carried up this time around. 

The first day was by far the most difficult day.  The climb pushed all us to our limits but it was incredibly satisfactory when we got to base camp 700m short of the summit.  On the first day we climbed 1200m high.  Base camp was a cleaning  on the side of the ridge just before the peak.  There was a bungalow there designed for hikers,  but over the years it has been turned into a landfill and not even close to liveable.  So we set up our tents and prepared dinner,  which was mac and cheese.  It was so good but unfortunately there wasn't enough for seconds.  We were all really tired for the big day of walking so we ask fell asleep by 8 o'clock. 

The base camp with Bungalow

The next morning we woke up to the sound of boiling water as Titu was making chai. Titu is one of the coolest people I've ever met.  He's been working at Hanifl centre for 10 years or something and knows so much about this area.  Legend has it that when he was 12 he walked from the centre of Mussoorie all the way to Nag Tibba in one day. He's such a chill guy and is great to talk to about anything outdoors because he pretty much knows everything. So Titu was making chai tea for us all and it was so good.  We then made pancakes for breakfast which were pretty good,  but if you've ever made pancakes while camping you know how much of a pain it is to clean the  pans.  I was scrubbing for a good 15 minutes to get all the burnt pieces of pancake off the saucepan. 

At about 11 o'clock we packed day packs and climbed to 3000m,  the summit of Nag Tibba.  It wasn't too hard of a walk,  and  took us about an hour.  When we got to the top we were all really happy with what we had accomplished.  It was unfortunately a really cloudy day so we couldn't see the snow peak Himalayas or anything else really.  I still haven't seen the snow peaks but I'll just have to wait for the activity week this friday because we're pretty much going into them. 

Group photo at summit

So we climbed back down to base camp and packed up our gear.  We had to walk another 8 km to our next camp sites.  It was all downhill but that did not mean it was easier.  Every step I took I had to take with extreme caution because it was so easy to fall. I rolled my ankle like 30 times and my knees were acking afterwards.  But it was all worth it because our next camp was in a super beautiful area.  I'll just let the photos tell you how beautiful it was.

We had a few hours before dinner to spare so the 4 of us boys just sat in our tent and had probably the funniest conversation I've ever had here.  It was non stop laughing for a hour and a half,  good memories were definitely made. 

The boys from a local house where we got water. We gave them some peanuts in return

That night we had some Indian dish I don't know the name of.  It was a rice based dish that had curry of some sort.  It was damn tasty and luckily the other boys didn't like it so I got to eat as much as I wanted.

That night the boys stayed up till nearly 11 talking about whatever.  I woke myself up at 5:30 in the morning to try see the sunrise.  There wasn't really a sunrise,  the sky only got slowly brighter because it was cloudy but it still gave me an opportunity to just think.

It was great being alone on the hillside. For once I felt like I was by myself.  Something very rare for being in a country with a population of over a billion. There was a silence at that time that was mesmerising. There was still plenty of noise provided by dogs and a nearby stream but it felt absolutely quiet.  It was so quiet I heard my thoughts echo off the surrounding mountains and harmonising with the beauty of nature.  For a few minutes I escaped all the school work,  all the homesickness and truly felt like someone had closed all the open applications that had slowed me down. 

The next morning we had a quick 20 minutes walk to the nearest town and waited for our Jeeps.  This Jeep ride was not as pleasant as the first. It was going pretty well until we hit kampa falls. This is the big tourist town and because it was a long  weekend the place was packed.  There is another road that dissent go through the town but when there's a long  weekend or holiday the local business men destroy the road so cars can only go through the town, thus generating more business for them.  It took us 2 hours to travel 3 km and it was absolute hell.  We weren't allowed to leave the vehicle and walk the rest of the way so we had to sit there and try amuse ourselves

. 

Isaac being annoyed with having to wait for the Jeep's

The traffic

Typical indian car, looks so much fun

Finally we got back to school at 6 o'clock.  It was such a great trip.  Definitely one of the best things I've done . By the way I wrote this all while waiting for the dentist,  bloody Indian hospitals. Here's a link to the rest of the photo's. I took over 400 so I had to cut down alot https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hekk4au7vh97ez1/AAC_a2-M1IZ0xKXJKEtjCE9Ea?dl=0 . Also there will be no blog next monday cause I'm on activity week.

Stay Well,
Lachy Wild