Ranthan Kharak - From Strangers to Buddies & the Night Stars ! - Trek Day 1

Gogina to Namik : ~6.5 KM, ~6 Hours

This five days’ trek of Ranthan Kharak kicked off with a 6.5 KM walk from the village of Gogina to the next quaint Himalayan village called Namik. The trail started with a tempting lagoon and a gurgling river. This river goes by the name - Ramganga. It kept us company for a while.

After A Refreshing 1^st Day. At Namik Campsite.

From Strangers to Buddies :

Right before the trail went into the canopy of the mountains, Rohan made us pick our walking buddies from amongst strangers! I have travelled with MD. I just want to walk with her. My unsocial crooked self protested in silence.

Manpreet picked Manish - the one who just did 25 pushups before the start and had forced us to have Almora sweets the day before. Well he was funny, you got to give him that. MD and I paired up with the two other timidest guys from the same group - Sharnav and Akshay. And this turned out to be the perfect ice breaker! Within just a short distance of a kilometer and a half down to the river side, the whole group started talking to each other. The “rowdy” group didn’t seem that rowdy anymore. If anything, they turned out to be a sensitive sweet bunch of creative artists from various fields!

With Your Own Thoughts...At Ramganga River.

We spent some time by the river, watching, munching, and just being in the moment. We had just made new friends and the excitement of that was visible amongst all the chitter chatter. As we resumed the hike next, the trail suddenly got steeper and prettier.

At the Second Rest Point

A second rest point came by when we arrived at a little bridge over the river. It’s funny how streams bring out the child in us. Without anyone deciding or declaring, we automatically throw our bags away and start some splishy splashy activities.

Walking into the Namik Village...

Camping at Namik :

The rest of the trail continued through gradual climbs amidst a canopy of trees and a soft cosy landscape. It finally opened up to a wide green meadow. This was a bugyal…and not a kharak. I am now well conversed with the difference between a bugyal and a kharak. Whilst bugyal is more of a meadow, a kharak is a wide clearing surrounded by big trees. This bugyal served as our first campsite - Namik.

At Namik Campsite ! ^_^

On our way to the campsite, we crossed the village and got to know about its history, culture, even a few smiling sweet people and their ways of survival. The locals of the village looked very amused as they asked us about ourselves, where we had come from and where we intended to go. They watched us as we watched them, both parties adoring each others’ way of life.

An Old Stone House in the Namik Village

Some of the old houses in this village had beautiful wood carvings on the door and window panels. Blue seemed to be the popular choice of colour.

Wood Carving on the Window Panel At Namik Village.

Rohan found a strange fruit, the seeds of which are apparently being used to make water-proof colour. I saw Sneha (one of the lawyers in the group. We had quite a few!) paint her nails with that seed. I followed suit. That nail colour turned out to be pretty stubborn. The citric juice of a funny looking lemony fruit could finally take it off my nails.

purple seeds making purple nail polish !

Namik was the most beautiful campsite in this whole trek. The wide wavy meadow, open view, big walled mountains at the backdrop and the playfully peeking snowy Dang Thyal peak from behind the clouds every now and then - Ah, perfection!

Another Glimpse of this beautiful Campsite, Namik

In the afternoon, the valley doubled up as our frisbee playing field. Well, I was pretty incompetent in this game. Couldn’t get a proper throw across. It was fun, nonetheless. Rohan and Bhagat bhaiya (one of Indiahikes’ primary support team members) were superb players. So we just made sure we had the right people in our team to win!

There was Cricket too. In action with the local kids.

Whilst having some snacks and tea, we had a introductory session where we had to introduce our 'trek buddy' from the morning to the whole group. Piyush did the most dramatic and captivating introduction for his buddy, Sukrut who had a tremendous weight loss journey to share. The collective talent and quality of the group turned out to be amazing. We had people ranging from creative experts to lawyers to adventure junkies...very diverse.

He had his introduction too. Meet Tyson !

Stargazing :

Good times fly fast! Suddenly, the mountains turned dark. The Sun set. And the same valley turned out to be our portal to the world of stars! Someone dragged the mats out on the open field. We laid flat on our back and traced our fingers against the velvety night sky, along the twinkling light bulbs from years ago. There was the tail of the Scorpion and the arm of the Milky Way and the vain queen, Cassiopeia. However, we also found Orion and Betelgeuse only to realise they weren't really visible. We then went on to find our own constellations of elephants and fish tails and what not! I think it was Piyush, the creative photographer in the group who opened our eyes to these latter ones!

With starry eyes and dreamy smiles, we hit the sleeping bags. The nights weren’t that cold. It was a summer trek after all. I heard a bushy dog bark and the jingling bells tied around the mules’ necks before I dozed off to oblivion.

Until the Next Day...