Day 4: Tadapani to Dobato

Day 4: 11 Oct Sat (Tadapani to Dobato)

Morning Ritual

Woke up early and sat outside the hotel to see the sunrise. The same mountains - Annapurna & Macchu Puchhare - from a different angle. Beautiful!

Bottles-Up Warmup Game

Had breakfast & was ready to trek. This time everyone was ready on time. We did a fun game for warm-up - ‘Bottles-up’. We stood in a line with a bottle b/w each pair. Praveen shouts knees, ankles, hop etc. When he says bottles, we should grab the bottle. Whoever grabs it get the point.

Nature Walk with Praveen

We started hiking - the trail was thru rhododendron forest.

Praveen gave a nature talk about the rhododendron:

At lower elevation they are trees
As we go up, they become shorter

Flora Lessons

3 types of oaks - green, brown and silver
Lichen - a mix of fungi and algae

Ponies on the Trail

We continued to climb - beautiful forest - full of rhododendron trees and moss.

Saw two ponies walking down towards us. One had a young boy riding it & the other was just running down!

Lunch with Crushes Talk

Reached the lunch place by noon - beautiful view of the mountains. We had just tea and snacks here.

Sat around the table and talked about different crushes during college 😄

The Long Climb

Reached lunch place by 2:30, had daal bhat.

Continued to climb - more steps and this time along the edge of mountain, aka ledge.

Holy Site

Saw a holy site where people give offerings to the deity - anything that they carry - not money - any leaf, flower, anything.

”We’re Almost There” (for an hour!)

Continued the climb, more steps, crossed the river/stream at many places.

Pratibha in front, me, George, Simon. Hotel Mount Lucky, Dobato is our destination.

Asmer kept telling we are almost there - for almost an hour. There was a board that said Dobato 5 min - and it took another 30 min for us to reach there!

Finally we reached our tea house at 4:30pm.

Freezing Night

It started getting cold quickly, so we went inside the main hall and waited for others. Deepu reached 6th or 7th - which was a great improvement compared to yesterday when he was last & struggling.

Travel Tales

Pratibha talked about her travel to many places. Post-covid routine has given her more flexibility to travel. Next she is going to Rishikesh.

The Cold Room

The night was very cold - we got a room next to the washroom - wooden walls painted white & blue, thin blanket… We had to wear balaclava, beanie, thermal pant and top, multiple layers.

Water was freezing cold. Tried to use the soap sheet and it became sticky - wouldn’t lather. Had a tough time washing it off.

Finally fell asleep.

Stay

Hotel Mount Lucky, Dobato

Tomorrow: The trek to Chhistibang (some went to Mulde View Point at dawn!)