20th October – Drive from Chopta to Ransi & trek to Upper Vantoli

M.S. Subbulakshmi's divine voice woke us up at 5 AM. Our target for the day was to leave the campsite by 6 AM and reach our destination as soon as possible.

We brushed, changed, and completed almost the full packing with torchlights, as the bulbs in our room wouldn't light up when we flicked the switch. It seems due to the not-so-sunny weather yesterday, the solar panels hadn't charged fully. After we had completed the major part of the packing, the lights came on. This helped us to ensure that we didn't leave behind anything, as searching a dark room with torchlights for any things we may potentially leave behind is quite difficult.

Since it was too early for breakfast, we had tea and bid adieu to Chopta/Baniyakund. Uday drove us safely through a rough terrain for around two hours and reached Ransi village by 9 AM.

The restaurant in which Kanni Swami arranged for breakfast for us was located at a very high spot, overlooking the valley. We could faintly hear a river/brook gurgling several hundred feet below somewhere in the valley.

Everyone had a heavy breakfast of parathas with pickle, followed by hot tea. A full stomach gave us the confidence to start the trek.

Swamy arranged a horse for Sumathi, and Kanni Swami arranged a horse for our luggage. As they were waiting for the horses, Kanni Swami directed us to the place where we had to start the first part of the trek—a descent, and instructed us to proceed. Apparently, there is only this single way starting from Ransi village right up to Madhmaheshwar Mahadev's temple, and we were planning to cover this distance over two days!

It was a steady drop as we started the trek. The surrounding was scenic, and as we started the descent, we could hear the sound of water flowing from the river gradually increasing. The climate was ideal for trekking.

As the sun rose higher and the climate started getting hotter, we started shedding our layers one by one, and by 11:30 AM, we had only a quick-dry T-shirt, sun hats, and dark glasses over our trekking pants. The surroundings gave a lot of scope for nature photography, group photos, and selfies.

 

At one stage, we were crossing a gentle waterfall. This was practically a couple of feet next to the trail path. Swamy ended up doing what most others were thinking about. He had a shorts and towel handy and made the most of the cool waterfall by taking a refreshing bath.

The path was dotted with several messages painted on rocks. Some of these messages encouraged the trekkers to keep going and continue with the trek, some were to discourage trekkers from littering the mountains, and to imbibe a sense of cleanliness. I found a few of them to be witty!

 

We saw several colorful flowers in the small gardens outside some of the homestays. Seeing these flowers gave one a very cheerful feeling.

By 1:30 PM, it started drizzling slightly. With my running nose, I didn't risk getting wet and promptly put on my poncho.

Our trekking party reached Gaundhar village by 1:45 PM. With my running nose getting worse, I preferred a hot tea, while some of us had lemon ade/buransh ade/malda ade. When we started the trek, we were all under the impression that our night stay was arranged at Gaundhar village, but after reaching here, we realized the homestay where we were to spend the night was another couple of kilometers away uphill at a village called Upper Vantoli.

Lunch was also available at Upper Vantoli.

Half an hour later, we reached our homestay and checked into the simple but sturdy rooms. The hot water in the bathroom was inviting, and all of us preferred to have a proper bath before settling down for a late lunch at 3:00 PM.

Vaidy's friend Sahil, who had been following up with Vaidy regarding this trek but who wanted to go solo, met us here, joined us for lunch, stayed with us overnight, and early next morning started his trek towards Mahadev's temple, planning to have darshan and descend tomorrow itself.

After lunch, we did a bit of trek high, for about a couple of hundred meters. This gave us a feel of how tomorrow's path would be. We reached back the homestay for tea and biscuits around 5:00 PM. The climate seemed to favor several specific types of plantation, and citrus seemed to be a very common tree growing here.

Later in the evening, around the dinner table, as we were narrating each other's experiences for the day, Sumathi shared that of the two horses that started the trek with us, one carrying her and the other with all our luggage, the one carrying her was chamathu (obedient or very good in Palghat Tamil), and the other one that was carrying the luggage was a badmash. As per her narration, the badmash one pushed away the luggage from its back and ran away, and the horseman had to run after it to tether it and then load the luggage again.

Seeing me struggle with my running nose, three of my trekking colleagues offered me medicines: Ramesh gave a Dolo 650 for general body pain, Vishagan offered Samahan, an Ayurvedic powder to be mixed in warm water (compactly packed in small sachets) and consumed, and Swamy gave a tablet that would help me get rid of this irritant.

After a wholesome dinner, we retired for the night, and at least I had a nice, unbroken sleep.

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