A challenging trek of Manikaran in Himachal Pradesh

By :- Hans Damen and Kenny Hor (Australia)

14th April - Delhi - Manikaran
I and my friend Kenny, who is also doing his master course in Australia with me, started our sojourn for Manikaran from Delhi. Trekking in the Indian Himalaya was just fabulous, we took a route through Manikaran over the Pin Parvati Pass, and into the Spiti Valley.

From New Delhi we boarded a deluxe bus to Kullu, the bus trip was quite a long one with few halts. We stopped briefly for food break at Mandi and later on for tea, Kenny also did some woolen shopping from the local market there. After reaching Bunther, at Kullu airport town we took a bus for Manikaran, it took us almost 2 to 2and a half hrs to reach Manikaran. We stayed at Shivalik hotel for night, it was reasonable a comfortable and cheep accommodation.

15th April - Manikaran - Pulga
Morning was quite relaxing, we visited the hot spring located near the holy shrines of 'Sikh' community prevailing in India. The spring was pretty warm, I also enjoyed a dip into the holy pond, here I would like to mention that the area was blessed with many hot springs, hot enough to cook your meals kept in a muslin sack- where bathing was strictly prohibited.

We started our journey to Pulga, the trail followed through the forest with some steep shortcuts. The waterfalls in the way were incredible, running into river tributaries, the valley was rather cramped with very steep hills on both sides giving way to the snow capped mountains.

At Pulga I was spellbound to see many foreigners like us in the valley. The food was not at all a problem, as there were lot of western restaurants serving Italian cafe, croissant bakery and every thing at your demand. I had grilled sandwich with baked fish one of my favorites. We stayed at Krishna Guesthouse for the night, it was absolutely a sound sleep night, may be tiredness of whole day.

16th April: Pulga - Kheer Ganga
Morning we had a quick breakfast of corn flakes in milk and cheese sandwich, and also had a hot shower bath, God knows when we would get next leisure of hot bath. From Pula -2100m we progressed to Kheer Ganga- 2850m, the trek leaded to the river down and again mounting up the opposite bank. We crossed many small villages dotted with houses of slant wooden roofs. We also encounter a group of Indians pilgrims on way, one thing I learned from those devotees of God was, that you have to fold your hands to greet some one and say 'Nameste'. It took us almost 6 hours to reach Kheer Ganga. There we setup our tents near the hot springs, Kenny was much willing to go for a hot bath in the spring, whereas I was much relaxed in my tent house enjoying a can of hot soup.

17th April: Kheer Ganga - Thakur Kuan
Morning we started our trip to Thakur Kuan- 3400m via Thanda Boj, the journey was very long, we covered the entire distance in 10 hours giving halt for refreshing. Previously it was told to us that we could cover this distance in a span of 10 to 12 hours. The path was difficult, at many times the crossing of streams became impossible as they were over-brimmed and quite rough, at one point it seemed.....now gone, luckily Kenny got hold me tight and saved me to reach mighty heaven.

Over the Parvati River we had breathtaking experience, the only way to cross the rough stream was in a basket suspended on a steel wire. Whoop! What an adventure- one person at a time, many places the cage was bashing the water......what a thrill. I went first and then pulled Kenny and others across. The valley was brimming with mushrooms and wild strawberries, along the trail that really slow down our progress to Thakur Kuan as we got busy plucking some of them.

18th April: Thakur Kuan - Pandu Pul near Mantalai
From Thakur Kuan we forwarded towards Pandu Pul, the trial was extremely challenging. A rock bridge over the river was covered by a huge rock right at the mid way of the river on both the sides blocking the way. It required climbing up the mountain with the support of your all four limbs and then descending down same way, a little carelessness would lead you down into the rushing waters of Parvati River. During all this trial I saw my cap flying straight into the deep waters. Seeing us, the British group following us gathered the courage of crossing this frightening trial. There were many stream crossing in the way less dangerous then the previous one but definitely took lot of time. Many a times I slipped in to the water giving Kenny a cracking laugh.

Little ahead of us was a Swiss group with a caravan of 4 Swiss nationalist, along with a guide, a cook, and 3 or 4 porters! At the resting point we joined them, they offered us with some caned juices and chocolates, they had the privilege of porters who could carry lot of stored items. Night already approached as we reached Mantalai -4000m, our defined destination, meanwhile our British friend also joined us whom we met in the way. The night was a fun, we had a bonfire and well exchange of folk songs our native countries. We were there for two full days, enjoying the rushing streams, climbing up the mountains, fishing and what not.

21st April: Mantalai to Thakur Kuan
After relaxing for 2 days we retreated towards Thakur Kuan. In almost 3 hours we reached Thakur Kuan crossing Pandu Pul. We spent some time there at Thakur Kuan then started our mission to cross the Parvati River through the wire bridge. After a stretch of an hour we set up our camps near the river for the night.

22nd April: to Kheer Ganga
Morning was quite refreshing, I got up early whereas Kenny was still asleep. We started for our Kheer Ganga trial, my only worry was our food stuff that was about to finish as Kenny reluctantly eating the bar of chocolates now and then without giving any thought. By crossing another wire bridge, many small river streams we finally reached our destination in almost 3 hours. To our surprise the sight was abound with many Indians and foreigners, enjoying mingling with each other. There I met Kiran a sweet Indian girl who was trekking with her college troop, Kenny was absolutely flipped over her.......I said him "hold on man this is India".

23rd April: Kheer Ganga - Pulga - Manikaran
We left for Manikaran, a long and tedious trial, that took us almost 5 hrs to get to Manikaran, after many days we could sight a city, on our way back the whole terrain had changed in such a way that we were not able to recognize the routes and got confused at many times.
At last we were in Manikaran, we had a typical Indian cuisine at one of the restaurant of 'Roti' and some 'potato veg', after our meals we took a tourist cab to Bhunter, with lot of beverages for our journey and some fruits. The cool chilled beer was really refreshing. From Bhunter we boarded a luxury deluxe bus a convenient night bus for Delhi, but to our surprise it was all full rather over crowded, but we both some how managed to get a seat and slept hard all night not willing to have any thing in between. Our weary eyes opened at Delhi bus terminal early morning. The best thing of the entire trip was..... I loosed much of my extra weight what I was dying to do from long but always found some or the other excuse.......this time there was no excuise.