Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Trekking from Barsu (Bhatwari) to Dyara Bugyal, Uttarkashi | Trekking Tales

Hi, I am here to tell you a short trek story.
This was around October of 2009 when I experienced this trek from Barsu to Dyara Bugyal with Sachin my batch-mate from college. He is a graduate in Mechanical Engineering and before leaving Barsu he wanted to trek up to the heights of the mountains.

Location Details of Dyara-Bugyal


The Barsu village was at a road distance of 9 km from Bhatwari and to reach the top mountains of Dyara Bugyal this was another 9 km vertical trek on foot. Barsu is a beautiful village in the mountains of Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand. Bhatwari is at a distance of 35km from Uttarkashi.
Barsu village/camp is a very beautiful village and a scenic spot and a lake inside the village is like a toast on the burger.
This was the only reason that I felt happy sometimes to stay in this village. Sachin, Dipanjan, and Vidya Sagar Bodh, we all are batch-mates from college and we stayed here in our early days with Patel Engg. Ltd.


  • Planning

My friends were not much happy because frequently there was the problem of water and electricity cuts. I was happy for the natural beauty of the place, of course, I also wanted the electricity and water but people pay to go to such places and it was provided free of cost to us by our company of work i.e. "Patel Engg. Ltd.".   Shortly after his joining the company, Sachin decided to leave the company because he wanted to pursue further studies.

Dyara Bugyal - Uttarkashi -courtesy - uttarkashitourism.com
Me already wanting to see and feel the Dyara Bugyal heights perhaps, more than Sachin wanted, we both decided a Sunday to be the day of our trek.

In the Jungle on a 70-degree sloped Mountain

Getting a guide was an initial idea which was disposed of due to my changeable mood. We started to walk up from the Barsu in the morning of Sunday which was shining with the first rays of the Sun in its entire visible region.
After asking a villager we came up to know that it is a 9 km and almost vertical trek, also he told that there is a shop on the top where we could get water and something to eat so, we didn't bother to bring the water bottles even. This was stupid specifically for Sachin because I am a mountain boy and I have such experiences but he is from planes.

Sachin looked about 70kg with a height of about 5'7" and I was as usual 5'5" and 55 -60kg(fluctuating) so, I think we both were almost fit Sachin being a little overweight and me a little under-weight right?
  We kept walking on vertical steps, through the Jungle with high trees of Deodar.


Not afraid of the Gaddi (shephard) Dogs!!??
On the base of those sky-touching Deodar trees, we reached a hut where no person was available to provide us water. Only two jungle Dogs were sitting firmly on the slope of the ground outside the huts. Being strangers in their palace, of course, I got afraid. What if they started "bhaaow!bhaow!" and one of them biting my leg and another one Sachin's ass? (I know I am cruel..:d).
They were matured enough to do that. They were reluctant to turn their heads towards us. I think at that time Sachin's balls were in his throat which was clear from his talk and honestly mine also.

We inquired the insides of the hut but, found none. The ground outside was filled with the short green grass and humid air on its top. We kept on walking and finally, we reached a spot which seemed to have an area of two football fields(tilted at an angle of about 40 degrees with horizontal), filled with flowers and grass which gave us the feeling of walking on a mattress.


Sachin makes a short video

 Sachin put his camera on and he recorded himself and me on the camera. At the top end of this grassland, we found a pond and a number of buffaloes with ringing bells on their necks, which echoed the whole place. It was a soothing sound and for a minute I was imagining myself as the guide (Gujjar). Sachin demanded to go back from this spot, maybe he was tired and hungry. Somehow, I don't have any recorded video now to show to you. 

Whistles and the Water

  I tried to change his mind to accompany me and then finally I asked him to stay at the same place till I come back from the Dyara Bugyal which, looked like only half an hour distant from the spot. He agreed and I went on alone. He started whistling as I was at small heights and I responded back.
This was for encouraging me. The path was totally jungle but, it was asses-sable and traceable.

 I reached the top and found some people living up there who, in Himachal Pradesh is locally known as "Gujjar". Basically, Gujjars are the people who raise and trade domestic animals such as, Buffaloes, cattle, and sheep, etc. This was a perfect place for them in the summer and they had to move to the planes in the winter because there is nothing to eat for the animals except snow.

I drank a glass of water offered by a lady which, told me about the shop on the other side of the mountain.

Finally what a Beautiful Scenic spot

I tried my best to figure out the hut/shop which, the lady pointed to be on the other side of the mountain but I got lost on those planes on top of the mountain. Trees were not the hindrance but it was the planes which has 360 degrees directions to go but the distance was large on all the sides. For instance, I forgot about the shop and hunger.
The reason was a variety of colorful flowers which were endless in counts and were spreading throughout the plane. First of all, such a large plane on top of a mountain was itself a surprise for me and then there was this short grass which gave a feeling of walking on the mattress. I was at an altitude of 3035m from MSL.
A man was sleeping inside and being tired and hungry me, it was tiring to call up him loudly.  The Sun was on top so, there were chances of getting sunburns on my face. Finally, after 5 minutes of calling he appeared and told me that there is an arrangement of the water, tea, and biscuit only. I agreed to have water and biscuits. I took 5 packets of the biscuits(Parle-G) and ate two of them.
 I was told that there is a trek from this place to Gangotri so, I tried to travel on my eyesight to the farthest tops of the nearby mountains hoping that I would find the trek but I think a guide was needed for that.

Lost and Found

If the arrangements were full, I could have stayed there in a tent or camp but, I had to go back to Sachin with the biscuit packets and I had no tent arrangements either. I descended back to the same path and after a time of about 45 minutes I was at the same grassland filled with buffaloes but, Sachin was absent.
I searched almost all corners of the place but he was not there. I could not imagine anything because I was skeptical that he could dare go back alone. Maybe I underestimated his courage with dogs because later he told me the story of him befriending those dogs on his way back.
I reached Barsu huts at around 4:00PM. Vidya and Dipanjan were in there, and after searching every corner of our small rooms, I asked for Sachin.

They told me that he was with me and had not come back. I felt terrible, I told them the story but they seemed less bothered maybe because they were more confident about Sachin than I was. There was a 'dham' (an occasional feast) organized by villagers at Barsu and Sachin enjoyed it till 6:00PM. He told me when he showed up.

Thanks for your kind visit!

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