4 of us started our journey from Delhi on friday night. There is only one direct bus that plies between Delhi and Uttarkashi. It leaves Delhi ISBT at 9 pm and has no certain arrival time as the conductor will also tell you. We got into it. The tyre got punctured twice but we still managed to reach at Uttarkashi at around 11 am. Uttarkashi, most importantly, the last point where you will find an ATM. After having our lunch, we hired a taxi to Barsu village which is appox 40 kms from Uttarkashi and is the base for Dayara trek.
There are many travel agencies in Uttarkashi which provide travel guides and porters but somebody had suggested us that it would be better if we hire local villagers from Barsu as they would be cost effective.
Barsu Village is the last point of established habilitation for next 3 days. But this village is more rich than you would expect it to be at such an adverse location. As far as you see cultivated land on the surrounding mountains, they are covered with potatoes and cabbage right now. Rajmah and Wheat are the major crops for the winters. The Rajmah that grow here are sold at 90/Kg, the Offseason price!There is GMVN office and a resort where you can hire can all necessay accessories. The resort guy called up Vipin who would be our tour guide for next 3 days. He suggested to hire a porter too as we were almost full with luggage. So he called one of his friends Lokesh. Both of them were nice, and hilarious too! It was already 5 pm . By the time we got all arranged it had already started drizzling as it never takes too long in the hills.
We left for our first destination Barsu Ghera. As per Vipin we had to take a shortcut as it was already getting too dark and it would be difficult to reach otherwise. A trek normally starts with easy trails to acclimatize, but this one was way too steep. It was thick jungle throughout with a few small springs and waterfalls on the way.
As we kept on attaining height we kept getting better and better views of the Himalayas behind us. the day was nearing a sunset and the sunset glare kept making the view more astonishing.
It was getting more and more steep as we approached our destination. But no one was ready to give up, except me . :P Kicking each others ass and sharing each others' load we reached our camp site for the night. It was a nice place covered with trees on 3 sides and facing the mighty himalayas on the other. There was a gujjar hut nearby where we had milk and cooked khichdi.
Gujjars is a nomadic tribe which travels with its cattle . These migrate to higher altitudes during rainy and summers seasons as hills offer abundant grass in these huge meadows. Milk is the most valuable commodity for them which i realised when i turned my glass upside down after drinking, with a few drops left in it. An elder member of the family came upto me and told me not to do so.
