Namaste 🙏
It was day 3 of our week long expedition to the inner Himalayas. Our target for that day was to reach Rauli Kholi which is the last campground on the mountain.
A beautiful morning at Bethar Dhar camp-
I woke up around 6:30 AM in the morning and woke my friends up. We needed to get ready for our next adventure.
Sun was rising slowly over our camp and it was a sunny day with no trace of any clouds, perfect for our trek.
But before starting our journey, we had do some important morning things. As there are no toilets at 13000ft above sea level, we had to make one for ourselves. We went to the forest and did our stuff there. Now we were ready for our journey ahead.
We were able to see moon clearly in the clear sky and it was ready to set before the mighty Hanuman Tibba mountain.
The start of another adventure-
We were ready for another day of adventure after a refreshing morning at Bethar Dhar.
We needed to climb this mountain and reach Rauli Kholi. A campsite we were not even able to see from there.
All loaded up, we started walking. There were no trees around this time as we were already above Non Tropic Zone. Now there were only meadows all around.
We could see the Bethar Dhar camp below us and we could also see the same forest we were in earlier that day.
And when we looked upwards, all we saw was lush green meadows and rocky mountains.
Now we were so high in the mountain, we couldn’t even see the Manali town in the valley clearly. Houses were looking like tiny dots.
The sight of high mountains motivated us to keep going. It seemed like we were getting hypnotised by the high mountains that forced us to keep hiking. None of us wanted to stop even after a couple hours of hiking.
A herd of sheep at 14000ft -
When we were not expecting anything or anyone up here at such altitude, we came across a herd of sheep out of a sudden.
Those sheep were looking really well fed and healthy. It might look like there’s nothing to eat for these sheep up here but this isn’t the case. These meadows provide the best nutrition to these sheep.
They were looking at us like we were aliens. They were not used to see a lot of new faces up here on the mountains except the shepherd who own them.
While walking across those sheep, I felt like a nomad. I felt like I was a shepherd and those were my sheep. I was deeply connected to our ancestors and tried to feel how they spent their time without any worries of the modern world. I was jealous of the people of olden days at that time. How peaceful was their life!
The few days of excursion that we do once or twice a year to escape from our busy lives was the normal lives of the olden people. How lucky they were to have such a life in this heaven.
This place was indeed looking like heaven. Crisp cool breeze, warm sunlight, flowers everywhere with sheep eating them and such beautiful views. What else do you want in heaven?
A stream of fresh mountain water-
After walking for a while, and saying goodbye to the mountain sheep, we came across a glacial stream of water.
We were feeling a little thirsty and we found the best water in the world on our way. God was so generous on us.
The water was as crisp it can be. Never have I ever tasted such perfect water before in my life.
Rauli Kholi-
After crossing that stream, we saw first glimpse of Rauli Kholi. Kholi is a local word meaning courtyard. Rauli Kholi indeed looks like a courtyard in between high mountains.
This mountain is sacred as Bhrigu Rishi is believed to have mediated here. That’s why the lake on the top of the mountain is named after Bhrigu Rishi.
While we were hiking, we met some porters from yesterday’s hike. They were on their way back after dropping goods at the Rauli Kholi camp.
We greeted them and they told us that the campsite was quite close now and will only take about 20-25 mins to reach.
We also saw some tents which were pitched over there and it motivated us to walk faster. We were super tired by now and needed some rest.
We reached there at around 1 PM after 3 hours of hike. Now it was time to take some well needed rest. We had our camp reserved there and food was also ready to eat.
We stayed at Rauli Kholi that day. It was a really memorable experience. I’ll write about my experience of staying there in upcoming blog as it’s already getting quite long.
