Dayara Bugyal trek

 Yes we did it!

I took my two little ones on a Himalayan trek and they enjoyed the adventure as much as I do every time I visit. Oh my, what an experience it was! I am back home in Bangalore and still soaking up every moment.

This was not just a trek experience for me, it was so much more than just a journey. I started going on treks to the Himalayas just few years back. As seen in my posts on the two treks I have done so far, Himalayas gives me an immense divine experience. This experience sustains me through out my life. I close my eyes and I can see the huge white and green mountains in me. I wanted my kids to see the huge mountains. So the thought of taking them had been lingering in my mind ever since I did my trek last year and the fact that kids had been asking me to take them to the Himalayas boosted me.

So finally beginning of the year I decided to take the plunge and since I needed a guide and company, I planned to go with Indiahikes (a trek organizing company). They have started family treks during summer and I chose the Dayara Bugyal trek as it seemed like the easiest trek - close to 12,000 feet and roughly 20 km in 4 days. 

Booking the trek was the easiest part, I booked it online. Then came flight booking, hotel booking (for 2 nights till we reach base camp), cab booking from airport to hotel etc. I did all these one after the other trying to get the best rates. Once everything was booked I had to find all the things we needed to take for the trek. I had all the things, but kids needed everything and I did not want to buy anything. So thanks to all my friends/family I borrowed most of the things from them for kids. The list of things needed is kind of huge, but a must. 

I did not think too much about how the trek was going to be as I knew once I reached or once I entered the airport it would all be fine. Another tricky thing was packing as I had to fit 3 people's stuff in one huge trek bag. So finally I took one big trek bag and another small backpack which I checked in and 3 trek day backbacks that each one of us carried as handbags on flight. 

Day 1

We left on a Sunday morning around 9.30 am from home in Bangalore. The flight was at 1.30 pm which was delayed a bit and so we reached Dehradun around 4.30 pm. We took a cab from the airport to the hotel which was roughly 25 km away. I had chosen Grand Legacy Hotel in Dehradun as the pick-up point to the base-camp was from this hotel. It was a decent clean small hotel with good food. We reached the hotel at 6 pm and we checked in. We got a room on the 2nd floor and it was a comfortable one. The first thing we did was remove our shoes and changed to slippers. We had to wear shoes on the flight as they didn't fit in our bags 😇 

We stepped out for a quick fresh air and settled back in the room ready to order dinner and sleep in. There was no proper restaurant in the hotel and so we had to do room service. We ordered dhal tadka, jeera rice and phulkas which tasted very good. After dinner and updating family about our safety I had to repack a bit (the first of the MANY repacking/shuffling of things between bags that happened the next 6 days). We tried reading the novels we all had got (I bought a novel after so many years from the airport and was so excited just to hold it 😝) before hitting the bed. 

Day 2

I woke up at 4 am, took a hot shower (knowing that this luxury wont be there for the next 5-6 days) and had my coffee. Woke kids up around 5 am and we all got ready and checked out of the hotel around 6.15 am. There were 2 tempo travellers and 1 bolero vehicles standing outside the hotel to pick all the Indiahikes families heading to the Dayara Bugyal trek. There was one family of 3 already who were taking the bolero and the driver asked us to sit in the same. We started around 6.45 am from Dehradun, stopped for a paratha and bun maska breakfast and a roti sabji lunch on the way where we met few other familes traveling by tempo traveller. 

First sight of snow!

The kids were quick in making friends and they were already playing like they knew each other since ages. It was a windy road up the mountains and it was roughly a 8-9 hours drive to the base camp, Raithal. Raithal is roughly around 7,000 feet. The base camp had big tents with 12 bunker beds in each to be shared. After a brief introduction to the base camp, our trek leader/guides and the program for the day, we kept our bags in the respective tents already chosen by the children. 

We were given lime juice before collecting our offloading bags for the next day. Later on we had to submit the documents/ids and get our vitals checked while having tea and snacks. After that I had a lot of repacking to do to shuffle things around into different bags -  (1)  offloading bag which would be carried by the mule, (2) 3 day back packs that me and kids had to carry while trekking, (3) bags to be left behind at the cloakroom in the base camp. 

The weather had become very cold by dinner time and we were in layers of warm clothes. After a good dinner we took sometime to wash our boxes/glasses. They usually keep one bucket of water for all the families to wash. We have to transfer a small mug of water from the bucket to another small mug that is hung at a height with holes at the bottom. This is done to use minimal water.  Saw dust is used mainly to clean the dirt on the vessels. Kids mastered this way of cleaning  very quickly. 

We finally headed to the tents to sleep. There were a lot of dogs on the site to keep us company all night.

Day 3

I woke up around 5 am, got ready in the shivering cold and got kids ready. It was super cold to touch the water just to brush. We had hot black tea, hot water and got our bags down. Had to keep the offloading bag in a particular area. 

After having breakfast and a quick warm up session we left the base camp and started our trek. Day one was a 6 km trek to a place called Gui which is located around 9,500 feet. It was a beautiful trek in the forest with lot of oak trees and gorgeous red and dark pink Rhododendron flowers. We took a long break in between where we had our trail snacks that we had been given. It was a beautiful place where adults relaxed/took funny pictures while the children climbed few big rocks and played.

First sighting of the beautiful Rhododendron flowers

Again there was a burst of red and dark pink just before entering Gui and it was a gorgeous sight! The forest was filled with Rhododendron flowers. 

The coin tree
A sacred wish-fullfilling tree that has a story 

We reached the campsite at Gui around 2 - 2.30 pm. After few cooling-down exercises and having lime juice we chose our tents and got ready for lunch. After lunch all the adults rested for a while in the tent. I laid down on the grass outside looking at the mountains, while all the kids walked and explored the area for almost 2 hours. 

Our tent for the night

After tea and snacks some of us went up on a small hill where we had a 360 degree view of snow cap mountains. We also went near a small lake that had lot of bones lying near it.  It got dark on our way back to the campsite. We had hot dinner at the bigger tent, washed our vessels and got ready to wind down. Using toilet at night was a bit of a challenge as it used to be pitch dark and we had to walk a bit. Though we had our head torches, kids were cold and scared. But it was a part of the trekking experience and they eventually got used to it (well, there was no other choice). The view above in the dark was incredible with thousands of stars shining in the black sky!

Day 4

I woke up around 5.30 am and got ready. As it was a relaxed day, Indiahikes had arranged a DIY day, meaning 'do it yourself' trek. After black tea/hotwater and breakfast, we were divided into groups. Each one could volunteer to be a trek leader/guide/sweeper/warm up teacher/cool down teacher/water reminder person etc. Both my kids were in a different group. It was a fun day! 

We stopped in between to take pictures and just relax. We reached Chilapada around 1.30 pm after trekking for 2 km and reached an altitude of around 10,500 feet. The best part of the campsite was that it had received snowfall few days back and as a result there was a hillock covered with snow nearby.  After having juice and lunch, kids became inseparable from the snow mountain. Few of us adults also joined them. It was a joy to see the kids play. A and V were the last ones to get off the snow after playing for 2 hours. We made snowman, had snow ball throws, snow slides and snow falls 😁

After snow-time, it was cold-time! After all the fun, kids changed into warm clothes, but their shoes, gloves and many other clothes were wet.  They were not at all happy to wear wet shoes but they didn't have a choice. We went up to the sunset point - where we had an amazing 360 degree view of mountains and snow and it was so peaceful to just sit and watch the surroundings. 

After a while we came down and the kids made tomato soup with the trek leader Sanchana. Kids used to  have a great time everyday with everyone and our trek leader Sanchana and the guides Rithik and Vinay were very sweet and accomodative. 

After soup and an early dinner, we were told to change and keep everything ready the same night as we had to leave the camp at 6 am sharp for the summit climb the next day. It was the coldest night of the trek and kids were shivering while sleeping. The night view of the stars in the sky was again wonderful. I made them sleep and spent sometime packing/shuffling things between bags as we had a little more to carry the next day as it was going to be a longer day.

Day 5

I woke up around 4 am and got ready. We had to eat a light breakfast at 5.30 am and carry a packed lunch for the day. We started from the camp around 6 am. 

Sun rise

When we started it was very cold and so we all had our padded thick jacket and fleece jacket inside. Slowly all the layers came out and I was carrying all the jackets of 3 people 😁  It was a beautiful trek and we walked watching the sun falling on the snow capped mountains. The view was amazing through out. 

Watching sunrise while walking

As we walked higher up, there was more and more snow on the side. We kept climbing up and up with gorgeous views pulling us further up. 

We finally reached the summit which was close to 12,000 feet! 

We stayed here for more than 2 hours all the while playing and sliding in the white fresh snow with stunning surroundings. I was lying down on the snow till I couldn't bear the cold. A and V had an amazing time playing and sliding and rolling in the snow. 

Sliding

After one of the best times of our lives, we had to start getting down. Before that we took pictures and had a quick bite of our lunch. The descent was equally beautiful and we loved walking down admiring the gorgeous views. 

We stopped at the shepherd's hut for hot tea and snacks of bun maska/bun omelette on our day down.

After a few more hours of descent we reached Nayata which is at 9,000 feet where we planned to stay for the night. 

It was the longest day of the trek where we covered around 9+ km. After cooling down exercises, we had juice and relaxed for sometime. I laid down on the grass while kids played. 

We had tea and snacks sitting outside. It had started getting cloudy and we could hear the thunder. I had the luxury to have hot coffee sitting in a friend's tent while chatting. 

Once it started raining it was time to meet up at the big tent where we all  shared our experiences of the trek. It was soon dinner time but kids were too tired to eat, so after a quick bite we retired to our tents getting a quick peek into the dark sky filled with stars! Kids crashed as soon as I got their sleeping bags and hygiene warm liners out. I also slept soon.

Spot the stars 😛

Day 6

I was awakened by a variety of melodious birds sound around 4 am. It was amazing. I stepped out of the tent around 5 am and freshened up. I sat out sipping black tea and watching the sun peep out slowly from behind the mountains. I packed up and got ready before having hot yummy breakfast.

Moon

We started our descent from Nayata to Raithal which was a 4 km journey. The path was in the forest filled with greenary and Rhododendron flowers. We took short breaks and one long break in between. The view throughout was stunning and I thoroughly enjoyed every moment. Finally we reached the base camp - Raithal around 1.30-2 pm. 

Yaay we did it!!!!! We were 8 families with 24 people who traveled together for 5-6 days. Amazing company, new friendships, helpful and thoughtful and the BESTEST kids - all made it a perfect trek experience for all of us ❤😍 Thank you everyone!

The first thing we 3 did when we reached our tent was removing the shoes! And then I had to get all the bags from down, our tents being at the highest level in the camp. 

We had lemon juice and headed down to have our lunch. After lunch, kids went to a nearby homestay where their friend's grandparents were staying. So thanks to our new friends who took all the kids to the homestay, I literally sat in front of the tent looking at the huge mountains for 2 hours! I didnot go inside the tent till it got dark 😋 I packed everything outside and kept all the bags ready for the next day. Large clouds had started closing in and we could hear thunder and lightning in the sky. Kids came back and it started raining. We had snacks and tea before heading out in the rain for our Raithal village walk. 

Raithal is a small quaint village and I loved our 2 hour walk in the village. We stopped and explored a 500 year old huge house. We continued the walk and visited Durga Ma temple and later found out that Shiva temple was also right behind. Then we stopped at a sweet lady's house and asked for water as kids refused to move ahead without drinking water! It was soon dark and we were forced to head back towards the camp site. We had a quick dinner and retired to the tents. Kids were exhausted and were waiting to sleep. We also wrapped up and slept.

The 500 year old house

Staircase inside the house

Day 7

We had requested to leave early around 6 am from Raithal so that we could reach Dehradun by lunch. So we started from the base camp around 6.15 am in a bolero saying bye to the mountains. 

Our journey back was smooth. We stopped for breakfast after 2-3 hours and had a heavy breakfast. The route was very scenic with lot of pine trees and many others. We stopped to collect few pine cones that we wanted to carry back home 😀 We reached Grand Legacy Hotel in Dehradun around 2.30 pm.  

Pine trees

I turned my phone on and got back in touch with reality! After ordering lunch we hit the shower one by one and it seemed like the best hot water bath ever 😂😂 Well, that is the feeling after every trek, hehe!

We had a great relaxed evening at the hotel. We finally got to read the novels we had taken 😛 After a quick soup and salad for dinner, kids could not keep their eyes open and they fell asleep. I started packing/repacking everything while listening to music as I had to keep all the bags ready to fly/check-in. And then I had the luxury to read my novel till late in the night.

Day 8

And it was Sunday, the last day of our adventure. I woke up around 5.30 am without an alarm, freshened up and sat near the window sipping my coffee. 

Kids also woke up early. We lazed around a bit and then had our breakfast. We got ready and stepped out with our friends to a nearby place. We took an auto and went to Paltan Bazaar which was around 15 minutes away from the hotel. We walked around for one hour and did some small shopping. We took an auto back to the hotel around 12.30 pm. 

We got a late check out and so we quickly grabbed something to eat and checked-out around 1.20 pm. The cab I had booked came sharp at 1.30 pm and we left for the airport alongwith our friends. It was an hour long drive to the airport. 

We left the Dehradun airport at 4.30 pm and landed in Bangalore at 7.30 pm. 

To summarize, the 8 days were blissful! It was perfect!

It was exactly like life 😇 

It was filled with challenges, some small, some big, but still it was amazing! There was a time when I had to pop 3 tablets at a time, but I just did it knowing that I would be fine and not freaking out. There were times when kids wouldn't listen, when they would cry, but we managed. 

During the last leg of the journey while returning from the mountains to the hotel I felt that life was made up of lot of broken pieces but all those broken pieces could be put together to make a beautiful pattern.

I am glad I was able to take my little ones on this journey! I feel blessed that we 3 could do this 🙏🙏🙏

Thanks to indiahikes for making this trek possible for us!

Hoping to do more treks with family and friends!

 

Sliding