Day 6: Trek from Khora Thatch (9800 ft) to Zirmi (11000ft)- 6km, 5hr

This trek turned out to be the shortest one in length. The camp in-charge and guides told us that it is 3 km only, to Zirmi. Hence we knew that we were in for long rests and a very long lunch break.

We started at 9 am, in a leisurely manner and immediately on starting, there was a murmur of excitement from the girls who were leading. There was a python on the track but it slithered away quickly. I tried to take a photograph but it turned out to be a shaky out of focus picture of the tail :-(

We carried on in the stop and start manner we were so accustomed to by now. We spent some quality time resting in the meadows in shade and clicking photographs. The trek was uneventful and the lunch break was extraordinarily long. We chatted and shared our experiences. I was almost a generation older than most participants and college life, funny instances etc., had us laughing and enjoying ourselves.

After several short but steep stretches, we reached yet another resting point from where the camp was close by. We reached Zirmi at the allotted time of 3 pm, not tired in the least.

Tent with a view

The peaks surrounding us

Ronak Soni brews some tea

Basu and his younger brother Utkarsh with T shirts proclaiming NO HOPE for JACK DANIELS

The nourishment planned at the camp in the evenings was in stages. Soup followed by tea and snacks and then dinner. As we gained height, dinner time was shifted to an earlier hour and as a result, we got soup, tea and dinner too close together. We had nothing else to do and so we had our mugs and tiffins ready as we waited for the next thing to be served.

Dinner was followed by dumb charades in a tent. The camp leader graciously gave up his candle for us and we enjoyed the acting out of clues as well as the (sometime hilarious) interpretation by others.

Finally it was time to turn in as the next day was to be a longish trek and we were to gain some real altitude to Tila Lotni.