Bhuntar to Kasol

>> On the bus top!!!

The bus journey from Bhuntar to Kasol was a very memorable one. Kashyapa, Guru, Lakshmi and myself decided to travel on top. It was not very comfortable up there, but we could get a very good view of everything around. Even though we were initially troubled by the sun, it was not a problem once the bus started moving. U see, we were not so much bothered about getting tanned :)

Bhuntar is at the confluence of the rivers Beas (Vyas) and Parvati. As the bus crossed the bridge over the rivers, we people travelling on top of the bus realized that such a good view was impossible from inside the bus.

>> The confluence of Beas and Parvati @ Bhuntar

The road ahead was narrow, steep at places and curvaceous. At every turn, the scenery changed and gave way to something new. We would gaze at houses built at the edge of a mountain and wonder as to how people could live there. A very amazing thing was that even such house had electricity connection. We were constantly followed by electric wires thruough out the journey.

>> The ravenous journey

Lakshmi and Guru had not seen snow clad mountains before. Lakshmi was impatiently waiting for the snow covered peaks to show up. After about half an hour or so, the bus took a sharp right turn and the snow covered peak of a far off mountain granted us vision. Lakshmi shouted in excitement. There were sounds from inside the bus as well. TC, could not bear to sit inside any longer. He was promptly followed by the rest in due course of time. As the bus moved deeper and deeper into the mountains, the feeling of actually being in the Himalayas sank into us.

Tholpi, who was the last to come to the top didnt find too much space to accomodate himself and had to literally lie down at the front. At every turn and every brake, his bums got a massage. By the time we reached our destinatio, all of us had a stiff back and aching bums :)

We reached Kasol by around 2:00. The bus stops right in front of the base camp. After travelling continuously for 3 days, we were finally there!!!

Sumanth