Dayara to Dodital - 4

Dayara to Dodital - 3

The pass near Darwa Top

As per our original plan, we should progress on the Dodital - Hanuman Chatti leg of our trek today. However, for the last few days, our guides have been hinting that it will not be possible for us to make our way over the 4000m Darwa Pass that lies on the route. The problem they say will not be so much the snow at the pass as the snow on the steep western face of the range that we must descend from the pass. We have already had a taste of this while descending from Dayara Bugyal down western slopes and that was at a 300 m lower elevation. My own enquiries at Manjhi and Dodital convince me that it will be highly risky to attempt the crossing. The last group to cross over had done so nearly three weeks ago and since then there has been a prolonged spell of winter with fresh snowfall every day. J is also reconciled to the idea that we will not get to Hanuman Chatti. 

Kanasar Pass and beyond

Having dropped the idea of crossing the pass, we set out carrying only a few essentials, to check out the pass. The path to the pass follows the stream that is the main feed for Dodital, crossing it several times along the way. We walk along a narrow and steep gorge ploughed by the stream. Water birds flit about the rocks in the stream and I get a lovely picture of a white capped water Redstart in striking black and orange. At some point, we leave the stream and see the first traces of hardened snow on our path that we judiciously skirt. After we have climbed 300 m, the only trees seen are the short buransh (rhododendron) with pink flowers, and bhojpatra (birch) bereft of all leaves. We climb another 400 m, the last part trudging through snowfields, for our first views of the Yamuna watershed.

Kanasar Camp Site below the pass

The pass that my guide says is more correctly referred to as the Kanasar pass, is completely under snow. Patches of green and a few trees mark the Kanasar camping site, some way below. 

I spot a ladybug in the snow – red with black spots on a relentlessly white carpet – and wonder what it is doing here. The heights of Darwa Top are shrouded in white with angry dark clouds for a background. Surveying this snowy wasteland, I am glad that we are not going any further. Back in our tent in Dodital, we have a sumptuous lunch that Sur Veer has prepared. 

The next morning, we start our long march back. We take a couple of breaks for tea, first at Manjhi and then at Dharkot. Dharkot has a single tea stall and nothing else. The tea stall boy arrives after us and quickly pulls out his rations from a tree trunk where he has hidden them. Tea follows in a few minutes. We hear the sounds of a large group climbing towards Dodital. Several khacchars and their handlers arrive. On making inquiries, we are told that a group of Japanese – 4 in number - is on its way.

Bridge over the Dodigad near Bevra. 

Two girls with large ear studs, cropped hair, and wearing shorts arrive. They are surprised when we ask if they are Indians for they are from Mumbai! They are followed by two more girls who collapse on arrival, too tired to take any interest in the conversation. These girls with their large retinue – 7 khacchars and their three handlers, a cook, a guide who is an outsider and his local assistant – have been on the same route as us from Barsu. Their story is that after descending from Dayara at a point known as Dev Kund, they reached Satgadi. Unable to cross the Dodigad there with their Khacchars, they went all the way back on the old logging road and crossed the stream using the pucca bridge near Bevra and then   returned on the regular track to Dodital.

The tea stall boy learnt in Bevra that this group is heading up. He has come to Dharkot just ahead of them in the expectation of some business. We owe our tea to this happy coincidence.

An artisan of Bevra carving Rhododendron wood

 We cover the 14 km to Bevra, the first populated village on this route, in six and a half hours. We stop at a wayside hotel in Bevra that offers food and rooms and even has a proper toilet that can be flushed with water. Dinner ordered and a ‘magie’ consumed to stave off the hunger, I step out to explore Bevra. The village is set in a dramatic location, next to the glacial waters of a stream (the Bevra gad) at the point where the steep and narrow gorge through which it flows opens up, cradling a small valley. The cliffs on either side of Bevra rise vertically. The stream flows down to soon confluence with the stream from Dodital (and beyond) that we crossed earlier to become the Assi Ganga which flows into the Bhagirathi.

A Gujjar man and son with their khachhar

I walk to a wooden bridge over the Bevra Gad. Water birds – Redstarts, Dippers, Thrush - are busy flitting between the rocks on the bed of the stream. The steep almost vertical banks of the stream studded with rocks and greenery offers ideal nesting spots. Birds disappear from sight near the banks only to reappear later.

I return to have my first bath – and that too, in hot water – in a week.

The next morning, after a luxurious toilet (the first time indoors in a week), we take off early towards Sangam Chatti. The walk leads us past fields of mustard and wheat and patches of vegetables. A group of women in colorful dresses is harvesting jowar.

Sur Veer

We stop in the wayside village of Dandalka at a two-story house made mostly of wood. The ground floor houses the animals while our guide and his brother have their rooms on the upper floor. It is a house with a grandstand view of the fields on the gently sloping hillside and the forested hills on the other side of the Assi Ganga. The river itself, cutting a deep gorge through the mountains, is hidden from view. Sur Veer makes us black tea and shows us his son, just a few months old. 

We take a ‘short cut’ – a rapidly descending path - to get to Sangam Chatti quickly. A shared jeep has just the right number of seats to accommodate us and we are in Uttarkashi at 11.45 am. Our bus for Haridwar leaves at 12.30 pm. There is time for a parting drink with Sur Veer and then a quick bite. His brother is a teetotaler and we have already parted with him. With 10 minutes left for the bus to depart, we walk into a dhabha. Sur Veer stands outside keeping the bus in view while I try to establish a speed eating record. J is beginning to enjoy the meal when Sur Veer hurries us out and into the bus just as it begins to pull out. There is no time for a proper goodbye. 

For a report on this trek with day wise progress, please see this link 


Himalayan Trek 5, May 2012