Ghuni to Semkherk

We woke up early at 4am and after putting on lot of warm clothes we came out of the tent. It was a chilly morning. By the time we got fresh and ready for the day, the breakfast was ready. While having breakfast, I saw that Sandeep was talking with John and they were discussing about lot of topics. I was also listening quietly to their conversation. I always like and admire this style of Sandeep and have always wanted myself to talk to Sandeep on all those topics.

We started on our trail at 8:30. We were now on the famous Curzon trail. In the beginning, the climb was much tougher than the previous day. When we took our first rest, we could see the peaks of Nanda Ghunti, Bander Punch, Chukhaba and Nilkantha.







On the way, we saw a flock of sheep. Suddenly we saw one of the sheep fall down from a rock. Later we found that it had broken its vertebrae. The shepherds decided to kill the sheep and cook it. Arvind also asked him for a leg portion, so that for dinner our cook could prepare some mutton.


We had our first glimpse of the mighty Trishul peaks as well.



From this point we started descending. The destination today was the Semkherk meadow via the Chechni Vinayak top. Kuari pass is visible distinctly from Chechni Vinayak. Chechni Vinayak also separates the Nandakini valley and the PanaGhuti valley. We had lunch around noon at the Chechni Vinayak. After lunch we started descending down again. The trail was through thick forest of Oak. We thought that descending is always a little more difficult than ascending as the rock and soil was quite loose and we were all the time worried about not twisting our ankle.
We had to pass through few waterfalls and streams and got our shoes and socks wet. It is quite irritating if you have to trek in wet socks.


We reached the campsite at Semkherk at a height of 2400mts at around 3 pm. It was quite a tiring walk and we were quite pleased to be at the campsite. Sandeep thinks the Semkherk campsite was the best of all campsites. From the campsite the two of the Trishul peaks were clearly visible.


We had a campfire today and talked to the mules m

en over dinner next to the fire. Had fun listening to their stories and the some of the beliefs these people have.