~ Travel, o thee, for it's the best way to learn,
    Don't get lost in the vicious cycle to earn
   For age is nothing but years that burn
   In all the years that you spend accumulating wealth,
  Don't forget the precious gift of health!
   

 "Will you need a guide? " asked Varun, with lackluster eyes that have become accustomed to all kinds of people.
He knew we had just come back from a refreshing fishing tutorial in the backyard and sensed we needed one. We nodded in agreement.
"You must start early, max by 9AM. We'll give you packed lunch". Our nodding continued in harmony as he smiled for the first time.

Next day, our guide arrived on time. Rajeev, an unassuming free soul has been the best guide in all of the treks I've done yet. The trail starts after about a km. from the guest house. My inquisitive soul took over and I got chatty with Rajeev, as my room mates started getting accustomed to walking on the hilly terrain.

The 'danka' system of preventing soil erosion
On the way, I saw rocks placed in a particular formation. Rajeev told me that this system is locally known as danka. The rocks are placed in such manner that they provide resistance to any natural force that can cause trees to get uprooted and soil to wash away.
The beauty of the system is that these rocks are not bound by any material. They are just arranged in a way that the structure becomes rigid.
I saw these structures mostly at the boundary of orchards.

The trail begins

The trek to the Great Himalayan National Park(GNHP) is a 8 km. clear trail till the Darkhali mobile point. In order to get to the entrance of the park, one needs to go further around 500m. downhill.

A dog started accompanying us. We thought it would go away after a while. However, I was amazed to observe that the dog completed the full trek with us. We shared our lunch with the faithful one.

Rajeev, being a local, proved to be a bank of local legends and stories. We discussed why travelers can no more stay in the Malana village, a lady who owns acres of land within GNHP and lives there alone, away from her family.
I also got to know how foreigners spend lot of money to come to GNHP, set up month long camps there and experiment. Allegedly, the park has a wealth of precious stones and medicines modern world is still unaware of. Facts or not, these pieces of information excited us and we started walking with greater enthusiasm.

Initial 4 km. of the trek served as a warm up for our legs that were too reluctant to do their job due to the oh-so-famous inactivity. We were happy to see a refreshment shop and the keeper laid out chairs for us quickly.

Pit stop -1 
We didn't stop much because we were up against time. Also, we had every reason to be wary of rains. Although I'd classify this as a moderate level trek, rains could've made it impossible to proceed. In that case, the possibility of not completing the trek could also surface and, we didn't want to drive 14 hours back carrying the disappointment of leaving the trail unconquered.

Clearing all doubts with long strides, we started walking faster.
Now, the serious forest began the show up. There came instances where we had to do almost everything to carry on. Jump, slide, lower the pace. An important lesson while doing such treks is that when you are doing this with a group of people, the group should walk at the pace of the slowest person.

It was frequently happening that 1 of us, along with the guide was walking fast, whereas I was walking with the slowest member. Two times, this led to losing our way and as a result, the faster guys had to wait for us. The dog was also helpful here as it kept shuttling between the group ahead and us.

As travelers, one must understand that the guides are acclimatized. They can cover big distances in minutes. If you're on a solo trek, you can match your speed with him. But, in group treks, the group must walk at the pace of the slowest person.

As we kept going, the talks became less frequent and the sighs became louder. I relish this time in distance treks. The time when no one utters anything, everyone, like a determined athlete, just keeps going on, head down!

This was the time I could really soak in the jungle. The enigma. The beauty, The soul.
A bespoke waterfall, somewhere within the forest
With walking comes sweat and with sweat comes thirst. Needless to say, we had parched throats itching to get wet.

.... thanks for reading, I'll come back soon with more !!..