Off The Grid in India: Sleeping & Cooking in a Cave, Scramble to the Summit

This picture is taken from the location where the cave is looking up to the summit of the Indrahar pass. It looks close but it is a steep and super challenging climb up. I took this picture the day before - when we arrived to set up camp at the cave. Our plan was to wake up around 3am, make a quick meal, and scramble to the summit before sunrise....
The cave was the warmest night's sleep I'd had since arriving in India. Here are the two lovely English folks getting ready to sleep in the cave.

Here is our cook, Gulab preparing some hot chai and dinner in the cave:

And here is dinner: chapati with vegetable curry

The next  morning we woke around 4 am an started the scramble to the summit. It was really hard for me. The sun came up and I had not yet reached the summit, I was close but slowing down significantly. Breathing became hard and it felt like each leg up was 200 pounds. Finally, we all made it to the summit of Indrahar pass and when you reach the top you see the beginning of the Himalayan range...

At the pass we were at 5000 meters. At first you feel warm and start removing all your layers, then you feel bone chilling cold. Breathing is still easy until you laugh - then you are really gasping for air. After about 45 minutes, we started to feel light headed and began our descent. Here I am at top with our guide, Papaji!

A few days later I would continue toward this Himalayan range...

Off the Grid In India: Altitude Climbing & Cooking

The mountain in the background, on the right hand side, is the Indrahar Pass. That is where we are headed. I've stayed two night in Dharamsala. I met two awesome people from Kenya and two from England and we've decided to go on a climbing/camping adventure to the Indrahar pass. I don't have any trekking experience of this level and I'll soon discover that it is much harder than it looks. So hard actually that just before reaching the pass, about 50 meters from the mountain top, I'd start to cry because it is so hard, cold, painful. I'd pull it together and make it to the top but climbing mountains is a very humbling experience. If you look closely in the picture above, I'm with a backpack with all my gear turning the corner. Before leaving for this adventure we hired a cook and a guide to come with us. The mountains are ruthless and a lot of people get hurt trying to do it on their own. Our cook, Gulab was incredible. In the freezing cold and pitch dark elements he would prepare a warm meal. We climed to a certain altitude each day. Our first evening Gulab prepared the heart warming meal below: Clockwise from the spoons we have, papadams, vegetable curry, cucumber with cayenne, rice and dal.

Here is a visitor that joined us for the meal...these hard core mountain goats are all over the place!

The hire altitude we climbed the longer we could see the fog lingering up to us. It's remarkable to be hiking, literally, above the clouds. You can watch them slowly glide up to you - it usually takes about 2-3 hours once you are 4500 meters. After day three of hiking up to the Indrahar pass, we camped out in a cave and hung our clothes to dry as the fog sneaked up on us - then it cold really cold.

From 4500 meters, Gulab would prepare the best plate of vegetable pakoras I've ever had:

with the best view I've ever had....

The hike and days and nights continue - here is a pic of some of our crew. That's me, with the white shirt, heavy backpack, looking up.

Off the Grid in India

I wasn't sure how to begin writing and sharing about pictures about India. India, for me, was such an incredible place. I loved India immensely. And, more than anywhere else I've been - I want to return. In fact, I would like to find a way to go every year for as long as I live. This trip that I recently returned from was two and half months in the North of India and I still feel like I barely scratched the surface. I didn't have a plan - other than to travel with an open mind and heart and to go North. I didn't know how far North or where in the North I just knew I wanted to be in the mountains. So I arrived in Delhi and immediately left. I guess I also knew I didn't want to be in any large cities. I spent 15 minutes in Delhi and that was at a bus station making a transfer. I will return to India and there will be opportunities to visit Delhi, but not on this trip. The stories are endless and still unraveling themselves to me. On this blog, I'll share snippets that have some food involved but, if your interested in hearing more or sharing your own stories of India, maybe one day we'll meet and talk and person. For now - here I go...

Upon arriving at New Delhi airport, I high tailed it to the bus station and hopped on a bus headed north. A nice young man sat next to me named Anu (he is in the one with the bright smile, in the front, in the picture above). It turned out he was going North too - to a small town - to visit his family. He invited me along and I joined. So after a 12 hour bus ride that was mind numbing and well numbing all around (I was sitting crouched next to some live stock) we arrived at Anu's cousins and sister's home (pictured above). Anu's cousin quickly prepared a nice meal that we all shared on their bed. This was my first meal in India. We had grilled corn which brought back fond memories of Ghana...

 ...and cucumber with cayenne pepper sprinkled on it - YUM!

....and chapati. Chapati I would have every night for the next 2.5 months.

Anu was a journey that I only learned about in our last hour together. He was meeting his fiance..for the first time. She was sweet and lovely and met us at the bus station. So this was the first time they met.

I didn't want to intrude on what is essentially their first date, even though they will soon be married - but they insisted I join them as they went to a temple, so I was the third wheel. Although they were both very shy around each other so I did most the talking.

Then...I went further into the mountains.