It was almost a last minute re-decision to join part of my team to the Amarnath Cave trek. Members of my team capitalised on my strong desire to go and inability to deny the trip to re-book my ticket. I was originally scheduled to be there on the trip but had backed out as my father was unwell. He progressed remarkably well and allowed me the chance to take this trip.
At that moment a confusion arose.. my original ticket to Srinagar was not canceled by the Ticketing agent while the airline maintained it was. After half a dozen followups it was clear the tickets had actually been cancelled.
An important meeting at office kept me grounded at work till 3:30am that morning. I reached home around 4:30am, packed a few track pants, tshirts and the stuff into a backpack. Thankfully Uma had organised chocolates and other munchies for the trip. After a two-hour sleep I woke up to leave for the morning service to Srinagar. My "crew" was on another flight. Upon boarding the flight the airhostess requested me to move to emergency exit window sea, which i gleefully accepted, hoping to catch up on sleep. I removed my shoes and realised not using the sports shoes is not a smart idea. its inner sole was giving way after almost 2 years of disuse.
The wait at Srinagar airport was long and boring, with no TV to watch, no music to listen, no paper/book to read and no GPRS. When the rest of the team arrived (3 in all - Rohit, Puneet and Rajesh) we left for the Dal Lake to meet Hamid, the guy who'd arrange our travel thereon. We met him at a hotel near Dal Lake, had Tea, bread and butter and delicious paranthaas (indian bread) that Rajesh had got us from home.
At was well past 4:30 pm when we started for Pahalgam basecamp, The paramilitary deployment in Srinagar and enroute to Pahalgam was quite visible. The state was (is) in a turmoil with clashes between military, police and some pockets of public. We were stopped by Police just outside Anantnag for safety reasons and were allowed to leave after a good 90 minutes. We were advised to take a less troubled route thru a village to rech Pahalgam. You could see young lads pretending to throw stones and stuff at our car to scare us. By the time we reached Pahalgam it was twilight. We decided to stay put at the camp for the night and leave at daybreak for Chandanwari. Registrations for the the travel done, we decided to eat.
Puneet and Rohit went out in search for food outside the basecamp. They returned an hour later with food after battling with darkness on their route. We hit bed hoping to be up & ready by 6am when the gates of the camp open. Before we slept, we pulled Rajesh's leg a mighty bit (which eventually kept happening all day/night of our travel). Some footsteps outside our roadside tent woke us up. By the time we got ready a sea of humanity had already beaten us to the camp gate. The splash of icy cold tap water sure awakened our lazy body.
