The Start of the Adventure

My husband Sushrut and I love to trek. Living in the western state of Maharashtra in India affords us plenty of opportunities to go trekking in the surrounding Sahyadri ranges. But I must confess, I am an amateur, at best. My fitness level is pretty ordinary. I do have better stamina than you would expect from a person who gets as less exercise as I do. But, that has more to do with genetics than anything else.

So here I was, on the 2nd of February, 2007, talking to my Uncle Sudhir, and out of the blue, he asked me, “We are planning to go to Adi Kailash in Uttaranchal, sometime in July-August this year. Would you like to join us?” My husband immediately agreed to go, but I was skeptical. I only knew then that Adi Kailash was a mountain peak somewhere in the Himalayas and that the trek was a strenuous haul of around 150 kms (Ha! It was actually close to 220 kms, but thankfully I only found that out much later).

I didn’t want to miss the opportunity, and yet I was worried about my physical capability and fitness. Finally I decided to throw caution to the wind and go. It would later prove to be the best impulsive decision I’d ever taken.