31 July – Gala – Budhi Track – Part 4 – Malpa to Lamari

The next 2 hours were as harrowing as the previous two. Walking on narrow ledges, the cold wall of the mountain on the left, and the chilled fury of the Kali on the right. By now I had almost become used to the roar of the river. Whenever I needed to catch my breath, I chose the widest possible spot on the ledge to pause. As far as possible I avoided looking at the river. It almost made my head spin to look at the current for longer than a few seconds. I had jokingly remarked to Sahji at the start of the trek, when he warned us about getting too close to the side overlooking the river, that I didn’t even know how to swim. He had given me an odd look and said, “Honestly speaking, if someone had to fall into the river, he wouldn’t get the chance to swim”. Brrr! It sent a shiver up my spine.

By 4 pm we reached the ITBP (Indo-Tibet Border Police) post at Lamari. The ITBP officers and jawans are very helpful people. They are trained in disaster management. They are on the scene the moment there’s a landslide or rockslide. If a mountain stream has flooded, they arrive with ropes and help you across. They offer you tea and fat crunchy potato chips and warm water to drink. That’s another thing. For the rest of the trek, we drank warm water. You can catch a chill from the regular water.

They were waiting for us with hot tea when we reached their post. “Arre, aap toh saare jawan log ho! Hum ne socha abhi tak nahin aye matlab sab buddhhe honge.” Very funny! They had been expecting us since 2 pm. Once you enter the inner line area, the ITBP keeps tabs on every single person going to and fro. By the time you cross one post, the next post is informed about how many people, from where, how old, what names, everything. Your permits are checked thoroughly. Since the Tibet border is close, they are extremely vigilant. But absolutely polite. No arrogance while following procedure.
They said we were running at least 2 hrs behind schedule. In addition, there was a live rockslide just up ahead. “Please hurry up now. And walk with a gap of 15 feet between two people.” That begged the question “Why?” from me. “So that if anything goes wrong, you minimize the risk of losing too many people”. Very nicely put that.

I started off with the guide ahead of me while the others were still drinking their tea. I have jolly good stamina, but I can only walk so fast. I followed the tortoise principle thru’ out the trek. Slow and steady, but no race. And I am happy to say it worked for me. I finished the whole trek on my own steam, and was completely fit and peppy thru’ out.