01 August – Budhi-Gunji Track – Part 2 – Chhialekh to Garbyang

There is a canteen run by KMVN at the top of Chhialekh. My aunt Lata and Pallavi had reached ahead of us coz of the horses. They were already ensconced in the tiny kitchen frying puris. They said they preferred the toasty warm room to the cold outside. I was happy to help – by eating. Hot puris, potato subzi, pickle, steaming mugs of tea. Heaven! Especially since it was pretty cold up here. There was a strong breeze.

Like a fool, I had not thought to carry a windcheater. The guy who ran the canteen had a few woolen caps for sale. I bought one and pulled it low over my ears. I wore the raincoat in place of a windcheater and we moved on towards the meadow.
There was an ITBP check post as usual. They thoroughly examined all our documents and waved us on. The next few kms to Garbyang were a walk in the clouds. I felt as if I had died and gone to heaven.

Low clouds, lush green meadows, occasional patches of snow visible in the distance, cows mooing softly, dry firm path and millions of wild flowers. Sahji had said earlier that we would walk in a valley of flowers. But this? This was paradise. I think it would be more appropriate to say I floated down towards Garbyang. There were a few tricky patches, but they did not register much in our euphoric state.

The path goes downwards pretty quickly. Milind pointed out that we’d find it difficult on our way back. But we were not interested in thinking that far. As we neared Garbyang, the path underfoot became slippery, made of white sand and mud. Like chikni mitti.

Garbyang is an ancient picturesque village on the old Indo-Tibet trade route. All the houses have beautifully carved wooden doors and windows. It’s more popular as the ‘sinking village’. Scientific reason for this is the location of the village over glacial lake sediments. The sinking is unique because it is continuous and records show up to 20m of sinking in a span of ten years. There are houses which were originally on the same level and are now on three different levels! We passed another checkpoint ahead of Garbyang and continued towards Seti.