WooHoo - it’s trekking time!
I got out of bed and looked at the sky - and it was a lovely day! Clear blue sky, bright sunshine, cottony white clouds - all the usual ingredients of a great day!
I was all atwitter about the trek… will I be able to do it? Will I be able to walk? Will I even be able to mount the horse? And once I mount, will the horse go flat on all fours? Will it be a gentle horse which will carry me safely and comfortably up the mountain? Or will it be a wild bucking bronco which will rear up and start prancing on two legs like the horses in cowboy movies?
 by the time I finished my breakfast, my guide (and his horse) was ready for me.
It was indeed much easier from that higher position, and I sat on the horse - feeling like I was on a big bike! All that was missing was a nice pair of handlebars to grip! I hope I don’t start twisting the horses ears out of absentmindedness.


I grinned and gave him a thumbs up, and he grinned back.
‘It’s only difficult the first time sir. You get used to it. From next time you will do it as easily as you get on your bike!’
’Lay on, McDuff!’ I said grandly, and we started the climb.
As we started moving, I realised that my weight was nothing to the big horse - he was used to carrying much more, and his glumness was just a habit and not because of seeing me. I was actually in awe of the power of the horse as it effortlessly made its way up that steep and muddy hill. That path was such a disaster! The coming and going of all the horses had turned the path into a muddy sludgy mess! Being high up on the horse, I obviously did not care - but it was a big problem for the hikers gingerly making their way up the hill and getting stuck in one mud hole after another. One could not walk here in sneakers - your shoe will get stuck in the mud and pulled off your foot, and your sock foot will land in the mud on the next step! Either gum boots or ankle-high trekking shoes were your only option.
If trekking is the life-blood of this place, why don’t they make the trails better? The government authorities should make a saddle route for horses and a separate gravelled route for walkers.
After we cleared the incline, I got off the horse and started walking. What a lovely place! Wow. What beauty. I met a bunch of hikers coming back down after completing their hike, and they were over the moon about it.
‘What a lovely hike, you will love it!’
We walked along the side of the Lidder valley, and there were magnificent views of the mountains all around with fir forests on the crest. There were no roads here, only walking trails - and that changes the look and feel of the place completely.
One could see some Gujjar nomads in the distance going around on their business - grazing sheep or foraging or just shooting the breeze with their friends I suppose
We walked for few kilometres - well, anything more than one kilometre is ‘kilometres’, right? - and stopped for a break in a sunny meadow.
We reached a resting point - a nomads hut by the side of the river, a most lovely spot! I got off the horse and chilled for a bit by the river side, watching the river flow by and birds chirping and chattering around the tree boughs. What a wonderful place. I ate the packed lunch which my guesthouse guy had provided and had a cup of tea made by the nomads.
A horse is unlike a bike in the sense that it is self-navigating! It goes across the rockiest, muddiest, steepest, slipperiest terrain without you needing to care at all! The horse-coper and the horse manage it amongst themselves. You can forget about the road and look around and enjoy the scenery - as long as you are firmly seated on the saddle!