I climbed the mountain to meet my friend Shepherd but I couldn't find him

Yesterday while walking from Solang Valley I crossed the Vasishtha temple and reached a ground directly from where Mori Dug campsite is a little ahead. Today we will go to a grassland a little before this campsite. Although I was tired from yesterday's trek, I am also very excited for today's hike because a shepherd lives here whose name is Ram Singh, I have met this shepherd many times. So let's go to meet my old hill friend.

I leave Solang Valley which is situated at 2450 meters at 07:30 in the morning, I had just started walking when Roshan offers me a lift to Manali on the road, which I gladly accept. We reach Manali at 8:15 from where Roshan goes to Kullu and I finish some work in Manali which ends by 09:30.

At 09:45 I start walking towards my destination which is 'Mori Dug'. Mori Dug is situated at an altitude of 3000 meters and from here one can see a very spectacular view of the Baffle mountains. And the most important thing is that today I will get a chance to meet Ram Singh. After a walk of 2 km from Manali comes the Vasishtha temple from where the climb will now start. You have already known about this climb in yesterday's post.

Famous as Death Climb, this wall-like climb takes the life out of even the best hikers. This is because in a single climb we have to climb an elevation gain of 969 meters and that too in just 2.61 km. The gradient of this climb is 32.7% which is really vertical. Apple orchards start as soon as we leave the Vasishtha temple. While passing through the apple orchards, I talked to the locals and came to know that nowadays a black bear is being spotted in the village almost every day.

The black bear is coming to the village every day to eat apples, so the villagers were a little worried about me going to Mori Dug alone. I assured them that I have come on this trail many times and Mori Dug is about 3 km away where there is a shepherd named Ram Singh whom I am going to meet. Seeing their faces, they understood what I was saying but not whether I would be able to reach Mori Dug safely or not.

Well, after saying bye to everyone, I move ahead because by now it is 11 o'clock and the walking distance has become 3.5 km. Death Climb has started and sweat has also started coming from head to heels. When sweat is flowing, I am thinking that there are two ways to travel, one by car and the other on foot. I enjoy walking...but when my heart rate crosses 200, I swear I don't feel like taking even one step on the ground.

At 1:30 PM, I reach Mori Dug campsite where I am supposed to meet Ram Singh. I enter the Shepherd's camp and see that there is no one there, his animals are there but no human is visible here. I sit and control my breathing and look at the goats screaming around me, who are screaming a little louder thinking that I am a stranger. If only the goats could speak, then I would like to ask them where Ram Singh is, I want to meet him.

Seeing my long beard and waist-length hair, all the goats are probably saying in their language that you should go away from here, you are reminding us of bears. It is good that I do not understand the language of goats, otherwise I would have felt sorry for myself after knowing their thoughts. Well I wait here for Ramsingh till 3 pm and when he does not come, I bid goodbye to all the goats with a disappointed mind and start descending from the mountain.

Some goats are feeding milk to their lambs while some are lying in the sun like a model. Small white-black lambs are screaming in a very loud voice which even the birds are chirping. I am also a little surprised that some wild animal may attack them here. The goats' voices are echoing in the valley, I can see the sound flying like a kite which is hitting the ears of Hanuman Tibba.

Hanuman Tibba is a 5980 meter high mountain standing on the head of Solang Valley which is the king of this valley. The king is looking at Dev Tibba standing in front of him which is 6001 meters high. And thus I witness this scene and start descending the mountain with folded hands in front of all the mountains, deodar trees and the snowy Hanuman Tibba. Hearing the sound of my footsteps, the lambs started screaming louder as if they did not like my departure at all.

Disclaimer: This post is originally written in Hindi and I have used Google Translator to translate the Hindi text in English. All the photos have been clicked by me from POCO F1 android smartphone and edited in deskstop software adobe lightroom. Thumbnail created adobe photoshop.