The Goechala Sikkim Trek Part III
Part I covered
Day 114km
Yuksom(5600ft) to Bhakim(8636ft)
Day 212km
Bhakim(8638ft) to Dzongri(12981ft)
Day 3
Dzongri(12981ft) to Dzongri top (13676ft)and back to Dzongri
Read Part I by clicking on the link
Part II
Day 410km
Dzongri(12981ft) to Thansing (12894ft)
Day 510km
Thansing(12894ft to Lamuney(13600ft)to Samiti Lake(14100ft) and back to Lamuney
Read Part II by clicking on the link
Part III
Day 6 20km
Lamuney(13600ft)to Zemathang(16000ft)and back to
Phedang(12068ft)
Day 7 15km
Phedang(12068ft) to Yuksom (5600ft)
Zemathang
At the first view point of Goecha La, mountain ranges spanned almost 270 degrees around us. It is worth taking five minutes to simply absorb the scene and then get to clicking the ranges and group photos. That is, if your fingers are not already frozen
by the time you take your camera out.
We had taken along some breakfast of bread and boiled eggs to keep ourselves somewhat warm at the view point. However, the snow capped peaks made us forget about it.
Epilogue
The Himalyas are the most exquisite, yet most unforgiving terrain. And the higher you go, although the view becomes so much better, the climb becomes impossibly more difficult. But nothing compares to a sunrise in the mountains. Nature puts on thrilling
shows. The stage is vast, the lighting is dramatic, the extras are innumerable and the budge for special effects is absolutely unlimited. The rays streak through a black sky and soon you see an orchestra in which the sky changes from violet to red, then
orange and finally blue. And add to that you will see the majestic snow-capped peaks, with wisps of snow blowing off them in the wind.
Overall, it was a great experience to breathe in the light mountain air and drink the purest water right off the Himalayan rivers. Freedom from anything that ran on batteries was a refreshing experience. "Good things come to those who wait." Never before
have we felt the gravity of the words as much as on the trail. Scaling the mountains, with each new place that we traveled to, more of mountains and less of humanity we saw. In the theatre of nature, Kanchenjunga was the opus and the mountains passed for
the actors that played up to her majesty. As we took the long trek back home, this weird feeling of leaving something behind grew inside each one of us-indescribable and unspoken-and yet we knew that we all shared it.
The names of photographers are: Deepak Maloo, Piyish Rathore, N. Abhinav, Harmohit Singh Toor and Rahul De.
The text was a joint effort of the team.
Apart from the above photographers, the members of the team included Sandeep and Lapcha (Guides)