A 2.75 day trip to Nag Tibba and back to Hyderabad.

On the weekend of April 21, I had no other plans. I thought of a whirlwind trek in the Garhwal region of the Himalayas, so that I could get back to work on Monday morning.

Nag Tibba is a little known weekend trek, and starts from Pantwari village, around 2.5 hours ahead of Mussorie. From Nag Tibba (3022m), one can see several snow-capped Himalayan peaks including Kedarnath, Bandarpoonch, etc. 

The trek starts from Pantwari the first day by noon, and reaches Thath by evening, to camp overnight. The plan for the next day is to reach the summit, descend back to Pantwari, and reach Dehradun by evening.

That meant my plan was to drive to the Hyderabad airport on Friday, April 20 after work, catch a flight to Delhi (2 hours), catch an overnight bus to Dehradun (8 hours), join a group in a bus from Dehradun to Pantwari (3 hours). I would repeat the same journey back on Sunday, April 22 afternoon, and reach work on Monday, April 23.

It was a hectic schedule but possible. 

We started from Pantwari around noon. The village is like several others in Uttarakhand, sparsely populated, remote, with some shops and hotels.



Trekking up, I saw this young girl working hard with her family and dog. I made some sounds to call the dog, but he wasn't interested in getting up, and just gave me a curious stare as if I'd gone crazy.


The girl did give a beaming smile for my camera, and the dog did shift his position!

 The village of Pantwari seen while trekking up to Thath.

The snows had melted by April, and the trees had sprouted fresh green leaves.

My trekmates were a bunch of young kids, a young couple, and three women chatting away to each other. This photograph was taken at Thath.


Sunset over "The Goat Village", a camp built at Thath.



I like wild flowers.



While I had been insisting that we start  by 6 am, we started from Thath very late only at around 9 am. That meant that we would reach Dehradun only by 8 pm. My bus back to Delhi was booked at 6 pm. That meant I had to abandon the trek at 11 a.m. (at this temple) and walk back without making the summit.




Another view of the village Panthwari in the distance from up high.




A lone baby cloud in the deep blue afternoon sky.

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