Marahni Trek – Day 4: wobbly Knees, Goatbaby and Byebye

2. October 2023

 

 

On the last day, we were to walk back the route for which we had used 2 days uphill – i.e. approx. 1,400 metres of altitude difference downhill awaited us. Besides the fact that I knew how steep the route was in parts, such numbers always give me a lot of respect and I know how much concentration and leg strength I need. Although I really liked it up there, I was also looking forward to a softer bed (I’m getting too old for hard mats to sleep on) and a shower (washing facilities on the trek are very rare).

 

Anyway, we got up a bit earlier this time. Unfortunately again quite a lot of clouds. But there were still a few sun pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

I had a nice smiling relationship with Porter Suresh. He is in his early 30s and the father of two children. And my Hindi-English stammer was not enough for more. But with some people it doesn’t take much more to like each other.

 

We climbed our slope again and then it was all downhill. We constantly had to switch between raincoat/umbrella, warm clothes, T-shirt….

 

 

 

 

And from here on it was just down, down, down. Because of the rain, it was sometimes a bit slippery, so you had to be careful. Although it is quite nice to walk and see the same route again from a different perspective, I only took a few more pictures, also because of the weather:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then came another highlight: a goat had just given birth to a baby! Right on the trekking path! It was still wet and greasy. I would have loved to watch for hours how it was going on, but the mummy goat looked very nervous and so we hurried on after a few pictures.

 

 

 

 

I challenged my knees even more on this descent and collected rubbish. It’s amazing what’s lying around. But it was also eagerly more dragged further up:

 

 

And then we were already at the car, we said goodbye and drove off, then I was dropped off at my accommodation and Natasha and Sanil drove a little further.

 

My wobbly legs were happy just to lie around – after a fine shower. I also found this day exhausting, the ones before that rather underwhelmed me. I wasn’t quite used to walking for such a short time. We always took our time, but I can’t say that I had to lie around completely exhausted after each arrival. I found the GHNP great for trekking. Somehow the mountains looked a little different from what I’m used to, the variety of plants was surprisingly rich, the views very beautiful and I also liked the fact that there was no one else on the trip. The weather was a bit mixed, as it should be at the end of September. It is supposed to be more stable from October. There are other trekking opportunities in the GHNP and I will certainly recommend this and hope to find travellers for it!

 

Speaking of travellers – there should be some coming here shortly and I wanted to explore a bit more for that. And that will come in the next blogpost!