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vXplor: Camp N Cave Expedition: March 27/28

CAVING!!!!!! ……..does this ring a bell…… for most of you it might not, as people have been used to hear Trekking, Rafting, Climbing etc. as adventure trip. Well folks let me tell you how it all began.
Let me rewind it to a week back. I got an offer to go with a colleague and couple of his friends. I hadn’t done a road trip for quite some time now and was behaving like a cat on a hot tin roof, but thought of giving it a shot.

We started our road trip and took the shortcut from Noida to Dehradun (Kawar Patri Route) which reduced our traveling time by at least one hour plus the traffic was also less and let me tell you this road has been discovered lately, but let me also warn you that don’t travel through this late at night as you might get robbed and that is the last thing which you would like to happen.
We reached a place called Cheetal Grand which is an important landmark to have your food if you travel to Uttaranchal/Uttarakhand area from Delhi. I guess we reached the place pretty early around 6:20 am and this place opens at 7 am. Damn, well we had a substitute for that place but that was not even close to what Cheetal was.

We continued our journey and reached Dehradun around 9:00 am and subsequently reached our first main stop for lunch Himalayan Hill Resort (of <a href="http://vxplor.com/page.aspx?id=1">vXplor</a>). This resort was clean and was at a very good location. We freshened up a bit and then had our lunch (Chapati, Rice, Pulses, Salad, Curd, Potatoes, Pickles and green chillies that’s it :P not much). We got stuffed and started to feel lazy without the night’s sleep and traveling continuously for around 7 hours, but had to go and see the Tiger falls for which we had to travel 30 km uphill and then trek for half an hour to reach that place. Had heard about it, so thought of giving the chance and by the way I hardly miss any opportunity to get a picture clicked for my orkut and facebook profile  so no way I could have missed this.

We started our journey to the Tiger falls (@ Chakrata) and let me tell you the name of this fall is Tiger falls because of the sound it makes like the Tiger when the water falls from a height. One of the problems in exploring the new and unexplored places is that you hardly find people on the road and that was one difficulty that we were facing while locating this place. We had a foggiest idea that it is in which area so we did some circling and finally got the place.

We parked our car took our belongings and started to trek. When you don’t do some exercise it is really hard to trek and you start to sweat, you have breathing problems, and get exhausted pretty soon and almost all of us were falling in the same category :P

Finally we reached the Tiger falls and fell in love with the mesmerizing beauty. Though we couldn’t hear the tiger roaring, but that was due to the fact that we went in the early months. In a month or two there would be more water, but nevertheless I was delighted to see the falls. We played the “throwing the water at each other” game and clicked few snaps had some chocolates and snacks there. The water was cold and I started to feel my feet getting colder and colder.

It was getting late and the sun was setting. We thought of leaving that place though we didn’t want to and spend more time as we had to reach another 60 km uphill where we were about to had to do the camping. -

We were lucky enough to get somebody else do our tents.

We reached the place and it was almost dark. The place was f****** cold, but we guys were prepared with our jacket. That was the first thing we did otherwise we would have been sick. We had three tents for five of us.

The tents were clean, nicely put in close to each other at a place amidst green deodar trees. It was amazing and when the moonlit stuck on our tents, the beauty of the place got manifolds. You can just sit, relax, gaze the stars and admire the nature. Guys keep in mind that when you camp in this place at least you need to know the basics that leopard movement is common and same goes for monkey attacking your breakfast to take your toast or paratha or fox knocking at your tent. Well that might make it interesting. Also, I was told that I might end up my morning doing my basics (don’t need to mention the details) in an open area ;) but thankfully the forestry department is helping the wanderers to not manure the forest but rather let it unused at a consolidated place and voila we had restrooms. It was not that I wasn’t ready for it, but who does not want luxuries and I think a rest room near your camp surely is a luxury. At night you might be a bit hesitant in going there though as it was a bit far and dark as well, but who cares when it is urgent.

We got our bonfire set, barbeque in place vegetarian and non vegetarian (ahhh forgot to tell two of us were veg) some music and couple of dance performances by us not to mention some salsa steps and some romantic numbers with rum, whiskey and beers flowing in. The mood was set; we were enjoying the time and had forgotten all the travail that we did to reach this place. Finally, after having chicken, paneer snacks, tea and hard drinks we were ready for the dinner. Yessss we had the dinner as well i.e. Chapati, Rice, Razma, matar paneer, salad and curd. Finally around 11 pm we finished our dinner and started our night trekking; ahhhh one more thing TORCH is one of the main things for camping and specially for caving. We followed each other for the night trek.
 

Ab initio some people were hesitant in doing this as we had already heard of these animal stories, but as the majority wins in the parliament we thought of following the same path and voila we were in the mood of night trekking, but I guess the people who didn’t want to go cursed it and as an upshot one of our colleagues slipped her leg and had a sprain in her leg. The result: Night Trek cancelled . We returned to our camps and went to our respective tents and slept.

I had an excellent sleep and when I woke up I was fresh as the green leaf in the spring ready to rock and roll. Imagine the moment you wake up and take out your face from the tent and your friend is there with tea…..mmmm que rico; God bless him. We were ready for some photo sessions (few snaps below). Finally, we got ready for our breakfast; had few parathas, chutney and curd and got ready for our final excursion.
 

We left the camp around 10:00 am and we had to go around 30 km to reach the place where we had to meet one person who is the one who has explored this cave and knows the ways inside out. By the way folks, the place were we are currently going is STRICTLY FOR INDIANS AND FOREIGNERS ARE PROHIBITED. We met our contact and he guided us to the place where we had to go. We finally reached the place and kept waiting for him and also in the meantime we were looking around in case we can find the cave. Frankly, nobody of us or you would have imagined the cave. We left our car on the road and were getting ready for the Caving. Basic requirements: Helmets, Full sleeves t-shirts or shirts, Jeans and shoes. Each of them has its own importance inside and I will explain it individually.

We got ready and started to come from the top of the road through a bit tough path. One of our colleagues surrendered and she said a big bold NO. Well we managed somehow to persuade her and come down that path and some people said that this is the only bottleneck (the biggest lie). We came down and then the second bottleneck starts; we had to climb to the cave and the path was so goddamn difficult. I am sure most of us cannot go if we are not using any hi-tech gadgets, but that’s the real challenge isn’t it. Had life been so simple, would we have enjoyed so much by the success that we gain? Out of five we were left with four of us and three guides. We managed the second bottleneck and got to the entrance of the cave. Now let me define the CAVE here. This place is a small entrance where you can stand, but the moment you start going inside there are places where you need to crawl, slide, and walk and also let me tell you those who are not in the army, it certainly will give some feeling of a military training. Coming back to the entrance of the cave; we were seven of us and what we were seeing is a thin space between two rock walls where we had to slide in between. The stone was slippery and it had a space in between which means if you slip, something is going to get broken or at least an injury was unavoidable. This thin space was just for the initial 10 feet.
 

The first person to enter was the guide. He travels successfully through it and reaches the other side where you can stand easily. The second person was my friend. She was a bit cluster phobic, but kudos to her she had the guts to go that extra mile. Though in spite of all her efforts things didn’t turn out well and she couldn’t enter. The third person was me. Frankly, I had never imagined it will be so tough and the primary reason is that when it comes to CAVE we think it is a grand entrance where most of the time we walk and sometimes only we have to bend and slide and you enter one side and mostly come out from the other side and the trip is complete, but in this case NO. The reason you can travels as much as you can inside and nobody knows till what extent you can go. Also there are many crossroads where if you don’t know the way out you will never be able to come out. The place is dark and you cannot imagine your life without a light so torch is a must and back up would be an intelligent thing. The cave is full of water and stones of different kinds. One very good thing about this cave is there are no living creatures inside apart from few bats. The place is clean, water is flowing continuously and there are places where is seems like a small waterfall. The water is clean and safe (we drank and I am still alive to write this blog so definitely SAFE ). Coming back to entering the cave; I managed to enter somehow. The thing which you would surely require while entering is the willingness otherwise no matter how strong you are you cannot enter. The fourth person is my friend who somehow manages to enter (Kudos to him). The fifth person is again my friend who always had the intention to come inside and he was strong as well (we used to joke that because of his belly he might get stuck in the entrance and not slip in between the crack as I might; I am a thin person that’s why ). Unfortunately it was neither the belly nor the strength which prohibited him to enter but rather was the fact that he started to sweat and felt as there was less of oxygen and he was getting choked. Then there was a guide who was able to enter and another who wasn’t able. In all, we were four people who managed to pass the second bottleneck and explore the beauty of it.

Let me tell you friends this cave was something that I hadn’t seen something like it before and would surely recommend to my friends to go and visit this place. The place is clean and surely if you love to explore new places and like adventure you should visit this place. The importance of each item was important; Helmet because there were many places where there were stones and pointed stones and rocks which were just hanging around and because of your limited visibility by your torch you couldn’t see them. I had almost 100 hits at least when my helmet saved me. Full sleeves shirts or t-shirts as many a times you need to crawl and pull your body with your arms doing the heavy lifting and crawling on the earth. The jeans as you need to move your back and slide many times and in case it is a soft trouser it might get torn and I don’t want to tell you the implications :D. Same goes for the shoes there are pointed rocks and stones and you might get on top of one and hurt yourself. In spite of all the bottlenecks we managed to travel around quite a distance inside get mesmerized by the beauty of nature, drink the fresh water, get the military training, and check our limits. I have got few snaps, but let me tell you this that the photos can look just simple cave photographs, but the real beauty is when you will see it similar to the quote “The proof of the pudding is in eating”. When we came out we felt like winners. We had a small bottle shower nearby with its flowing water and became fresh and got ready to come back.

It was such a great feeling and with nice memories we started our journey back home and reached couple of hours late due to few traffic jams.
Cheers
Prabhat
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