‘Survive in the Jungle’ tour - Part I

How do you bond with other young men living with hemophilia?

That's me with Paras in Haldwani

The obvious answer would be to spend time with them. That was the basic idea behind the ‘Survive in the Jungle’ tour last August. I teamed up with my friends from our local youth group which I admin and we started planning to hit the Great Himalayas. We decided to tour Ranikhet and surrounding areas in the state of Uttarakhand. The mountains were a natural choice. They represent something that’s powerful and invincible. There is an inherent feeling of a challenge about touring them.

Uttarakhand - The Land of Divine Spirits

August is right in the middle of the Monsoons (the rainy season), and thus not a very good time to try out something adventurous in the Himalayas. However, one of our group members, Pankaj, was a native of Ranikhet and we were convinced that we can manage things well as he had a strong local network. We started out with this optimistic feeling at noon on 13^th August and reached Haldwani the same night after a long drive. Signboards saying “Welcome to the Devbhoomi - Uttarakhand” greeted us. Uttarakhand is also known by the name Devbhoomi which would mean “Land of the Divine Spirits”. And the unquestionable beliefs of locals certainly make you think about the spirits living in these mountains.

The tourers

The next day, we took off for the Jaina village, a relatively unknown location that was untouched by tourism. I and my friend Paras had very little knowledge about life in the Himalayas. We were surprised by the challenges that locals face on a daily basis, people had to trek long distances just to get items of basic need which we get home delivered in cities. Pankaj told us that life has become very convenient in the past few years with roads being laid out in most areas. It is hard to imagine how things would have been before that. The feet still stay a very important means of transport. One can easily outrun a car while going up or down mountains as it will have to travel on roads winding around the hills while one can just trek up or down a vertical foot trail. For a person with a bleeding disorder, this can be the worst place to develop a bleed. Having our clotting factors with us was such a comforting thought. We sure needed them in the coming days.

The view from our accommodation in the Jaina village

Read ‘Survive in the Jungle’ tour - Part II