Day 10 - Trek to Kalapani - 07 July 2008
Today plan was to trek to Kalapani. It is about 9 km. easy trek. There was no hurry in the morning to start so we started after breakfast after 7 a.m. only. Before starting, many performed prayers at Kali Mata temple. This time troop of about 12 ITBP armed personnel accompanied us. Two of them go in front called head and two of them in back called tail and rest of them in between. Noone is allowed to overtake head and everyone must be in front of tail. that way the Yatris move in Convoy formation (There was a similar arrangement provided by KMVN and Police consisting of head and tail and KMVN appointed doctors and other personnel till Gunji as well for the trek. Head personnel and tail personnel have wireless sets to communicate with each other. KMVN and Police were not as strict regarding following the rules of not overtaking them but ITBP personnel were very strict. It also may be due to arms and gun ITBP carry Vs. no visible arms carried by KMVN and Police personnel). Morning hours we could not see Annapoorna peak as it was cloudy. We reached Kalapani by about 11 a.m. This time for the first time, almost everyone reached together. (In all previous days there used to be up to 4 hours of difference between first person to reach and last person to reach even though everyone must have started almost together). Kalapani got its name because of origin of Kali river at that place. (कालापानी - काली नदी का उद्गम स्थान). Kali goddess temple is situated at the source of river. Got to touch the water at source at Temple. It is said that temple is very powerful in terms of vibes being there if you have power to feel the vibes. There were some men and women in the group who said that they can feel the vibes.
Just before reaching Kalapani, got to see Vyasji's cave. It is said that renowned ancient saint Ved Vyas ji (who wrote Mahabharat as well) lived there. It is quite inaccessible unless you are expert rock climber.
There was one small hot water, sulfur water spring which opens up into river. Govt has constructed few bathrooms and taps there for people to be able to take bath there. Some of us came back later to take bath there. it was very refreshing.
Vegetation had reduced considerable at this place. Trees were missing though small bushes and grass was persent. it was more windy than Gunji.
We were allowed to leave some luggage at Kalapani also if we did not want to carry it further to China. I left a small bag and pair of clothes, few books etc. at this point. Kalapani is the place where while coming back luggage is weighed. if someone is carrying more than allocated quota, then extra charge is levied on to that person. it is typically possible to redistribute the load among known persons if planned before so that overall load may still be in limit.
Evening there was Bhajan Kirtan program in temple followed by dinner. pretty peaceful night. Here again could plan and choose roommates. One could see groupism coming into practice now. People started making groups and move around in groups. There was lot of time on hand available today as well because of less trekking distance.
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