Photo Gallery - Tirthan-Solang Valley Trip (Day 2/5)

DAY 2

This is what we woke upto on Day 2.. Can you beat this view CATS?

However, we found out soon that CAT Om had been terribly ill through the night.. Something he must have eaten during the day on way to Aut did not agree with him and he had been sick as a parrot through the night... But he did not wake a single soul during the night and he insisted that everyone went ahead with the planned activities, including his wife and daugher instead of hankering after his health..

CAT Shilpa in the process of getting ready for the day ahead...

Aparts from the paranthas, toasts with scrambled eggs, homemade jams of various berries without preservatives and fresh fruit.. surprise for the breakfast was wafer thin pancakes, which as you can see, CATS can not have enough of ;-)

Our first activity of the day was rappelling which seemed an uphill task at that time..

However, even a delicious and sumptuous breakfast could not keep the CATS down...

Don't believe me?? ......Chalo phir urr ke dikhaayo :)

One can not escape from the impromptu lessons in the jungle either...

Extraction of natural oils being done for various purposes.. if any of you have any doubt about what this little drop is about, then just ask CAT Ashish A who had inspected the tree!

This was the monster challenging us.
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In all honesty, when we first looked at its straight face, even the experienced Rappellers amungst us fell silent!
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'Arre yeh Ankit marwaayega aaj??!!!'

Incase you are smirking at our silent misery, then just look at his picture. It was tough to even climb up to the top through the path which was too trecherous for us Punjabi Billiyan.. there were no footholds and nothing to grasp incase you slipped!

Infact CAT Aman kept yelling from the road to me,

'Bua, neeche aa jayo.. abhi aayo!'

All the CATS are grateful to CAT Joey, the brave one who volunteered to go first... MEOW :)

It was surprising that apart from CAT Joey, all the boys opted out for one reason or another while the fiesty felines went ahead...

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'kyon ki darr ke aage jeet hai :)

The cliff on top of the rock had no foothold and you can see CAT Gauri being led by two guides towards the cliff edge...

Do have my word for it... it was scary even to reach the edge of the cliff!

Though CAT Jyoti was terrified but one line from CAT Gauri was enough, 'Mumma aap to nahin ker paayoge yeh!'

Call it the spirit of CATS.. the Challenge to Motherhood.. or sheer madness... There was no way CAT Jyoti was going to skip out... MEOW :)

CATS making merry amungst the lily flower beds and wines after conquering the scary rock...

CAT Gopika and CAT Joey held a competition of the best 'Puppy Face & Act' in Tirthan itself!

It seems CAT Gopika had won this round.. with CAT Navpreet in agreement..

I feel her Paro has trained her wonderfully well :)

The Community Centre at Banjar where commendable community projects are taking shape to make the localites, especially the women economically independent. The dormitories and the forest rest house is also here to accommodate the wandering souls.

CATS making their way through the jungle and numerous pretty bridges to reach the rock climbing site...

we were home :)

CATS listening to the climbing instructions attentively...
Though the rock did not look that menacing, the climb had to be done free-hand...

but boy... looks can be deceptive, especially if climbing from the 'other side'

The first one to climb up....

Once one reached the top, rest of us literally scrambled to follow...

at one stage there were 5 of us trying to molest this rock!

Thereafter 3 of us tried our paws from the difficult side also.

The cheery on the cake was the sight of ice cold fizzy drinks in the hands of the little German Boy and CAT Amit. BLISS!!!

Post lunch and a little siesta, CATS made their way through a precarious path leading to this very pretty site... for river crossing!

Catch was that the weather was cloudy, water was freezing and river was running away with much greater force... As the photo shows, you see many resting on the rocks rather than being on the rocks ;-)

CAT Gauri took the laurels to take the first plunge...

The girls were really in leading in every activity boys... That does not really sound like CATS since we have always seen equal participation ALWAYS.

The only reason CAT Gauri could not reach the other end is because the support rope turned to be a little shorter than the shore!

But we were overjoyed when CAT Joey reached the other end...

as you can see as well... he's deliriously happy!

In his own words, he loves the cold and he loves the water, so he had a killer combination :)

Alongside the fishing demonstration took place.. though actual fishing had to be postponed because of the torrid rapids in the river and the rain ofcourse... CAT Navpreet and CAT Ashish A were really disappointed, but we could not arrange the weather for them :(

That's how bad the weather became CATS...

Infact, we had to shift our abode form the tents to the dormitory in the evening...

Whilst waiting for CAT Paramjeet and CAT Madhvi to arrive from Chandigarh to join us, CAT Joey entertained us by strumming some lovely melodies on his guitar, CAT Gauri was too enchanted by 'Guru-(Ghantaal)' CAT Joey, CAT Om thankfully had recovered from his bout of illness too, CAT Shilpa was simply enjoying the moment, CAT Amit was supervising the operation of washroom taps, whilst CAT Ashish A and party were devicing a plan to skip out to Christopher's... again!!

CAT Paramjeet had a project to complete and Azeeza Madhvi had to sit her finals for Urdu Diploma on Monday, they left Chandigarh around 4.45pm. Since it was going to be after 9pm that the last lot of CATS from Chandigarh was expected, CAT Amit and I decided to send for a driver to guide them from Aut (Pandoh Tunnel) to join us.

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They arrived at 10.30pm, had dinner and eventually joined us at the dormitory at 11.15pm.

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Finally, there were 13 of us :)