Woke up early again today as we're planning on going to Base Camp! Woohoo! This is the main goal of the trek!

The temperature must have dropped below zero last night as there was ice all over the tent and the grass now scrunches when you walk on it. Saw more ice on small puddles and the edges of narrow streams ... yes, it was definitely cold last night!

It was very exciting to open the frozen tent door however and discover ... blue sky! Yes, we haven't seen this before on the entire trek! Unfortunately, our joy was short-lived as the blue sky disappeared fairly quickly but it was still a nice way to start the day ... and even though it's still overcast, at least it isn't raining. We were hopeful that it might return later in the day.

Unfortunately, it was a little too cold for my camera last night and I awoke to hear the shutter firing randomly, even though the camera was turned off. Hmmm ... that's not a good sign! It seems to have gotten some moisture inside the camera body & you could see it had condensed on the back of the photo display panel. It won't turn on at all but maybe it'll come good once it warms up. Still, no point lugging it up to Base Camp today if it doesn't work. I'll have to make do with my iPhone ... at least that one is still working fine so I plugged it into my extra battery to charge it up for the day's photo-taking.

The plan today is to hike from our camp, up to the Deo Tibba Base Camp, where climbers start their expeditions from. After reaching Base Camp, we'll also hike up to a lake that's just a bit further up, then hike back down, have lunch, then go all the way back down the valley to reach the campsite we were at on day 1. It's a BIG day but Indrajit is confident we can do it provided the weather is OK.

I was writing this, sitting on a rock, admiring the view and trying to keep my hands from freezing! It wasn't easy! Now that it's typed, however, it's a LOT easier to read!

We had breakfast and set off towards Base Camp at about 7.45am. Fortunately, it isn't too far from our campsite however it's all uphill to get there ... but that's OK since we only need to take day packs with us.

Distances in the mountains are always deceiving so although it didn't look very far, it was still quite a trek to get up there, especially with the amount of up at that altitude!

We reached the Base Camp at about 9.45 am, which was pretty good time considering that the previous group of trekkers Indrajit took up left at the same time but didn't make it to Base Camp until 12.30 pm.

There were a few guys at Base Camp who had attempted to climb the mountain but unfortunately were prevented by the weather so they were loading all their stuff onto some mules & were just about to leave.

We stopped at Base Camp to chat with them for a little while and took a few photos there. The whole area is absolutely stunning since it's a large basin containing a glacier which is surrounded by mountains.

The route climbers take is to ice-climb up the glacier, walk along the ridge towards the summit, then do a couple more climbs before reaching the top. This mountain is often used by climbers as their first Himalayan mountain to conquer as it's relatively straightforward plus it's quite accessible from Manali. Unfortunately, I don't have the mountaineering skills or experience to do a climb like that (yet). Maybe next year?

We didn't attempt to actually climb the mountain as that takes another 3 days (minimum). Instead, we climbed up a little further to a beautiful emerald lake, just another 15 min climb away.

More beautiful views of the peaks and surrounding area of course & lots more photos, but we couldn't stay there all day admiring the view so began our downward climb after only about 15min or so.

Reaching the goal is a great achievement and it's something I'd been anticipating throughout the entire trek, but when I finally reached it, it's almost like an anti-climax as you just turn around & come back down. Still a wonderful feeling of achievement though of course!

We arrived back at our campsite at 11 am, had some lunch, then packed up everything and headed back down the mountain. We were aiming to reach Chikka, the camp we stayed at on our very first day. That meant we'd be covering about 80% of the entire track in one day: approx 20km all up!

Luckily, the rain stayed away except for a few spots here & there but nothing to worry about. It was so nice to not be hiking in the rain and not to have to wear a rain poncho. Next trek, I'm definitely just bringing waterproof pants and a rain jacket. Ponchos are a pain!

Without the rain, the track had already dried up slightly so there wasn't quite as much mud everywhere. There was still plenty in the shaded areas, however ... don't worry about that! The other noticeable change was that without the rain, all the flies came out in force.

I'd left my insect repellent in Manali as I foolishly thought there wouldn't be any insects up that high. Silly, silly Jeffrey! At the highest altitudes, there were flies everywhere, although strangely, not so much at the lower altitudes.

So the walk back down was a constant struggle between swatting flies with my trekking poles and not stepping in what the flies had just been feasting on! Still, I'd rather deal with flies than rain any day!

We had really good weather for the entire day and even had some more patches of blue sky! It was very exciting!

Unfortunately, the good weather still wasn't enough to warm up the ice-cold, glacial river, however. We managed to avoid 2 of the river crossings by trekking quite a way upstream then hiking further up into the hills nearby. Unfortunately, we still had to do one and it was still freezing of course but somehow not quite as bad as the first time. Perhaps the lack of rain and arctic wind helped too!

We continued on across the boggy grassland and mud in bare feet as there wasn't much point putting our shoes back on. At the end, we just washed all the mud off (in more icy water).

On the way down, we saw a group of trekkers from Bangladesh and nearly every one of them wanted to stop and have a chat to ask where I'm from & how I liked the trek etc. There were 3 girls in the group, the first we've seen in a week as it seems it's mainly crazy guys who come out to go trekking in the rain!

In the lower altitudes, we came across a few sheep and goat herders. It's a pretty tough job and a lonely life out there as a shepherd since the only companions you have are your sheep, your dog and other shepherds that happen to be around.

One of the shepherds we passed was convinced that I had whisky in my water bottle so he followed us for a while to see if he could get some! Hahaha yes sure ... I'm going to drink whisky when I'm dehydrated from trekking!

It was amazing to see how quickly the vegetation changed as we descended. At Base Camp, it's just rocks and snow with the occasional flower and some moss or lichen on a few rocks.

A bit further down, there's grassland, alpine flowers interspersed with rocks to form huge meadows that cover both flat and hilly areas.

The types of flowers change rapidly too throughout the different altitudes. Eventually, we started to see a few scraggly bushes, then some small trees and eventually we were trekking through the forest again.

The campsite and the whole trek down all looked so different without all the cloud and rain! It was amazing to see the tops of the mountains that I'd only guessed were up there somewhere!

We eventually arrived at the Chikka campsite at 5 pm after about 10 hours of trekking. It was a BIG day and I was totally stuffed. Fortunately, my knees were still in pretty good shape and weren't hurting much at all, but I was really tired. I just flopped down on a stool to rest.

Raju, our cook, is a bit like your mum ... he always wants to bring you something. He couldn't understand it on the first day when I told him I didn't drink tea or coffee What kind of weird person doesn't drink tea and/or coffee?

"Tea" in India means chai tea as that's pretty much the only kind they drink - and it's really good! Anyway, I eventually gave in & let him make some tea for me a few times and after the day's trek was one of those times. I'd learned by now that it's often easier to just give in to him as he's very persistent at getting you to take whatever food or drink he's just made for you!

A little while later, he brought out a "snack" for us: a big plate of delicious pasta. having some food in my belly perked me up a lot and Indrajit and I sat by the river, discussing the trek and trekking in general.

As we sat, waiting for dinner, we laughed at some local cow herders who were wading across the river (about 100m downstream from a bridge!). The river was much wider and deeper at this point compared to where we crossed so they were in more of the freezing water for even longer. I felt much better about my reaction to the freezing water when I saw that even these guys were affected. It was funny to watch them when they got out of the water on the other side and tried to regain the use of their legs.

For dinner, Raju had made a special treat: Gulab Jarmin: basically balls of friend sugar and flour, served in sugar syrup. It's a lot of sugar, but I think we've earned it today. As always, he managed to coax me to take a few more!

As everyone was pretty tired, we all went to bed early at around 8.30pm and I slept pretty well. It was nice to have a bit more oxygen and funny to think that I thought this was low oxygen atmosphere just a few days ago!