Hello All,
In this blog, I’m gonna write about my trip to Rani Sui Lake and Maili Thach with my brother and a guest from AirBnB.
Thach is a local word used for a meadow. Maili Thach is a meadow on the top of the mountain next to my village Baragran near Manali. It’s about 7-8 km away from the last moterable spot and takes around 3 hours of hiking time. The above photograph is taken after hiking for about 15 mins from our starting point.
It was a cloudy day with frequent splashes of rain. We even witnessed a couple of whiteouts. Maili Thach is about 3500m above sea level which is quite high. Because of this being at high altitude, it seemed that we were hiking above the clouds.
Now we were about to reach Maili Thach which is also a base camp for our real expedition, The Rani Sui Lake.
Views from Maili Thach were mesmerising. It literally felt like we were on the top of the world. We already crossed the tree line and now there were meadows all around us with huge mountains and clouds.
It was an incredible experience reaching Maili Thach but now we needed to move forward to more difficult and higher terrain.
The above photograph shows the rocks that we needed to cross at around 3700m to reach Rani Sui lake. This was the most difficult part of the trek apart from frequent ups and downs of the mountains on the slippery slopes.
After crossing those rocks, we were already about to reach 4000m and also witnessed snow around us.
Now the terrain around us looked tranquil and fresh. Fresh snow was melting and feeding the cute colourful flowers in the meadows. This was truly a magical place.
The photos are not at all paying justice to the experience I had there with all the fragrances and cool breezes involved with the majestic views.
I also made an ODI (a stack of stones for good luck) on my way. We are just and hour away from the Lake from this place.
We needed to cross this mountain and climb the next one to see the lake.
While crossing, we witnessed a complete whiteout. We were not even able to locate our way towards the lake so we waited until it cleared out.
After clearing out, the views were even better and clearer. We could see the complete view of the Kullu Valley with all the high mountains around the valley in its full glory.
Finally we reached the lake after a long and tiring hike. Here a picture of my brother near the Lake.
The lake was still partially frozen and it was getting cooler there due to wind. We also bought some hot tea with us from my home that we enjoyed near the lake.
That tea was the best tea I ever had in my life.
After staying there for half an hour, we needed to head back and we were not at all prepared for a night stay. We needed to get back to my village which was about 12 km away from the Lake.
On my way down I found this skull of a bird which I found really interesting. I was not able to figure out the bird from the skull. If you guys can figure it out, tell me in the comments.
The views on the way back down were also amazing. I made another ODI facing the valley on my way back down.
I also found a shelter made my shepherds in case of emergency or whiteouts in this extreme place. That encouraged me that we will survive even if something goes horribly wrong.
We were running out of time, so we rushed back down. I also found some really interesting stones eroded by fast winds and snow over time. This place made me realise that how great our Mother Nature is.
The views were getting even better as the weather cleared out. The below photos are some of the best photos I’ve ever captured in my entire life.
It looked like the clouds were kissing those mountains. It’s was one of the best experiences of my life. It felt like I was in the middle of a movie scene.
I was walking barefoot all this time and took some time to catch my breath. I had corns ok my foot which got swollen with the moisture from the grass. It looked terrible but I was not feeling much pain and still continued to walk barefoot.
Now as we descended from the mountain, we again started seeing vegetation and life.
We reached back home around dawn and were very tired. It was a really long day for all of us and a trip that we’re gonna remember all our life.
I slept like a tank that day for 10 hours straight and dreamt about the place I just visited and the experiences I just witnessed.
I hope you guys also get a feel of my trip through this blog.
Love from Himalayas.