Everyone wants adventure in their life but what happens when they face the real adventure?

Hey guys , I am Gaurav a travel photographer.
Its been 6 years when i started clicking and from last 2-3 years I am in mumbai working as a freelance Photographer.

I am just 21, travel and adventure is what attracts me so I did all the adventure sports possible  (white water rafting, rock climbing, bungy jumping) all in Rishikesh but honestly I felt I was trying to interact with nature’s adventure within civilised world.

So this blog is about how I broke the wall of comfort adventure in my life . As I told I am a photographer and  I got a project of operating Drone in Ladhak for NDTV, YESSSS!! I know thats a dream project and as I am an adventure lover I wanted to do it. I cracked the interview and my portfolio did everything else – I got the job. I got a mail mentioning 30% less oxygen, 14000ft above sea level, 6-8 hours trek per day. All this made me more excited and I started doing what everyone do in this situation – Shopping (camera lens and accessories, trekking shoes, sleeping bag etc )

I came to Delhi  where i met the crew Ridhima ma”am(Producer) and Manoj Sir (Head DOP) , they both were really amazing .All of us were gonna work on a documentary LIGHTING THE HIMALAYAS SEASON 2.

Global Himalaya Expedition is taking around 19 volunteers from all over the world to light up a village Shade. This village is in Zanskar Valley , you will not find much about this village on google. I will tell about this village later.

DAY 1

So we comes to DAY 1 where we take off from New Delhi to Ladhak ( The Dream Of Every Photographer)

We Landed in Ladhak , I really can’t tell how awesome that feeling was being in Ladhak finally , so Ladhak was my dream when i was in 9th grade Dreams Come True.

“Vahan Ki Hawa Main Hi Kuch Alag Tha”    

We landed at 8am and we rested for that full day, body need to acclimatize in new climate.

Day 2 acclimatize

Tibetan food, I heard a lot about thukpaa and momos in ladhak both of them were as per  the expectations, then I took couple of timelapse from our hotel itself.
In Ladhak no matter where you are, the view is worth capturing.

Day 3

After 2 days of acclimatizing  we were ready to start our work, we met all the participants this day and felt lucky to make couple of friends with whom we were gonna trek for days .

The thing I love the most about travel is you meet new people, you start sharing  your stories to each other and you never know in the end you make some friends.
I remember someone on this trip came to me and asked “Gaurav, Kya Kahani Hai tumhari? (whats your story)”  and there we started sharing our stories. On this trek there was really a strong significance of people around because they were the one who motivated you when your body gave up after 10 hours of trek, everyday someone was getting injured but there was so many people to help that one, you were not alone…

So we met everyone and then we all left for a monastery and Ladhak local market. I was shooting on Gopro Hero 5 and Canon 60D.

Here is the link of all the time-lapses I shot that day, NDTV recently posted this video of facebook.

It was good day came back to hotel, that was the last day to sleep in a hotel after this a better place was waiting for us.

Day 4

On this day we left the city Leh to reach Sarchu, its the one of the most adventurous highway of india. We were gonna cross Tanglang La pass, elevation 5,328 metres (17,480 ft)and I had to fly my drone there. I was warned about the oxygen level and as we were going up, I could feel that in my head , it started aching and the precaution for this is drink alot of water and your body will acclimatize accordingly, I did that and also managed to fly my drone at really high winds.

Drone batteries were dying very fast because of high altitude, took some shots quickly and thats it we get into the car and left that pass.

When we were in the car and I was using my gopro with a gimbal all the time, got some really beautiful views, I want to tell you that the best equipment for this terrain was Gopro it gives you freedom to shoot anything anywhere with amazing quality.

So we the NDTV crew were in a SUV and everyone else was in 2 small busses, to capture the journey of those participants we get up on the carrier of the car and started shooting them. Ye Mera Sapna Tha It was my dream to be on the roof of a car and shoot the roads and everything, I was using Gopro Hero 5’s superview angle with a 3axis gimbal and that was one of the best footage i have captured from my Gopro.

It was very difficult to coordinate with the busses as there was no signals and then we have to reach our destination at time so we the NDTV crew used to be ahead of those 2 buses so that we can set up or Camera and Drone to take some shots of their journey.

We reached Sarchu that , first night of camping and we got disconnect from the world, no networks in phones for next 8 days. That was something I never experienced, honestly I am a phone and internet addict and how I deal with was really interesting.
Our tents were really comfortable and I was like this is easy staying in these 5 stars camps but then someone told me this is not we are gonna get from tomorrow.
The real adventure was gonna start from next morning which is our trekking towards the village of Shade. We slept at 10pm as we needed to wake up early next day.

Day 5

Here comes the 5th day and we are up at 5am.

We left sarchu by car to Zangskar sumdho, the roads were again amazing, have a look

Everything was going well and then we got stuck in traffic,

When we started walking towards the reason of traffic , we saw this-

We were on Leh Manali Highway and the first obstacle enters , Landslide.
there were 100s of Vehicles stuck in that landslide.
It was 9 am , 3 JCB machines were fixing the road.Honestly we had great time there, on a side there was a traffic of 100s vehicles and the other side the scenery was really amazing so we all sat on the rocks and then story telling part begins. I really enjoyed that  obstacle.

At Around 3-4pm the road was back to working condition and these 6 hours was enough to make our make our plan fail. We can’t start our 1st day of trek in night so organisers decided to stay at a nearest accommodation available which was an hour away. We reached to a place where there was like 10 shops and restaurants where every shop had a homestay for 4 people and thats it we got our night safe. Now our awaiting trek will start from the next morning.

Day 6

We woke up at 5am and we left that place of 10 shops. Now our cars were moving towards Shingolaa pass which is at 1658ft, our car will go till a limit and then our trek begins but lets talk about journey till trek.

There were couple of obstacles as usual, so we experienced landslide but what next.

I started taking Gopro shots and Drone shots how everyone was working together to make our way  and then when its done first our vehicles cross the way and then us by the help of the Ladhaki people.

Someone warned me about crossing this with my shoes on but then i was holding my drone Remote control, my drone was  flying while i was crossing so i dont want to remove my shoes and this was a mistake on my first day of trek.

We get into the car, we were about to reach so  i needed to pack my drone, Gopro, drone car charger, power-bank and all these type of stuff in my one bag. We gave our luggage to horses and were carrying our cameras and stuff.

Then We Started Our Trek to Nowhere…

In the beginning the terrain was easy as you can see, it was path on which we need to walk. But I was not aware, what coming next…

Here it is…

My hands were freezing, it was even difficult to hold a Gopro and capture whats happening around us but I wanted to do that.

It started raining which made our trek more difficult and freezing. We were moving towards Shinkula pass.

Shinkola Pass was at around 16615 ft (5064m) altitude, temperature was below 0 degree and we were trekking.
isn’t it a dream for adventure lover like me ?

On the first day of trek they landed us on a glacier at 0 degree temperature with a trekking stick and then i realised whats the real adventure is…
when you are just scared to take that step because it could be your last step (I mean it).
And you are not on a holiday , you have shoot also. I was using my Go Pro in the beginning(i cant use my dslr or drone)

everyone’s body have limitations to do something difficult, mine just crossed those limits.
We were trekking from couple of hours on ice which made me to tired and the freezing cold just made it worse. Honestly i wanted to give up but the best part was you can’t give up on a trek like this where there is no civilised cities near to make you feel comfortable.
Then then here was a time when it was too cold and rainy that i had to keep my go pro in my pocket and concentrate on trek…

“Boss Ab Toh Chalna Hi Tha”

So we were going down after crossing Shinkola pass…

We crossed the glacier the toughest part of or trek and finally I took my drone out for this last snow part, it was so crazy that if u slip on that snow you are dead (zoom it, there are people helping each other to cross this last part alive) 
So about my drone, it was raining a little there was warning pop-up while operating it that the battery temperature should be 25 and it is less than 5 degree FLY WITH CAUTION, thats an expensive equipment to take that kind of risk…

I really love this shot because this shots shows how difficult it was to shoot at this terrain.

We came down and had our lunch which is arranged my the GHE team, I remember that sip of hot tea after crossing that part of our trek. We were trekking for like 5-6 hours and we all were tired like hell after a break we continued our trek.

We crossed this river and now the terrain was slightly easy than before…

Then we trekked for like hours

The first day of our trek was going to end and we trekked for like 15 hours on all the different kinds of terrain.
Sun was down now, it was pitch dark but we were still waiting for destination…

Now I want to come on the name of this blog, why i have named it “TREK TO NOWHERE”  when we have destination the village Shade.
After trekking for like 15 hours with a non bearable pain in our legs, I was talking to Sidharth (GHE volunteer and my Friend) –

Gaurav – Bhai, Hum Ja Khaan Rahe Hain ? ( Brother, where are we going? )
Sidharth – Bhai, Voh Chod Ye Bata Hum kyun Ja Rahe Hain ? (Brother, leave that tell me why are we going? )

We laughed with the best pain of our lives and i felt that-

The Shade village is too far to be somewhere OR it is in the middle of Nowhere

And Here We Are Trekking To Nowhere…

We reached to our camps at 9pm and after dinner we went off to sleep from our first day of trek.

DAY 7

This morning, we slept till 7 am because we deserved 3 hours extra sleep after trekking for 15 hours and as you can see finally our real tents are out.

The villagers came to our campsite to greet us with tea and biscuits.

I really love this gesture Ladhakis show.

So on our way we saw an interesting event , where villagers were welcoming their LAMA.

Juley means Namashkar (Hello) used by Ladhakis with a big smile on their face. Ladhkis made me fall in love with their kind nature.

Next stop was in a village for lunch, after reaching that village I removed my shoes and just wanted to rest for sometime.

Villagers welcomed us with their traditional dance and music and I fall in love with the songs they were singing.

After having lunch,
We took an interview of a young and beautiful girl of this village.

So we left this village and  trekked for like couple of hours and reached our 2nd Campsite at 5pm, that was perfect time we took some shots of that village and relaxed a bit for a change and spent some great time with the team.

While capturing this shot of valley, I was hopping to get clean sky tonight but it was too cloudy. I love Night Sky Photography(Star trails, Milkyway).

And as the sun goes down, we had dinner and after that when I came our of our tent,
I saw something for which my eyes were waiting for YEARS…
I haven’t seen this clear night sky ever in my life, the first thing I did was made my camera and tripod ready to capture for what i was waiting for years.

I took a night sky time-lapse and get off to sleep in my tent…

Thats how our 2nd day of trek ended.

DAY 8

I used to pray for a clear sky and God gave me that, last Night I saw Milkyway for the first time but who knew that clear sky will become the reason for our toughest trekking day. It was a hot sunny day, I realised its  easy to trek on a glacier than trekking under a hot sun. We only had to trek for like 4 hours to reach Phugtal Monastery but because of sun, it took us 6-7 hours…

Honestly my legs were shivering, I couldn’t walk straight and believe me, it’s not at all easy to walk on stones. The day was full of pain.

We were trekking towards Phugtal Monestry, sun was on its worst Phase.
We were reaching to phugtal in like 10 mins, this bridge came in my sight and I was like whats this. Our porters told us that only one or two person at a time can walk from this bridge and our horses couldn’t pass. You can see the horses on the other side, It was too windy and the flow of river was high, while we were crossing the bridge
I was just wondering there are some people who deal with these type of problems everyday.

And that’s me crossing the bridge and keeping each step carefully.

After crossing that bridge we reached Phugtal Monastery, the season one of the documentary was about how GHE lights up Phugtal. It was a beautiful place

Team visiting the Monastery, they were being told about how last year this Monastery got solar power electricity by GHE.
We stayed near Monastery in our tents, the best part was the sky was still clear I was excited to get some night sky shots today.

And yes the sky was much more clear.

I don’t wanted to sleep that night, I wanted to capture this sky whole night.
Took some couple of shots and a night sky time-lapse and it was enough to make me sleep as I needed to get recharged for the next day.

Day 9

8-10 hour trek waiting for us to begin our day. After completing this day trek, only 4 hours of trek will be left to reach the village Shade.

Today we were gonna cross a pass, these path on which we all were trekking was made by the villagers (Kacha Rasta), these path used be destroyed very frequently by rain or a thunderstorm. So today we were gonna experience the paths where every step was taken with the risk. We used to hold hands of porters and guides to cross those tough areas and there was a mountain on which there was no way, we can’t cross it so we have to climb up the mountain pass which was straight up to the top of it.

Can you see that black dog between me and sir, he was trekking with us for like last 2 days without any reason, Manoj sir told me stories of him trekking in Himachal and a dog came with them from nowhere and how he made that trek easy for him. I just feel that this dog was also giving us some positive energy to complete this trek which is for a good cause. Team gave him a name “DOGGYJI”. There is a thing about these Mountains, you will always find these type of undefined energies there…

Have you ever seen this clear water in your life ?
We saw this blue water clean water coming from a glacier and we all took our bottles out to have the best mineral water in my life, as it is coming from glacier we don’t need a Fridge to make it cool.

After getting recharged from this water we had, it’s the time to get on our next obstacle.
Again the way was not good ahead so we needed to walk it down and the climb up.

You can see in the above picture, there is a broken way (left upside) on which we can’t go so we were going down from the mountain and then we were gonna climb it up from the other side. That was real adventure.

We just crossed all these pass and we were gonna reach to our destination soon then we got to know that there is some issue with horses, everyday these horses used to take all the luggage and tents which stuck in somewhere after Phugtal and now we don’t have any tents to stay and food to eat tonight, like wow that’s icing on the cake, after reaching to the campsite at around 4 pm our GHE leaders decided that instead of waiting for tents which was uncertain, we are gonna trek more till the village Shade. Everyone was so exhausted but we have to trek till the village shade now.

I couldn’t trek anymore and like me there were many, so other team-mates offered to hold our bags so that we can trek till Shade.

And after like 3 hours we were there to reach Shade, we were welcomed by the villagers 500m before and they offered us tea biscuits and their local Alcohol “Chang”. 

It was one of the most painful day of our trek, almost trekked for 15 hours which was 40kms in a day, we all were too tired but you know what after reaching to that beautiful village, everything we did was paid off by the beauty of that village Shade

Sun was going down, everyone congratulating each other that they all made it till shade, that evening we all experienced the best sunset because we all could see the colours of victory in the sky.

We all settled in a house for tea and refreshments where GHE leaders gave toast as everyone made it to Shade and shared the idea of gifting electricity to the village Shade.
And yes our horses didn’t showed up, tonight we have to eat what these villagers eat and we have to sleep in these house. This village has a telephone through which we can inform our families that we are safe, so after 6 days i called my father and he said “Beta Khaan Ho ? Apne Desh Main Hi Ho na ? ” and i got to know that he was too worried about me as we don’t have any phone connection and its a dangerous trek.

DAY 10

In 2017 there are more 90 lakh people in Himalayas who don’t have the necessity of our lives – Electricity. Himalaya is very complex , it is very difficult for the government to set up the tradition electric suppliers here. So here comes the Global Himalaya Expedition  who setup solar grids to supply electricity in these villages. The team NDTV is covering the whole expedition. The village Shade situated in Zanskar region is in one of the most remotest village of Country. We were told that in winters you cannot travel in these areas and the villagers are stuck here. A pregnant lady have to trek for days to reach to the nearest hospital in the city, there is only one telephone in the whole village and the most shocking thing that they were not even aware about the demonetisation in India for months.

And This Village Was Going To Get Electricity In One Day… 

We were trekking for days, we have seen so many different terrains but this village was something else. Shade was looking like a painting.

When you almost there to enter this villages, the vibes totally change. From tough rocky mountains, it started looking so beautiful to be real.

This morning we visit the village properly and interacted with the villagers, it was great to know about their lifestyle and then we meet these two kids.

I tried to talk to them, they were not getting my language obviously but some how I convinced both of these kids for some pictures.Then i started interacting with the villagers in their houses

Then finally our horses came to the village and we got our luggage…

After evaluating the village requirements of electricity, the team started working.

The team understood how to set up a solar power grid and then they were divided in groups.

it was very difficult for everyone to carry these heavy batteries and solar panels as the village was on slope of a mountain.

Here you can see how they setup the electricity in the houses.

By the evening GHE Setup the Solar Power Grid to the Village Shade, within a day one of the remotest village in our country got electricity. Isn’t It Amazing ?

Then we setup our cameras on the roof of town hall,one in front village and obviously my drone was in flight. All the villagers and GHE team came in from of village and they switched on the electricity and from that night shade village never gonna be in dark.

It’s the finale so we setup our cameras on the roof of town hall,one in front village and obviously my drone was in flight. All the villagers and GHE team came in front of village and they switched on the electricity and from that night shade village never gonna be in dark again.

Everyone shouted and the villagers were dancing out of happiness. Then we all moved to the town hall to continue the celebration.

Everyone Gathers in the town hall and the celebration begins with their traditional music.

They served their local alcohol which is Chang.

And yes they had a big mug of that, celebration continued till late night…

I took some portraits when they were leaving and then we also moved towards our tent.
That night, i was packing all my stuff into my bag as all the cloths and cameras,drone, memory cards laptop wires were all over the tent, while packing all these stuffed i knew what was the last thing i gonna do tonight Taking This Shot !

Every photographer have a dream shot in his mind that “one day I will shoot this” so this was dream shot and Dreams Come True…

I used  ultra wide angle lens and setup my DSLR on a mini tripod which is placed on our luggage and took this shot, if you guys remember i choose this tent in the morning which have clear view towards the valley and the sky so this was reason. It was a big tiring day so took some couple of shots and I go off to sleep. At 4am i woke up of a dream being in my home town Gwalior, relaxing in my room under AC and every comfort which my body needed at that time and i see blue tent when I open my eyes, guys that was painful as woke up because of those cramps in my legs and freezing cold in my sleeping bag.I just wanted to go home but I have trek back also. All these thoughts in my mind was just making me emotionally weak and forcing me to give up but then a voice comes-

I Cant Give Up, All This Is What I Want. I Am Not Gonna Get These Beautiful Places To Shoot Within My Comfort Zone, I Have To Do This…

Then I just go to sleep…

DAY 11

We woke up and after breakfast I explained my leg pain to the Dr. on board and then he banged my foots, so that’s how i got some support in my legs to trek. We were going back from a different route, we were gonna trek till Phugtal and then to Ammu Village to reach Kargil.
We started our trek then

When you are trekking for hours, the best thing you can get is a stream like this where you fill up your bottles and get some energy to keep trekking.
Now again we need to cross that pass which we did while coming to Shade, it was more difficult from this side, straight up to Mountain but somehow we did it and reached Phugtal by evening…

When you are trekking for hours, the best thing you can get is a stream like this where you fill up your bottles and get some energy to keep trekking.
Now again we need to cross that pass which we did while coming to Shade, it was more difficult from this side, straight up to Mountain but somehow we did it and reached Phugtal by evening…

Took some of these pictures in Phugtal.

And the day ended well.

DAY 12

So this was the last day of our trek and I realised that I am loving it. I was enjoying the trek too much. All these days crying over the trek and pain it gives made me start loving it more than anything.

I was really enjoying this day and just don’t it to end.

Can you look at those patches on our path, that where our way is almost destroyed and its a bit tricky to cross that because if you will put too much wait on that part, it go down and you will slip. There were hundreds of those in our path.

We were threre to reach Ammu Village like in 500m, our was really narrow and then we heard some noises of stone falling from upstairs. Roads were being build from Ammu to Phugtal and because of that the trekking path was destroyed. What a news right ?
Everybody was tensed we were on a mountain and there no way ahead but our GHE leaders found that the way is 80 percent destroyed and we have an option to climb up the mountain and get on the road, we were not having any-other choice so we just trekked forward, one by one with a proper distance between us. So on these tough phases i used to take help from our guide but here he was helping some one else and some how i gained confidence to do it own my own, honestly on every step the small stones were falling and we our foots were slipping like there is no proper base under your foot so we had to trek fast and carefully otherwise we will lose our lives for sure. I felt that was the most difficult part of our trek as it was not possible to take pictures or videos from my GoPro of that difficulty. And yes I climbed that part alone and then we reached to the end of the trek – Ammu Village

Completing the trek made me feel that I have acheived something, here I pushed my body beyond its limitations, allways tried to be motivated and all that pain I felt here just become pleasure when I was posing for this picture.

We all went to the village Ammu, they welcomed us with the refreshments and we rested  here.

And then obviously the kids from the village,

We stayed there for like 2-3 hours waiting for our vehicles to come.

That day cars took us from Ammu Village to Padum , it was a small town where we stayed in proper hotel, I took long shower after 7-8 days and then the dinner, that felt so good to have all that. Next day we leave to Kargil and then LEH , after that Delhi. Its been exactly 3 months now and

This all I want to say  –

I regret, 
I regret that exposure was one point extra,
I regret that I couldn’t capture that frame in my camera,
I regret that I was 15 mins late on that sunrise,
I regret that slept early on that clear sky night,
I regret that I couldn’t achieve that shot what i planned for ,
I regret to sleep, eat, rest, 
I really could shoot a lot more…

I want to thank Ridhima ma”am and Manoj sir, I learned alot from both of them and i think we were a great team…
Watch The Documentary NDTV LIGHTING THE HIMALAYAS SEASON 2

And Thats How I Broke The Wall Of Comfort and Experienced The Real Adventure…