Challenging body limits!!!

After a long time, my fingers are again typing words on my blog and oh boy...I almost forgot when I wrote a proper blog last time. And this is a challenge that I put forward to me to have the blogging hands run continuously...no matter what.

Well, talking of challenges, I now want to share my recent body challenge while my trek to Trikuta mountains which to many of you, yes, will remind about Mata Vaishno Devi. For others who are unaware, this is the hill where resides the mythological figure, goddess Vaishnavi or Vaishno Devi, as called in general. Essentially, the valley of Trikuta Mountain has the auspicious abode to Vaishno Devi Temple and Shrine. While I am not that religious but challenge to climb a hill 1560 meters above sea level was encouraging and challenging simultaneously.
Challenging, because with age I had felt that my health, stamina and will power declining and certainly the trek with 1000 meter plus height above sea level is, in general, a challenging activity especially if it is time-bound.
Encouraging, because with this trek, I was willing to break the buster of being old and convince myself (at-least mentally if not physically) by making myself believe psychologically that I am not done yet, I am still young and restless. :)
And finally, above all let my wife know of my strong will power and strength.

So it begins. We had chosen an awkward time of 1 AM to start our trek and targeted to be back by morning 8 AM. This was an optimistic goal, which practically was quite challenging to achieve. But I had my business call to take the next day and coming back early was important. Also, we chose late night for avoiding the hot temperature of the day. (Though it was not hot as per our standards as it was monsoon but still we have not taken any risk. You never know when the sun can shine just above your head in north). Also, we were expecting less crowd in our way during the late-night journey. As we headed towards the top we found ourselves aloof alone and confused, if we have taken the right path. There was a new path which was recently opened for visitors, which is not used by visitors much as of now and is a little longer. We have taken that route and it was dark, with the only couple of people visible after a km or two. Anyways I was in full 'enthu' showing my strength, running in ahead of my wife for initial half an hour, I guess. Suddenly I started feeling tired, all drenched in sweat and feeling too much heat on my body. After an hour, I felt I can not catch my wife anymore with the steady and smooth trek she was having. Also, I was needing rest after every 20 mins or so...while my wife was all ready for trekking continuously. And here came the eye-opener for me. How much I have wasted my body in these last years. Once I use to run entire mid-size stadium four times without any 'uffs' and 'aahs', and here I am today with needing rest, paining calf and thighs just after a steep walk of almost 1.5 hours. After which I almost left the hope to reach to the top of the valley where the temple was situated. My entire heroism got shattered. And my entire idea of making myself believe good of my youthfulness, gone in the trash too. And after some time my legs started shaking little. I was feeling as wasted, especially in front of my highly active wife who like Johnnie Walker was 'Keep Walking'.
It was all foggy and dark night with the jungle in the surrounding. It was almost when I planned to quit, it started raining. We were inside shade still could feel drizzles touching us. I could feel rejuvenated and more energetic as more drizzles were making my body wet and finally I decided to take a quick shower in rain. And it worked. It almost took away a lot of my exhaustiveness and fatigue. And I felt as if I have gained some energy and started walking again with all energy.

Getting Rejuvenated in Rain

And it must be another 20 mins of walk after that and duuh...I was down again. All my pomp and show of being energetic again was reduced to the size of the atom. Finally, somehow I reached to a central post where we could rest and eat for some time. And that has given me some break which led me to start again. And this time I was adamant of winning over all my tiredness. And I walked continuously for a long time. But again a time and situation came when I started feeling cold and shivering, obviously with exhausted as well. Suddenly I could see the glimpse of the temple, the ultimate trek goal. And it was more serene than I thought of. The image below speaks of itself. That first view gave me another push to reach toward the goal. Thinking of it's just 'little more', I dragged myself along the way. I was way beyond my wife in my stamina and energy but not in determination.

The first glimpse

While I was entirely drenched in sweat, for which my wife was afraid of if I am getting dehydrated, I was getting energized by this view of snow and cloud clad mountains through which artificial lights were making their rooms during dawn. And getting attracted by the same view I further moved and in a while, we could now see the view of the temple which was mesmerizing. Though I was tired obviously, suddenly this picture made me walk for the milestone. And I moved again...

First view of temple

Finally, I reached atop, to the temple. Not only I did that, but I also stood their straight for one hour waiting for the turn to enter the temple. Round of temple took another hour. So overall it was an exhaustive trek which challenged my body limits. As I was feeling proud of myself for completing it and boasting in front of my wife, I suddenly started feeling cold and body started shivering. All my prized and possessed moments are taken by something or someone wrong. That's the tragedy of my life which I have now accepted harshly. And so happened here where all my happiness were taken away by the sudden fever that I started feeling in my body. Knowing the fact that I had to go downhill the same distance, my spine got chilled. While all through this, my wife kept making fun of me for I was just somehow able to complete the trek. That's what she thought. And since I was having fever, I could not even say that I am all fine. And with an act of losing my dignity, I asked her if we can go downhill on the horse instead of walking. And she understood what was going inside me. We took the horse ride back. Anyways sharing some images of ours and our moment in Jammu.

Happy together downhill

Together at top

Posing