Wednesday, the 3rd of June, 2009

10:30 pm

Dear Diary,

Today we went to the Aru (pronounced Aurdo) Wildlife Sanctuary which houses at least 5 mountains and Aru is supposedly India’s largest glacier. It felt like walking right into a picture postcard. These mountains shelter a narrow strip of grassy meadow through which many streams flow. Flowers of many colours grew in the meadow and horses grazed by the stream. We somehow ended up on horses. The horses went up and down some small hillocks and through some minor streams. The horses trod a well trodden path and seemed perfectly accustomed to their loads.

They finally stopped on the brink of a cliff. Below us, Tuli was so scared she had to be carried by the horseman while coming back.

After reaching the horses’ base camp, we had lunch in a restaurant there. I and Areeba decided to climb up a nearby hill after lunch, so that’s what everybody ended up doing we climbed up to a tree stump at the top of the hill. Ajaz Uncle, who had been carrying Arsh up the hill, sat down about 10 feet below us. When everybody had made it a good way up the hill, Areeba and I climbed down to a stream flowing at the foot of the hill, where we waded up to our knees. We were having a lot of fun when somebody (hi, mom!) came along, and said it was time to go.

I did not understand why we had to go to Betaab Valley if we were in a place as beautiful as this. I mean, what could be more beautiful than where we were right now? Nevertheless, we had to go.

We were greeted by the Lidder River, flowing rapidly. Across the river was a bridge leading to a path shaded by chinar and willow trees that met above our heads to form a green tunnel. There was a stream nearby where we put our feet in. I spotted the Lidder flowing about 100 meters away in another place. On this bend, the river was quiet slow flowing. What a perfect place to wash our feet, right? The water turned out to be so cold that I could not stay in it for more than ten seconds. Areeba could cross the entire stretch of water without a shiver.

Areeba has this… thing for collecting rocks and pebbles. So that is what we did through the afternoon-collect rocks.

In the evening, we visited a trout (it’s a fish) farm in Pahalgam where farmers harvest trout and sell them. A tank was built on a tributary of a small stream. The water runs through the tank and comes out at the other side of the stream, so the trout could live. Trout can survive only in running water.

When we reached the lodge, our luggage was already waiting for us in the office. The luggage was loaded up into the car (and so were we). After coming back from Betaab valley, we went to meet Areeba’s paternal cousins (Jehangir Chachu’s children), Basra (12), Hadiyah (5) and Zian (just 4 months). Basra and I got along well and Hadiyah was very cheery. Zian just looked at me with eyes that bulged with curiosity. Goodnight…

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