Seven Lakes Trek- Anini- Arunachal - Days 1 & 2
Journeys have a way of helping you understand what your priorities are, help you zoom out of your life and help you see what really sticks out. And for us, me specifically, the standout grace was health. Physical and mental-
Day 1
The trek starts of in Emuli Grasslands. It was a fine sunny day to start with, and ended in a drizzle. A very simple trail, one foot in front of the other while surrounded by the low shrubs all around. This was also our first introduction to the black flies (dum dims) and while we remembered to slap on Dettol every fifteen minutes (yours truly needed breaks 'only' to slap these on) these pesky insects won't leave you alone. While we hadn't yet resigned ourselves to the fact that we will be bitten, I did notice that they had landed a bite just about every exposed area of skin. The day ended at Camp 1- windy, chilly but comfortable with tent under shelter type of accomodation. We made trek in under four hours, a time our lead confirmed would mean we were fit enough for the trek.
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| Emuli Grasslands, Emuli Village |
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| Camp Conversations, Camp 1 |
Day 2
This was my absolute favourite terrain. Mountains, lakes, beaches and oceans are gorgeous, but for me and my heart, nothing beats the sounds, sights and life one finds in a forest. Especially the quick flight of birds, the strange magical and mysterious sounds in the night, the miniature mushroom civilizations and ofcourse beautiful flowers amongst neon green foliage, moss and wet wood. It was also my slowest day, especially given the multitude of distractions, we clocked an even six hours.
This is where we met some of our army men, who kindly offered us warm tea and wished us luck for the rest of our travels. We also understood the key rationale for the gum boots- simple! We sunk in slush almost knee deep, and gum boots easily prevented the 'stick'. The sound of the vaccum as we pulled our feet out of the muck is one I'll always remember fondly, along with the murmurings of greatfullness to whatever spirit possessed me to chuck my comfy Columbias for simple, cheap gummies. We ended the day amongst pine and rhondendron trees, by a stream in a smoky cabin in the woods. The epic Day 3 beckoned us.
Our hosts in Anini had attempted this trek, and they told us Day 3 was the one to watch out for. Quite a few folks had returned from this leg, because of its impossibleness. This was my time to be anxious, but very quickly I found myself dismissing it as tomorrows problem- for today was one of the best days of my life.
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