IAYP TREK - A REPORT

23rd November 2013 - Ecole Globale International Girls' School, Dehradun

The Bronze aspirants of Ecole Globale International Girls' School, ventured on a fifteen kilometer trek that led them deep into the heart of the village Horrawala - a place amply endowed with greenery and scenic beauty. 

The month of November it was, but in the Garhwal Hills, the sun was shining bright. One after the other you could see girls shedding their extra baggage - their cardigans and jackets! 

To the first-timers, the walk was long and tedious, for the veterans, very energizing! Tall, stately sal trees contributed to the picturesque landscape and there were monkeys in droves! It was great to see them swinging on the branches, some with their little babies clinging to them as they moved like trapeze artists in a circus. As we reached into our bags, we were warned by the instructor not to feed the monkeys.

Suddenly, we stood transfixed! What was that strange creature standing poised before us? A huge iguana, its scaly back gleaming in the sunlight, looked curiously at the lot of us. We looked on in wonder. It was our very first encounter with this giant lizard -- like beauty that is a native of these parts. Once it had inspected each one of us properly, the iguana lost interest, and disappeared into the bushes. Whew! That was amazing.

We moved on squealing in excitement to see the many other such beings of the wild. A mongoose here, a wild fowl there. What an adventure!

The most looked-forward-to part about the trek was, of course, the mid-way-snack that was prepared by the girls themselves. Sandwiches were wolfed down followed by refreshing glassfulls of fruit juice and the girls were already running high on adrenalin, waiting to hit the track again. 

On our way back, we visited a local dairy farm and were sure amused by the moos of hundreds of perfectly spotted Holstein Friesian cows that were around! To see how the milking process was carried out was informative and interesting. We look forward to more such treks.  Click for pictures