HIMALAYAN WILD FLOWER JOURNAL

2012 SEPTEMBER 

Presently we undertook an expedition trip to Nandakot peak in Kopkot area of Bageswar district in Uttarakhand during the month of September. It is also a time of Nandadevi festival. In this corner of the nook it is performed with strong religious jest and fervor .

The rains were plentiful converting our short trek to the base camp a long drawn slushy affair.Not that we minded a trudge in the damp woods but the logistic nightmare of our transhipment process was a concern for the shoe string budget on which such  Bengali expedition teams from Kolkata operates. Motorable roads and bridges were washed away with flash flood,heavy rains and landslides which were unexpected at this season during which sky is expected to remain sprightly clear .To save cost we have to ferry loads in otherwise motorable roads till the mules took over our burden up to the base camp near the Pindari glacier .

 A bridge wipe out on our way to Song village  from Bharari in kopkot area

However this gave me and my buddy hiker Sumit da ample time to take a look at the vegitations around.  We forgot the  disappointment of an easy trek to base camp. DSLR and lenses are the least necessary items in such case where you wind in and wind out on steep climbs and serpentine trails through bushes, under a fallen trunk,over jagged rocks,slippery boulders ,river beds ,slushy mud so on and so forth. Clicking is not the priority as it is to make from point A to point B in say time = X . So botany beyond this math was not an exhilarating experience then.But it seems worth the effort of capturing the plants on our trail.I stowed away the pictures taken and simply forgot all about it. On a lazy sunday , going over those pictures again I found them very delightful long after the sense of awe of the humongous Himalayan peaks and inhumanities of a climb dusted off .At least to me it holds some journalistic value. So that I can recognize the little beauty and appreciate the landscape in my future expeditions.So I thought of summing up the flora I came across on those trails.I  and my buddy missed many little flowers on the rush .But still then i think we did get a rich booty of these tiny winy flowers.Now it is typical of me to never keep treasures alone I generally do share.And this time it will be no exception to my general disposition. I will be wrong on many identification ,which has its reason as I am not a Botanist far from it so if you I am wrong do please point me out.

Let me begin with a small description of our trail on a map ,red little arrows show the probable spots where the snaps might have been taken.

OUR LONGISH TRAIL FOR TRANSHIPMENT TO NANDAKOT BASE CAMP

A=DAKHURI

B= KHATI 

C=DWALI

D= FURKIA

E= BASECAMP

F= CAMP 1

G=CAMP 2

H= CAMP 3

I= Summit Camp

red arrows denotes the find of flowers 

unidentified flowers just off  Bharari  

Unidentified shrub with beautiful delicate white flowers at Song village

crossing lower lohar khet 

A DELIGHTFUL RASH OF "EAR LEAF PEARLY EVERLASTING" ON SLOPES OF LOHARKHET VILLAGE 

pink knotweed found on way to upper loharkhet

"Dalhouise Blue Bells" in ground cover of a jungle we passed on our way to dhakuri pass 

On reaching Dhakuri Bunglow through a steep pass 

 from dhakuri we crossed small challets where they cultivated "RAMDANA".We were on our way 

toward the last permanently inhabited village of the trail "Khati".

"Red grass pea" in Khati .

Beyond Khati on towards Dwali we found the following flowers.

                                                            "THOMSONS ASTER"

 UNKNOWN FLOWERS by side of some narrow flowered balsam

"Narrow Flowered Balsam"

"Violet Dandelion" (which is very similar to long leaved lettuce) 

another strange looking flowers i am not sure probably petals have weared off 

showy inula was found near a base of waterfall on the rock face and grassy knoll .Its on the opposite hill of Dwali.At Dwali the Kafni Nulla from Kafni glacier meets glacial streams from the Pindar nulla. "Showy Inula" has a philatelic representation.Since it appears on an Indian postage stamp .

Crossing of the grassy knoll , plenty of grasses here from Cheat grass,Garwal reed grass, Bulbous blue grass, Tiger grass to my favourite Pink fairy grass . After grassing through and crossing the stream we rested in DWLI bunglows for few hours to push on ahead to Furkia.

"Himalayan Knotweed" bushes thronging around streams on way to Furkia

 grazing ground of sheep on way to furkia with lot of vegitations around

"Red mountain fleece flower" was spotted on closure inspection of the grazing ground

Near our base camp .Our porters took a puff  before we passed pilot Babas ashram.It is a show of respect to Indian elders by younger people. We simply don't smoke or drink in front of seniors.Having said that it is not that Pilot baba is any older then us , but a man living a divine life of austerity alone in such great height needs to be respected.
Trails pass is right ahead beyond pilot babas house on the Pindari glacier .Changuch peak is on the right side of the frame and further on to the right of Changuch is Nandakot hidden from view. Here we pass a charming field of small herbs and ground cover with tiny beautiful yellow ,blue and white flowers I could not identify .We  set up a base camp 3 -5 km from here for the ascent of Nandakot.