As I had mentioned earlier my inspiration for this trip was for Anaya to experience snow. This year, Kashmir had the driest winter in almost 40 years and there was a very high probability we neither get any snow nor any of the natural green beauty Kashmir is famous for. Up until now all we saw were withered trees or trees whose green leaves seemed brown due to the dust accumulation due to lack of snow.
Boy this was about to change. When I read up on Sonmarg, I saw this image:
So when Ridhi and I were discussing our attires for the day, I confidently told her its going to be a bright and sunny day and we do not need to worry. Boy was I wrong. On the way to Sonmarg, our driver informed us that we will be going up to the Thajiwas glacier where we will definitely find snow and we will need to do so on horseback. Seemed fine. But this was not any normal horse ride. Considering the size of the horses which we were allocated, it seemed unlikely they would take our weights. But we were assured these are the best horses for the conditions so apprehensively we got on them. The path to the glacier itself was full up steep curves and honestly I found the ride quite scary at some places where we were right on the ledge.
Once we reached the glacier, we were awestruck by the views. The breathtaking beauty was again spoilt by the vendors who would offer you sledging services and were extremely aggressive while at it. Kashmir tourism has to work on how the local populace treats tourists otherwise there will come a time when people will start looking for alternatives.
The kids were extremely excited to see snow for the first time in their lives and they immediately got to work building some sort of a structure the name of which only they know.
Who the boss?
Now for every 2 horses, you get a helper who walks on foot to the glacier and once you reach the glacier, they themselves offer sledging services. Once the temperatures started to drop we decided it was time to get back as the kids had started to feel cold. Vikas had also slipped while crossing a stream and was drenched. Imagine drenched clothes in -5C weather. We got to where our helpers had dropped us of and to our surprise 2 of them had gone away to give sledging sessions. We were made to wait around half an hour in biting cold whilst the third helper found them and their horses.
The horseback ride back was excruciating as the temperature had further dipped and we were quite drained from all the horseback riding and walking in the snow. It had got quite windy and the helper who was with Anaya and me informed me that kids tend to fall asleep and I should ensure the Anaya does not fall asleep. Anaya is not the kind of kid who takes an afternoon nap but even she started telling me that she was sleepy. I asked the helper to hold on to her the entire time and I kept chatting with her the entire ride back.
Luckily we made it to the car without any incident. Vikas wasn’t so lucky. He fell off his horse right at the end of the ride. Luckily didn’t get hurt just had to shell out for hotel laundry.
For people who do not ride horses normally, the experience can be quite taxing specially in the lower half of the body. My horse riding quota for the trip was done and so was the kids.
Stopped at a dhaba for tea on the way back and called it a day once back at the hotel.
My Little Munchkin 