Ouch! Ouch, ouch, ouch! My feet were killing me. We were at Wan. It was late afternoon by the time we reached. We broke camp at Bedini Bugiyal around 8 am and walked down, down, down through the trees all the way to the valley floor. There we sat by the side of the stream for almost an hour. Others came, stopped a few minutes and then went on, but we sat and sat and eventually Amit slept stretched out on the grass with the sun on his face.

There was a bridge across the river, and the other side, the path went up again. Forty minutes up and 20 minutes down would see us at Wan, or so we had been told. So up we climbed, taking our time over it, so that it was an hour before we reached the top. It was quite hot by now in the mid afternoon sun. From the top, we could see down into a bowl on the other side, with many houses and small buildings scattered around. The main cluster of houses looked more than 20 minutes away, but we carried on gamely. The path went down, sloping gradually and curving this way and that. It would have been easy walking but for one thing. The path was made of medium sized and extremely unevenly laid stones. At every step, ones feet were twisted at uncomfortable angles. Very soon the toes were getting a battering, trying to break the fall of each footstep.

Twenty minutes came and went, then 30, then 40. We met villagers, who assured us we were on the right path, but there was no sign of the GMVN (Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam) rest house that we were headed for. On and on went the horrible, stony path and now we were hot and tired and hungry. At last, we crossed a stream, went up through a few trees and there we were, 3 pm, just in time for a hot lunch.

At Wan we stayed in luxury. There were two rooms, each with beds for six and floor space for three. And there were two bathrooms, with running water in at least one tap each. The best of it was that the kitchen was entirely separate, so that the smoke didn't even come close to the bedrooms.