Eclectic Read: Himachal Pradesh

Before I embark on the journey of words about my one day trip to Katagla, I had the impulse to read about these travellers and explorers and share succinct versions.

George Herbert Leigh Mallory and Andrew Comyn "Sandy" Irvine : Were they the first ones to reach the summit of Everest before they disappeared on 8th June, 1924 almost thirty years before Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary reached the summit? The 1999 Mallory and Irvine Research Expedition organized by regular Everest expedition leader Eric Simonson and advised by researcher Jochen Hemmleb led to the discovery of Mallory's body.
Amelia Earhart : Amelia Earhart, the first female pilot to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, disappeared while flying over the Pacific Ocean in 1937. On July 2, 1937, the Lockheed Electra carrying Amelia Earhart and navigator Frederick Noonan was reported missing near Howland Island in the Pacific. The pair were attempting to fly around the world when they lost their bearings during the most challenging part of the expedition: Lae, New Guinea to Howland Island, a tiny island in the center of the Pacific Ocean. No trace of Earhart or Noonan was ever found.
Peng Jiamu : Chinese biochemist Peng Jiamu disappeared during a 1980 expedition in China's Lop Nor (Lop Nur).
Gaspar and Miguel Corte-Real : Both are Portuguese explorers and two of the three sons of João Vaz Corte-Real. In 1501, Gaspar embarked on his second expedition to Newfoundland from where two ships returned to Lisbon but Gaspar's ship was never heard from again. In 1502, Miguel beginned his journey to search for his brother only to end up with the same fate.
Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett : In 1925, Fawcett journeyed into the Brazilian jungle in search of the Lost City of Z that he believed existed somewhere in the unplumbed depths of the Amazon. Following a final dispatch on May 29, he and his two companions disappeared, later assumed to have been murdered by Amazonian tribesmen.
Ludwig Leichhardt : In April 1848, in the company of five white men, two Aboriginal guides, seven horses, 20 mules and 50 bullocks, Leichhardt left the Darling Downs in southern Queensland bound for Western Australia's Swan River settlement. Shortly after, the entire party vanished with almost no trace. During the next 90 years, nine major expeditions tried to solve the mystery of Leichhardt's disappearance.
Michael Rockefeller : Michael Rockefeller disappeared off the south coast of Netherlands New Guinea in 1961. In the November of 1961, he was on an expedition to collect woodcarvings by the Asmat people when his catamaran overturned. His two local guides swam to shore while Rockefeller and Dutch anthropologist Rene Wassing stayed with the boat as it drifted out into the Arafura Sea. The next day when the boat was approximately 10 miles away from the shore, Rockefeller decided to swim to safety. Wassing was rescued the next day while Rockefeller vanished in the blue expanse of the sea.
Everett Ruess : Only 20 at the time of his disappearance, the writer, artist and environmentalist was last seen near Utah's Davis Gulch in 1934. Ruess set out alone into the Utah desert taking two burros as pack animals, only to end up disappearing forever.

The world is beautiful yet petrifying, pleasant yet adventurous, secure yet mysterious.
This is the place I would like to go to again with more than three days in hand, with blithe disregard to all the life events and complete focus on the beauteous moment at hand. I had the most uncomfortable bus journey of my life from Chandigarh to Bhuntar. After the night journey, I took a taxi from Bhuntar to Kasol at around 6 am. The driver dropped me at the spot from where one has to trek to reach Katagla or Chalal.