Day 20 starts cold with winds not allowing us to stay in open and nobody dared to bath. Before boarding, I walked a few steps to have one final look at the great lake that was shimmering blue in morning light with Sun just rose through a small opening provided by the thick clouds. Kailash was not visible that morning and I saw an elderly fellow from our group already there staring and admiring it and perhaps thinking whether he would make it again. Whether I will make it again? I didn’t know, I just helplessly surrendered myself to the life and it's snares.

We regretted as this was our last chance to take a holy dip and proceeded for Taklakot in two buses, soon we stopped at a point where it’s possible to see both lakes together with Kailash in front. It was a sight to remember; we took some photographs and proceeded for Taklakot. It was sad returning from this holy land as it was a journey of a lifetime and nobody knew whether he would receive a call again.

We reached Taklakot in 2 hrs; on the way we visited the Samadhi of Zorawar Singh, an18th century warrior from Himanchal Pradesh, who conquered Ladakh, Tibet and rest of the western Himalayas that time and referred as Napoleon of India. We paid tribute to his Samadhi and then visited an ancient Hindu temple few kilometers away from Taklakot which is now converted into a Monastery but there are still vigrahays of Sita, Ram, Laxman, Kali and and other Hindu Gods. Finally we reached Taklakot again and checked in our Hotel Room. We spent that day in Taklakot shopping and roaming through the roads of this highly guarded area. Interestingly many sign boards are in Pali language which resembles our Sanskrit and we were able to read most of its alphabets.

This time we are a little more relaxed as compared to our stay a few days back having done Kailash Parikrama in clear weather and stay at Mansarovar was also very refreshing and satisfying. Taklakot provides excellent opportunity of buying copied stuff. You won’t miss a single global brand here whether it’s The North Face, Columbia and Mountain Hardware stuff or replicas of Range Rover, Porsche and BMW- Chinese have mastered it all..

We woke up really happy on day 21; this is the day when we will see our great land again after 8 days and the buses dropped us just short of 3kilometers to the top. While we encountered no rains so far, it was drizzling that time and Chinese military person was courteous enough to order our luggage transporter to drop us 2 more km from that point. It was a motorable muddy road that takes you just short of 1 km from the top. Land Cruiser is the only vehicle that rules here, used everywhere in Tibet and was smooth even at those heights and muddy roads.

 It was snowing that some of us saw first time in our life. It came as a blessing of our great Lord, though it made trekking slightly difficult in wet and slippery surface and took us almost an hour to cover that distance up to Lipulekh pass. The feeling on reaching the top can’t be described, you are back in the mother land, you can sense and smell it and this is just phenomenal. Here we found ITBP jawans waiting for us and we greeted each other with loud cheers and Har- Har Mahadev chants.

It’s so refreshing on top of the pass and the view was totally different what we saw a few days ago- a total white. Here pony and porters meet again and we begin our descent to Navidhang.

Its slippery and steep downhill trek up to  Navidhang and we walked in snow for about three kms after that it vanished and we were able to witness the trek which we covered in night, few days ago. As we are about to reach Navidhang, the weather starts to clear and the sun appears just few meters short of the camp.

I am thinking of seeing Aum Parvat this time and the wish is granted. It’s right in front of the camp with a view that is just phenomenal. This is nature’s painting at its best. The pattern is distinct, clear, big, beautiful and so incredible that you get mesmerized and it’s hard to move your eyes anywhere else.

At this time of the year the snow is very little, yet distinct enough, when there is more, Aum can be seen from hundreds of kilometers on a clear day and there are many treks that pass through or end here and one such trek is Adi Kailash.

Here we halt for breakfast as its going to be 9 more kms to Kalapani where we will have our lunch. Guptaji and party is nowhere to be seen here and was told that he had already proceeded few minutes back. So after taking few snaps I left for Gunji with Priyanshu. We were among the last who reached Navidhang as the group with ponies had already left at least half an hour before and we were also walking slow, more relaxed this time and really enjoying it.

 So far we have covered just 10 km up to Navidhang, with 19 more to go, it proved to be the longest trek. The remaining trek was less strenuous and we reached Kalapani by noon, had a good lunch and darshan at Kali and Hanuman temple. We thanked for our safe and satisfying Yatra and were again joined by the mighty river. The remaining 9 km trek to Gunji took another 3 hrs and we reached the camp by 6 p.m.