Uttaranchal - Heavenly Experiences

Uttaranchal – the land of Gods (DevBhoomi) as they say and the mystic Valley of Flowers.

We were a group of 17th people. (Me, Purvesh, Saurabh, Saurabh’s dad,Saurabh’s mom, Saurabh’s mama, Asawari, Meera, Prakruti, Prakruti’s mom, Deepak,Sachin,Sharayu,Tejas,Tanmay,Purvesh’s Dad,Tushar)

Our trip started from Pune on 10th August afternoon to Mumbai and onwards flight from Mumbai to Delhi on 10th night. We reached Mumbai airport amidst traffic and all at around 8.30pm. Our flight was scheduled at around 10.20pm. When we reached at the airport we found out from Purvesh that the flight has been delayed and now is to depart at 11.15. We started for Terminal 1A from where our Go Air flight was to depart. We reached terminal 1A and went in the airport area and checked-in our luggage. Our entire luggage was big sacks and small pittu sacks. The Go Air people were kind enough to provide snacks to the passengers as the flight was late, that was good. After checking in our luggage we went to have snacks and had a small round or introductions. To our dismay we found that our flight was delayed again and now was to depart @ 12.15 am. Now Purvesh was at his nerve’s end but anyway we waited there, charged our phone on the chargers there and did general tp , Deepak showed off his new Canon cam and was taking photos of everyone.
Finally we went through security check and waited in the queue to board the plane. We got into the plane , everyone was allotted different seats so we were not together. As it was night we couldn’t see anything out too so we slept for around 2 hours of the flight. The landing at Delhi was fine and we went into the arrival area and got our luggage.

Saurabh and Purvesh went out looking for the Qualis drivers and we pushed the trolleys with our luggage outside. Finally they found the Qualises and we loaded our luggage onto the vehicles. We started from Delhi at around 3.30am on Saturday morning. The problem ahead was the Delhi – Haridwar highway was blocked due to Mahashivaratri , during which Kavad yartris (shiv-bhakts) use the highway while coming back from Haridwar. So we had to pass through small villages, this further added to the time. In our Qualis people slept sitting as we had no sleep from the night before. We had a halt at a place 40km before Meerut and had chai-pani. Did a great deal of Timepass during that break. There was a hand pump there so we washed our faces there and felt fresh. Started again and we played antakshari in our Qualis, with a mixture of old and new songs and it was great fun! We reached one place around 10am and had our breakfast, we were around 60km from Haridwar now. Asawari had brought a home-baked cake and we relished it , it was tooooo good. We finally started for Haridwar around 10.30am and reached Haridwar at around 12.00pm in the afternoon Normal time from Delhi to Haridwar is around 7 hours but we reached in about 8 hours. Upto Haridwar there was no rain but once we reached Haridwar the rain started in torrents and mind you it was bad than Mumbai, I had a umbrella so I stood with my umbrella open but the rain was so much that my umbrella started leaking, and our bad luck the Qualis drivers we hired in Delhi did not put tarpaulin covers over our haversacks as they cited no rain and here it was raining heavily so we had wet sacks, We had a bad time locating our bus for the further journey and finally found the bus , but by then it had started raining very badly, so we put all the sacks inside the dikky running from Qualis to bus and finally go inside the bus fully wet Thankfully most of the people had put all contents of sack in plastic so no problems, others were not so lucky and had wet wet things.

We had hired a bus from Haridwar onward (18 seater bus) and started for Rishikesh where we would get our permit work done. The scenery on the way was too good with occasional peek of the river Ganga, at one point (guess it was a shortcut from Haridwar to Rishikesh) water from a waterfall had come onto the road and was flowing dangerously, so we backtracked and went by the normal Haridwar – Rishikesh route which was packed in traffic. We reached Rishikesh around 2pm and had our permit work done. We found out that our driver had changed but anyways all the drivers there are too good. Our target for the day was RudraPrayag as we had a hotel booking there. We started well in time for RudraPrayag.The road to RudraPrayag was good with rain clouds threatening but thankfully no heavy rain so we were lucky not to encounter any landslides and reached RudraPrayag at around 8.30pm in the night and checked-in to our hotel. Some of our guys found that each and every stuff in their sack was wet due to the rain and they had a tough time in making them dry. The route on the first day read Delhi-Haridwar-Rishikesh-Byasi-DevPrayag-Kirtinagar-Srinagar-RudraPrayag a distance of around 400km.

RudraPrayag is the confluence of the Alakananda and Mandakini rivers and is a beautiful place to be in though we did not have enough time to see all things we had a walk along the river in the morning and started for Joshimath the target for the 2nd day i.e. 12th August. The sky was overcast with clouds threatening heavy rains. We started at around 6am from RudraPrayag towards Joshimath (distance of around 120km) and hoped to reach around 12pm the day. But nature has its own cards. We reached Pipalkoti a village in Chamoli dist and found out that the road ahead is closed / blocked as a huge landslide had happened and will take around 3-4 hours to clear, with no other option left we had our lunch at Pipalkoti and went to see the landslide. The landslide was truly frightening with almost all the road covered by rubble over 5-6 feet high and no place even to cross over by foot. The PWD guys were working with bulldozers to get it cleared. Finally the road was cleared at around 2pm and we started for Joshimath, in between near Bhimtala our tyre got punctured and we had to wait to get it replaced another 1 hour lost. In between this time some people got down and went down a bridge where the Ganga was flowing in full force and enjoyed the water there, I explored another part of the river alone and took photos. In Bhimtala Deepak had relatives there so he got off the bus and said would join us later. Finally everyone came back to the bus and we had a intro session with everyone, it was great fun introducing oneself with expert comments from Sachin, Deepak and Purvesh put in. Finally we started , it was around 44km more to Joshimath. In between we found out that a bus had collapsed into the valley as a landslide had happened over it. Thankfully we found out that the driver had offloaded people in it and tried to move the vehicle ahead when another landslide pushed the vehicle over the edge and the driver too jumped out to safety, we got down to see the bus in the valley, the bus was similar to our bus and was of the same company as that of our bus. Our bus driver gave some clothes to the other driver and we started off again.

We reached Joshimath around 4.30pm, it took us around 10-11 hours for a 5-6 hours stretch, but you cannot do anything against nature, but anyways we were on schedule. Route for the second day read RudraPrayag – KarnaPrayag – Chamoli – Garudganga – Pipalkoti – Helang – Joshimath. At Joshimath we got down from the bus and got on a rope way to Auli – a tourist destination. Joshimath is around 1845m height from MSL and Auli is around 3016m height from MSL and the ropeway ride was truly a great experience. There are around 12 stations on the ropeway from Joshimath to Auli and at station 8 , one can get down if he/she wants to get an experience of an open ropeway. Some enthusiastic people like Purvesh, Sharayu went to get an experience of open air ropeway. It was raining torrentially now when we reached Auli and we saw some points had hot tea there and started back to Joshimath on the ropeway. In clear weather you can see peaks like NandaDevi (7817m), we couldn’t see any due to the cloudy and rainy weather there. We spent around 45 mins at Auli, had some tea and explored the nature there. Finally at 5.35pm we climbed into the return ropeway car. At station 8 Purvesh and others got in. At Joshimath we checked into a GMVN (Gadhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam) hotel at Rs.100 per head per day. It was unusually cold at Joshimath and once we were in our rooms we got under the blankets and slept for some hours. We had dinner for the night at the same hotel and found out that those guys are averse to adding salt and sugar to anything, so we had bland bad food.

After Joshimath to Govindghat we have a one way road which is operated via gate system and the gates open one-way for 2 hours only, the first gate opens at Joshimath for 6.30am.We headed for the gate only to find out that the gate would not open as the road from Govindghat to Badrinath was closed due to landslides hence no way for opening the route upto Govindghat too. So our driver told us that we can get sumos or jeeps upto Govindghat as our bus was in the middle of the line for the gate and there was no option left for reversing, he told us that once the gate opens he would wait at Govindghat for us. We took our heavy sacks and found 2 sumos for 17 people and finally reached Govindghat around 8am in the morning. The route from Joshimath – Govindghat is truly dangerous with non-existent roads, ever hanging cliffs ready to fall and a valley on the other side. Govindghat is a very small town on the banks of the river Alakananda and is the point from where we have to go to Ghangaria the base for Valley of Flowers. Govindghat has some hotels and a gurudwara and you can see many Sikhs there as they go to Hemkund Sahib (the 2nd most religious place for Sikhs after the Golden Temple) whose base is also Ghangaria.

We hired mules for our sacks for the 14km trek from Govindghat to Ghangaria as one cannot carry the sacks all the way 14km uphill. We also go ponchos(plastic covers) for ourselves + our pittu sacks as it was rainy weather. We started at around 10.30am from Govindghat towards Ghangaria. The route is amazing with water falls all the way and it was raining. The last 4 kms are steep and one becomes very tired walking and thinks that when will it end. You can alternatively use horses too, if u find it strenuous enough to climb. We walked all along the way and reached Ghangaria around 4.00pm. Checked into our hotels got our sacks and went to sleep. My legs were like speaking (bolat hote) J , after getting some hours sleep we went to have dinner at around 7.30pm, in Ghangaria lights come from 7 – 10pm and morning 4.30-6am only, rest all time there is no power. In Ghangaria everything costs a fortune due to the inaccessibility of the place via road so the hotel rooms cost around 500 per head per day, also food costs more here…..We used to have daily sessions of fun in one of the rooms there with everyone gathering there and doing Timepass , laughing , doing mad things.

It was too cold in Ghangaria when we had gone there and I was literally shaking …., we put on sweaters and monkey caps and went out and had dinner. Here too there was no salt in the food. Don’t know why…!!

The next day morning we started for Valley of Flowers – it’s around 3km from Ghangaria and the route is scenic with the Laxman Ganga river flowing and some glaciers there. We were lucky as the weather had cleared to some extent and we could see snow clad peaks near Ghangaria. We reached the Valley in around 3 hours time and were surrounded by truly amazing flowers which we cannot see anywhere else. It was like a carpet of flowers ….. The whole valley was in abundance of flowers of different types which flower in that season. It was a truly great experience and I photographed all flowers, hopefully they come up good when I see them…I shall share them too. We also saw the grave of Margaret Legge, a botanist who had died in the valley. There is quite a history about the Valley of Flowers. After enjoying the Valley we started back and I was in the lead. An incident happened here. I was walking over a landslide prone region and had just crossed it and heard a rumbling sound….when I looked back I was shocked…I could see 3-4 big boulder falling down the valley from above the hills from the place where I had just crossed…sheer luck…I was shaken and sat for 1-2 minutes there thanking my stars..

We reached Ghangaria around 4pm and went to our hotel rooms and had some sleep.

Next morning we started for Hemkund Sahib (the religious place of the Sikhs)…it’s an 8km trek from Ghangaria.The route is all steep and there is not even a meter of level land. Hemkund is at an altitude of 4329m(14303 ft) above sea level. We reached Hemkund at around 10am (started at 6am). At Hemkund there is a lake and a gurudwara…it is said that Guru Gobind Singh had meditated here and attained salvation. There were clouds all around and all around the route to Hemkund we saw BramhaKamals and other rare flowers. The Bramhakamals were flooding the valley a truly awesome sight.

At Hemkund, it was freezing weather but they provide tea and khichdi to all those coming there so it was quite comfortable…we had darshan at the gurudwara and had a look all around, there is a Laxman mandir there at Hemkund. We had a look there too. The origin of the Laxman Ganga is from Hemkund. After spending 2-3 hours there we started for Ghangaria around 1pm and reached Ghangaria at 3pm as it was downhill all the way but it was raining heavily. We had some rest at Ghangaria, saw the slide show about the Valley of Flowers at Ghangaria and bought some maps , books and photos there, and packed our things as we were to go to Govindghat the next day morning.

Next day morning we started for Govindghat at around 6am and packed off our sacks on mules down to Govindghat and ourselves trekked down 14km with small sacks.Now this was a downhill route so it was not a problem. We reached Govindghat at around 8.30-10.30am and did some purchases and went to our bus which was there and had come from Joshimath once the gate had been opened. We got a clear weather that day with sun and no rain…and also we found that the road to Badrinath was open and there was no rain. We started for Badrinath around 11.30am and reached at around 12.30pm, the roads were truly horrific. The temple was closed from 12-3pm so we went to the village Mana which is the last village on the Indian border. Mana is truly heaven, and there are some places to visit there. Ganesh Gufa, Vyas Gufa and Bhim Pul (the origin of the river Saraswati). We started back to Badrinath and had darshan at 3pm and started back to Joshimath via Govindghat to catch the gate there for 4.30pm which is the last time for the route from Govindghat – Joshimath route (one way). We got the gate at 4.35pm and reached Joshimath at 6pm. We actually had a stay at Badrinath that day but decided against it because if it would rain we would sure shot be blocked due to landslides because the road was such so we didn’t want to take risk and reached Joshimath. We got our booking at the same GMVN hotel and stayed there for the day. Route for the day was Ghangaria – Govindghat (trek) – Badrinath (Road) – Mana – Badrinath – Govindghat – Joshimath. (Distance of around 70km).

Next day morning we were informed that the road was blocked from Pipalkoti as the road had crashed down the valley due to rains and the PWD was building new roads…!! Hell but the same time we got another news that the road was closed from 3 days and now has been opened. But we got yet another news, a part of the road at Helang, 13km from Joshimath had crashed down and the road is closed for 3 days. We could not afford to delay because the next day we had a train from Delhi to Mumbai and we had reservations so we went upto the spot and trekked up 10 km with our heavy sacks leaving our bus and came down to the other side and got a local bus to Rishikesh. It was truly an experience there trekking up the huge mountain with the 10kg + heavy sacks and coming down over non-existent routes. Finally we got a bus to Rishikesh from the other side of the block as vehicles had lined up on both sides of the block and were turning back. That driver was a maniac and rode the bus like an NFS car over the hill roads. We had a glimpse of the earlier Pipalkoti road which was horrific and bad, anyway we prayed and the bus crossed over.

We had our night halt at KarnaPrayag as in that part of the Himalayas driving is allowed from 5am – 8pm only and after 8pm you have to stop at some place as the police don’t allow you to ride further. We halted at KarnaPrayag and had dinner and booked a room for us. Next day morning we started for Rishikesh and reached DevPrayag at around 10 in the morning and discovered that yet another block has happened and a truck has been stuck here so we had to wait. The truck was finally removed at around 1.30pm and traffic resumed at around 3pm.

We had our train in Delhi at around 9.55pm and had to reach Rishikesh at around less than 7 hours the time we need to reach Delhi. Finally we reached Rishikesh by 4pm and got Qualises to Delhi by 4.30pm. The drivers rode like maniacs as we had told him that we need to get there by 9.30pm. We reached New Delhi station by 9.56pm and the train had already left, we missed by 2 minutes….what a bad situation. The drivers of the vehicles were truly good, they covered a distance of 7 hours in 5 hours still we missed the train , bad luck. It was a sight to see everyone running at New Delhi railway station to get the train and finding out that the train had already left L

We then booked for a flight to Mumbai the next morning. We went to the Delhi airport only to find that the ticket counters would open at 3am , so we slept outside the airport as the police didn’t allow us to enter without the ticket and we did not have the printout of our ticket because we had booked through phone J, we slept out side on our carry mats. At 3am we got our tickets and went inside, where we got fresh, had some sleep and checked-in our baggage. Finally we had our security checks and went inside the flight, once inside the flight we had our own Timepass with leg-pulling everyone. We landed in Mumbai around 7.15am and got our luggage and had last photographic sessions. Finally we bid bye-bye to everyone.

People from Pune hired a Qualis for ourselves, we reached Pune somehow at around 12.30pm in the afternoon. We learnt many things from our experiences, firstly do not have a rigid plan, nature can play all the tricks with you to fail ur plans. Don’t go to such places in heavy monsoons….sure shot failure of schedule. Although our trek was successful and we are thankful to come back safe albeit some problems.

This was the experience of Uttaranchal trek.