Hemkund Sahib and Valley of Flowers (VOF) trek was our third Himalayan trek, and we wanted to take it easy as we were recovering from COVID-19. I had a rigid mental block; I had neither completely recovered nor regained my strength, for the same reason we had stuffed our itinerary with many rest or buffer days. Our frequency of exercise was less, and preparations seemed inadequate.
This trek was termed easy on many websites, and thus we chose this. We entirely planned this trek, like our previous trek to ABC in Nepal. This time, we had a strong companion; my father-in-law, Srinivasa R Putty, joined us. Considering his age, I was unsure if it was a great motivation or a reminder about my fitness level. Manasa and I did not doubt his fitness, but we greatly doubted ours. We had rented the rucksacks in Bengaluru, and 3 of our large bags were ready, accompanied by a smaller day pack carrying vital things. I bought plenty of sweet candies for the trek, giving an excuse for my recovery.
9 Aug 2022 — Bengaluru — Delhi — Rishikesh
We took a cab at 3 AM to the Bengaluru airport, and the flight took off at 6 AM. We reached Delhi by 8:30 AM and rode the metro from T1 to Hauz-Khaz. We hired a private taxi to drop us to Rishikesh, which would be a 5-hour drive. Mr. Ashok, our driver, was friendly and gave us good company, but we probably showcased a lousy image of ourselves with our broken Hindi. He suggested Sukhdev for lunch on the highway and brought us Kulfi on the road.
We had pre-booked our stay at Hotel the President in Rishikesh. We got fresh and went for a stroll in the evening. We went to the Triveni Ghat to witness the Ganga Aarthi. We wanted to visit the Ram Jhula and Lakshman Jhula on our way back, but it was late into the evening, and the heat was almost unbearable.
I recall having dreams of the snow-capped mountains and fresh air.
10 Aug 2022 — Rishikesh to Joshimath
We had gathered that we must catch the early bus to reach Joshimath. We left our hotel around 3 AM, walked half the way in the lonely streets, and took a Rikshaw for the other half. We got our tickets, and I opted for the window seat in the last rows of the bus. The tiny bus packed with vendors, pilgrims, and travelers wobbled through the narrow roads on the sleeves of the hills. The view from the window was cheering. The bright and pricky morning light and the cold wind struck us. We had packed chapatis for breakfast, and I slept most of the way as the hour got hotter.
We got stuck in a long traffic jam, possibly caused by a car rolling into the gorge, and we were still 100 km away from Joshimath. After 12 hours of the back-breaking bus ride, we reached Joshimath around 5:30 PM. The sun and the cold mist had started setting down. We had pre-booked our stay at Odyssey Stays/Sunrise Inn, two comfortable rooms with a view of the Narsingh Mandir and the vast expanse of the mountain behind the temple. I wrote my journal, sitting on the balcony, relishing some light snacks.
We walked to ‘Chauhan’s Diner’ between the narrow lanes for dinner. We had a scrumptious meal of Roti, Dal, and Jeera Rice. We decided to rest the following day; the day’s bus ride was daunting. The night was cold, and we slept well that night.
11 Aug 2022 — Around Joshimath
We took this day at our pace. We walked the market area for breakfast and tea. The Samosas and the Jalebis for the morning breakfast didn’t seem like a happy menu for us, and we stuck with the tea and some biscuits along the bylanes of the market.
We visited the Amar Kalpavriksha and Shankaracharya Math in the morning. Quoting Ruskin Bond from his book Rain in the Mountains, “… ‘wishing tree,’ the kalp-vriksha, is an enormous old mulberry that is still cared for at Joshimath in Garhwal. It is said to be the tree beneath which the great Sankaracharya often meditated during his sojourn in the Himalayas. Judging by its girth, it might be well over a thousand years old …”
We had Pulka, Dal and Aloo Mutter at Hotel Uday for lunch. We had an afternoon nap; maybe the altitude made us drowsy.
Later in the evening, we walked to the taxi stand from where we would get the taxi to Govind Ghat the following day. It was quite a climb, and I could only imagine how tough it would be in the morning carrying our rucksacks. We were there for a trek, and this seemed a good warmup session. We walked the peripheral road of Joshimath to find good viewpoints. We were offered endless views of the mountains and the deep ravine along the route. We spotted Sona Shankar (the peak finder app showed it at the spot, and I’m now unable to find it accurately). We visited and sat around the Narsingh Mandir premises during the sunset. We returned to our rooms, packed our bags for the next day, and had a deep slumber.
12 Aug 2022 — Joshimath — Govind Ghat — Pulna — Ghangaria
We reached the taxi stand at 6.30 AM. We were like breathing dragons puffing out warm air in the cold morning. We took a shared taxi to Govind Ghat and left Joshimath behind us. The roads were good but affected by landslides along the route. We reached Govind Ghat around 8 AM and started hiking toward Pulna for another short shared ride until the starting point of the trek. As soon as we started walking, an older man approached us, offering to carry our rucksacks to Ghangaria. We wanted to hire a porter and had no reason to decline Gurak Bahadhur Tappa’s offer. He was a well-built 55-year-old strong man from Nepal seeking work in Uttrakhand. The three rucksacks weighed nearly 45 KG, which Mr.Tappa loaded onto his bamboo basket. I shared some of our experiences in Nepal, and he proudly mentioned his relatives staying in Bengaluru. He seemed unhappy with us leaving the cozy Bengaluru home for a tiring trek in this region.
It soon grew sunny, and the tree canopies offered excellent shade. We trekked on a well-paved route alongside the Lakshman Ganga. The porters and the mule overtook us throughout the way. We reached Ghangaria by 3 PM after a 10 KM trek.
We hadn’t booked any stay in the hope that we would find one. We were surprised to know that all the rooms in Gurudwara were full and only the dormitory was available. Rooms in other hotels were also reserved. Luckily, we got a room with three beds at Hotel Kuber opposite the Gurudwara. We had dinner in the Langar. The temperature at night dipped below 10 degrees Celsius, and I had a tough time sleeping that night.
13 Aug 2022 — Ghangaria — Hemkund Sahib — Ghangaria
Manasa was not ready for a strenuous trek, and thus, she stayed back at the hotel; my father-in-law and I decided to go on. The weather was set right for us to start the trek, with no signs of rain, and the day was getting brighter. My diary reads, “sleep deprived, my head was still hurting, the low temp demanded me to stay in bed. I couldn’t rest; I’d regret it if I did not go today. Decided to trek as much as possible and come back. Woke up at 5 AM, slow due to the cold, and took an hour to groom and pack. Managed to get a bucket of hot water for the morning chores.”
We had to trek 6 KM with an altitude gain of 4500 FT. We started around 6 AM, with layers of clothes. I stripped my jacket in the first hour, but my limbs were still freezing. Though the far mountain peaks were lit, it was not until 9 AM that we could find a patch lit with warm sunlight. We took a short break and had some snacks. There were two routes on the trek’s last stretch, and we took the steep one to avoid the ponies, porters, and palanquin. We could spot Nilkantha Peak and its snow cap lit on this stretch. We finally reached Sri Hemkund Sahib around 11 AM. We quickly draped with a scarf covering our heads and went inside the temple. We had Kichdi and Tea in Langar, which was much required after the climb.
We sat near the pond (near the Lakshman Mandir) for about half an hour and would not mind sitting longer. It was meditative or at least contemplating to sit there. The glacier water fed the deep turquoise-teal pond at the far end. The pond water was clear; one could see the rocks at the bottom. If I close my eyes now, I can visualize the scene and feel the tranquility the surroundings offer. I took several photos, and we started back around noon. The porters and the mules had given a break, and we descended at our own pace. The tree line provided the much-needed shade while we were halfway. We reached our room by 3 PM, freshened up, and had some refreshments.
Later in the evening, Manasa and I walked to the edge of the village, where we could see the waterfall, and I enthusiastically narrated our trek. We had a nice dinner at the hotel and retired early that night.
14 Aug — Ghangaria — VOF — Ghangaria
It was the day we had waited and longed for. I wanted to see if the VOF was as beautiful as Frank S. Smythe describes in his book The Valley of Flowers: An Adventure in the Upper Himalaya. In 1931, he discovered the valley on their way back from the successful ascent of Mount Kamet, but the magical land was known to the villagers and the shepherds for decades, if not centuries. He was astonished to see the vast valley with flowers and exclaimed “It was impossible to take a step without crushing a flower.” He later returned to the valley in the monsoon of 1937 to experience and enjoy the pristine, lush green valley. His accounts of several walks around the park, a few peak climbs, brocken spectre, and his stay in the park’s wilderness are some virgin experiences to read through. He documented several flowers and plants during the course. His story of encountering the Yeti, the Abominable Snowman, is like an action movie. I preferred to say hello to a Lidini (female Yeti) if I met her on our trail.
We reached the checkpost at the park entrance around 6:30 AM and were the first group to be let into the park by 6:45 AM. The first 2–3 KM was a strict zig-zag climb through thick forest until the mouth of the valley. A thick cloud was gulping the valley from the south. The predictions were of rain and thunderstorms post-noon, and I prayed it wouldn’t rain until we returned. It was cloudy, and there were frequent short bursts of showers. I was selfishly hoping for good light to shoot some landscapes.
The valley had received enough rain to flaunt with greenery and plenty of flowers. The entire valley was green except for the walking path. Several small trickling streams of fresh water had cut the trials in between. A brief window of sunshine offered vast, beautiful views, and one could see the rolling hills on the horizon, but otherwise, the fast-moving, misty clouds covered the valley all the time. We enjoyed the walk thoroughly. We went to Leggy’s grave and then decided to return to base.
Flowers we spotted — Balsam (River Beauty), Himalayan Knotweed, Himalayan Fleabane, Inuri, Milk parsley, Trailing Bell Flower, Astar, Golden Rod, Geraniums, Himalayan Cinquefoil (Vajradanti), and Blue Poppy. We also spotted several peculiar-looking ferns, mosses, and algae. We had no time to admire the birds in between the variety of flowers, but I would have jumped in excitement if I had spotted a Monal.
Our bags were shifted to a new room when we reached our stay, as the previous one was pre-booked. The rains were intense and splattered on the tin roof throughout the night.
Citing my diary — ‘Make space for new experiences, the previous ones are definitely a treasure, but the new experience will be a new jewel added to the treasure.’
15 Aug 2022 — Rest day at Ghangaria
We decided to rest today. We wandered the camp, had Maggi and tea for breakfast, and went through each shop. We sat in the dining area for hours. I wrote my diary and read a few pages of Mr.Smythe’s book. It rained the whole day, and we felt good about our decision to rest. Our room had an adjacent balcony that opened to the sky. Our stay was between two giant mountains.
We checked if we could visit Kedarnath, but we were short by a day, and all the helicopters going to Kedarnath were booked. We booked a room in Badrinath for our stay the following day and secretly wished for some good food.
Visiting Badrinath and Mana village, and trekking to Vasudhara Falls to be continued in Part-2
