I am a bit late in writing this blog. Don’t ask me why, because I am going to come up with all stupid excuses, the primary one being time. However, the true reason is, I was in trance. I took close to one month to come out of the trance. Such is the incredible beauty of this place. Now you know why the title says speechless!. The treks itinerary given to me was posted in my previous blog “Planning a trek to the valley of flowers”. So, as planned, my journey started early morning on July 23rd 2016. This day will always remain a memorable day in my life for obvious reasons. My first destination was Haridwar. Since the trek was supposed to start at 7 am the next day(Aug 24rth), I wanted to reach one day early and also experience the mesmerizing evening aarti at Har-ki-Pauri ghat in Haridwar. It was as amazing as I had imagined it to be. The entire aura of the place was divine and I was already in a different world.
When I woke up on 24rth morning, I could not believe myself. Is it really happening?. Finally the day had come for which I waited for one whole month. I was greeted by the Tour manager who happened to be a passionate trekker too(which was a relief to me provided the fact that till date I had seen tour managers who knew nothing about travelling). We were put into a tempo traveler that traveled through all the Prayags(confluence of 2 rivers and considered to be holy) namely the Dev Prayag, Rudra Prayag, Karan Prayag and Vishnu Prayag being the most prominent ones. Rain was an icing on the cake on the green landscape. We were expected to reach Auli in 12 hours and we wanted to reach before it got too dark where tea and snacks were waiting for us at the Himalayan eco lodge. The fascinating road took us through Chamoli(famous for causing fatal lanslides).
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Day 2- My plan was to rise early morning and see the view from Auli and what do I see?. The peaks that were covered in clouds the previous evening were peeping out and the rays of the sun falling on them mesmerized me.
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After the breakfast, we marked the beginning of our adventurous trek with a drive to Govindghat followed by a 13 km trek to Ghangaria. We shared our path with Sikh pilgrims going to Hemkund sahib and Sadhus who seemed comfortable walking without any of the so called gears we considered to be important. They walked bare foot with no trekking sticks and their faith was an amazing sight. The paved path along the Alaknanda river with numerous waterfalls and view of the beautiful Uttarakhand mountains made me forget the long walk. It was fascinating!. The swiss tents in Ghangaria with 2 waterfalls in the backdrop was going to be my home for the next 2 days. I slept peacefully eager to see the valley of flowers the next day.
Valley of flowers is a national park acknowledged globally for its beauty by mountaineers and botanists. It was discovered in 1931 by Frank S Smythe and his team when they got lost while coming back from their expedition to Mt. Kamet. What a discovery!. Visiting the valley of flowers is a dream for a lot of people and I could not believe I was living it.
Our guided trek started at 7:30 am. After crossing the toll, we were expected to walk for 4 kms on a man made stone path with steep climbs and waterfall crossings with no bridges on them. Really? how on earth are we going to cross them was my first question to the guide. “We have to go on” was his response. True , it was at this point that I realized that trekking in Uttarakhand was more about the journey than the destination and the journey must go on…When the destination arrived, I forgot everything, all the pain, the tiredness, everything. All I could feel was awesomeness. I had a complete valley in front of me which was green covered with mist,clouds and flowers that seemed straight from the fairyland. I was drenched in the rain(forgot to mention, this is a monsoon trek. Hence we were walking in the rain for 4 kms). I sat down for a while drinking my energy drink and trying to come out of trance. After the packed lunch, we decided to walk for 20 more mins inside the valley to experience the flowers closely. It was a fairy land!. All the visitors are instructed to leave the valley by 2pm as with constant rains, the water level of the waterfalls increase and it becomes difficult to cross. The walk back was a mix of trance and excitement and pleasurable tiredness – You know , when you are tired and the body just gives up and you tell your body- Baby, just a bit more!
Enough of words, now some visual treat for you so you can experience it yourself!
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I hope you will like my blog. Stay tuned for the blog on Hemkund. This entire trek has been divided into 3 parts and writing one blog for all would not have done justice to this massive beauty!
Catch you later friends!
Urmimala Datta
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