A memorable trek through the gateway to God and nature

A memorable trek through the gateway to God and nature

When Praveen’s daughter Gopika read about the Lord Curzon trek route in the heart of Himalayas, she wouldn’t have thought these pages would ignite the fire in the belly of a group of 6 middle aged persons including her dad with no trekking experience to attempt this trek!

The desire to trek on Himalayas started growing day by day and after few chats Praveen had with Sasi and Anand during the routine evening walk. The plan was finally hatched with the help of Google Guru in the month of May 2014. After careful study of several options, a 4 day trek by GIO Adventure was chosen. GIO conducts several adventure activities like trekking, rafting etc. on the Himalayas. The package we selected was quite cost effective as they offered 6 days of fun for just Rs 11,350 including two way transport between start point of trek and Hardwar.

Having decided on the trek route and organizer of the trek, the next task was to pick the members and suitable time. The initial group comprised of Sasi, Anand, Praveen, Sajeeve, Girish, Nanda and Narayanan Kutty. Anand and Girish opted out leaving rest of the five to go forward. Nanda added his friend living in Hardwar, raising the group strength to six.

Since the best time for trek is between Sep and Nov, the group selected Sep 13 to 18^th which suited all members.

Most of us spent the vacation during July-August outside Dubai and this left with us just about a month to prepare! A tough challenge indeed considering the warning by GIO that our soft muscles needed to be toughened prior to the trek as it is called “ Moderate+” as per trek-terminology !

Once we returned from vacation towards end Aug/early Sep, we started collecting trekking gear as per list provided by GIO. Finally we were ready with all stuff required just a day or two before we boarded the flight on 12^th Sep!

We flew to Dehradun via Delhi on 12^th Sep and stayed at SRS Lakhya hotel in Hardwar which is about 1.5 hr drive from Dehradun ( rent Rs 3500 for double ).The driver of the taxi was a strange person who kept driving all the way from Dehradun to Hardwar when the hungry group wanted to stop for a bite, having missed breakfast during flights.

Hardwar

According to Hindu mythology, Haridwar is one among the four sites (others being Ujjain, Nasik and Allahabad)where drops of the elixir of immortality, Amrita, accidentally spilled over from Kumbha, in which it was being carried away by the celestial bird Garuda.

The spot where the Amrita (nectar) fell is considered to be the Brahma Kund at Har-ki-Pauri (literally, "footsteps of the Lord," and symbolically the footprints of the Amrita)

Sasi and Captain near Hari-ki-Pauri

It is also an entry point to the Char Dham (the four main centers of pilgrimage in Uttarakhand viz, Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri, and Yamunotri), hence, Shaivism (followers of Lord Shiva) and Vaishnavism (followers of Lord Vishnu) call this place Hardwar and Haridwar respectively, corresponding to Har being Shiv and Hari being Vishnu

On 12^th eve, we visited Hariki Podi on the banks of Ganges.

The Shiva temple is famous for pilgrims swarming in thousands from all over India to have a dip in the holy river to wash off their sins to attain Moksha. We all did the same though the “dip” was a ceremonious sprinkling of the muddy water followed by sermons by messengers of Shiva offering their “service “ for a hefty sum.

The service included “ Aarti” which was to offer flowers and lamp to Ganga devi kept on a small plate and floating on the water. As the the Brahmins chanted the slogas with sincerity on our behalf, we all watched our sins getting washed off in to the flowing river and got back relieved and light hearted !

The forces of faith and devotion could be felt all over the place and manifested in the form of prohibitive gestures from few local devotees as some of us tried to wash our feet in the water…..

When we left the ghat, the burning question in our mind was whether Ganga washed us clean or we made the holy river dirtier……

The sixth member of our group joined us for dinner at the hotel and we planned our activities for the next 4 days.

Hardwar to Auli by Temp Travellor – 8 hours drive on 13^th Sep Saturday

After we finished breakfast we were picked up by GIO in aTempo Traveller at 8:30 AM .

The journey to the start point of the trek in Auli would take about 8 hours.

The road to Auli was picturesque, winding along side river Alagananda most of the time.

On the way, we could see two major confluences viz Devaprayag which joins Alagananda and Bhageerathi and Rudraprayag which is the meeting point of Alagananda and Mandagini. Alagananda originates from Badrinath and Bhageerathi starts from Gangothri. Its main tributaries of Alagananda are Mandakini, Nandakini, and Pindar rivers.

The group near Devaprayag

We were woken up when the vehicle stopped and there was a long traffic bock ahead of us. We then saw the shocking accident just few cars ahead of us where a bus had smashed the rails of a bridge and toppled in the river…….we were later told 16 out of 32 people in that bus lost their lives.

We reached Auli at 7 PM and stayed at the beautiful GIO lodge over looking the mighty mountains.

Auli is a beautiful place at 2450m and the temperature was already cool 10 Deg.

In Auli there is a small Hanuman temple having some connection to Ramayana. The belief of people is when Laxman, younger brother of Lord Rama got injured fighting the Rakshas in Lanka (Sri Lanka). A medic ordered that only the herb name 'Sanjivani' found on Sanjivani mountain in Himalayas can save Laxman. Lord Rama ordered Hanuman the task. Hanuman flew from Lanka and during his way to Sanjivani mountain he took some rest in Auli before continuing his journey.

Our guides were Jai Chand and Bhuvan aka Gopal who were very helpful with their proactive and prompt service through out the next 5 five days.

The dinner tasted heavenly after a long drive and we hit the bed early dreaming what we would do in the next days to come.

The first day of trek –Saturday  14^th Sep Auli to Thali / Bankarbad 7 KM

Our group was taken to the nearest start point 5Km away in the car and then started our long journey in the mountains and forests for four days. We started trekking at 09:45 from Auli and reached Tali camp at 16:50 hrs…..total of 7 hrs !!

Our kit consisted of Trek-shoes, Stick, backpack with water, glucose and electrolyte, apart from jacket, cap etc As we would learn later, the stick was the most valuable possession that never let us down in the toughest conditions how ever trecherous the terrain be ! Our essential stuff was loaded on the 4 mules that would always accompany us throughout the 4 days . I can’t praise enough Gokul, Narayanan kutty’s son, who requested his dad to offer some eatables to the loyal animal for carrying our weight ! These mules ( cross of horse and donkey ) can carry a Quintal ( 100 KG ) on their back ! Kutty paid for Jaggery ( വെല്ലം ) and Chana for the mules that none of us could think of !

The first day we trekked about 7-8 hours crossing meadows and  slopes, streams and forests embracing nature through pristine valleys of the Garwal range !

We could see the peaks Hathi-Godi ( in the form of Elephant and horse ), Dronagiri and Neelkand as we kept walking……..

Dronagiri peak

Just after we started, we saw the Auli rope way ( Gondola ) running from the area we walked to the steep valley down hill. Our friend from Hardwar explained it is the longest ropeway in Asia (  4 KM ) using a 11KM single rope imported from Swiss. 

We could also see the world's highest man-made lake. The government has developed this in view of creating artificial snow on the new ski slopes in the event of low snow fall. The water from this lake will be used to feed the snow guns stationed along the ski slopes and thus provide 

World's highest man-made lake

a good skiing surface and extend the ski season.

The trek was a huge challenge for all of us as no one had prior experience and there was little practice though warned by the organizer. We had to stop for every 50 meters or so and very soon started puffing and panting …….drinking water and shooting pictures were the break times we eagerly awaited to rest the aching feet and body…..

How ever our interest to continue the mission over took the resistance of the body and soon we got adjusted to the demanding commands of our guides to keep walking…….the victory of mind over body was celebrated with the final dash to our camp site after 7 hrs…..

The first camp was pitched at Thali which was at 3225 m. There were three tents for six of us and a dining tent, kitchen tent and a tent that served as mobile toilet. Tent pitching was easy with modern light weight material and experienced staff. The location of the camp site was chosen next to a stream with flowing water.

It was great to relax in the dining tent enjoy the hot soup served by the guides.

The sky was crystal clear with stars, constellations and milky way visible like a photograph.

At night we had a fabulous dinner before squeezing ourselves in the thermal sleeping bags

The GIO team included two persons who looked after the mules. At night the mules would wander away and these guys used to search and bring them in the mornings.
We got up early and enjoyed the sun rise painting the peaks with golden colour ....what a sight !
Shaving was luxury during any trek, but we managed with one mirror .....:-)

The second day of trek –Sunday  14^th Sep Thali to Base camp ( Kauripass )

We started trekking at 07:40 hrs and reached GAIL GARH at 11:10 AM. The place is also called Bankarbad. The route was different from the one we trekked on first day. There were meadows and plains……glittered with black and white sheep grazing on the meadows, with occasional tents for sheperds……..

there was a treacherous patch winding up and own along the slope where we had to walk extremely careful not to slip and fall in to the steep valley

Buvan, our guide showed us a dangerous location where previously their mule had slipped and started falling towards the valley, but for the timely rescue by him and his colleagues.

Since Sajeeve, Sanjoy and I reached early, we had the option of going to Kauri pass.

After helping the guides pitch the tents, we had our lunch and started the trek.

The trek to Kauri pass took about 1:30 hrs from base camp and had paved stones most places. We reached the pass quickly and Wow, it was a breath taking view from the peak !

Suddenly the weather got worse and we started our return journey.

Before we could reach our camp, it started raining and we were hit by a nasty shower of hail stones !

Sasi counting the stones he collected ! 

It was falling so fast that my guide asked me to run like heck and I did ! It was quite a sight to see so much of hail stones covering the surface surrounding the tents……at the tent we were welcomed by our guides with hot soup……a soup never tasted so delicious in my life time !!

The third day of trek –Monday  15^th Sep Base Camp to Pangar Chulla

Sajeeve, my friend and I started for the summit around at 07:00 hrs and reached Pangharchullah mini peak at 09:50 AM.

This was the toughest part of the whole trek route. The climb was steep some places more than 45 Degree…..but the determination to reach the summit pushed us to keep moving and we did at last after 3 hrs of hard trek…….took photos of the beautiful view all around the peak………..it was 4300 m tall !!

With Sajeeve on top of Pangharchula mini peak with the main peak in the background

In fact we had planned to go straight to a lower part of Pangar Chula main peak ( 4700m ) but changed our mind in between and reached the mini peak. After seeing the main peak so close, we wanted to reach the nearest ridge of the peak……….our guide Bhuvan encouraged us to do it and so we started………….but after some time we realized we made a mistake as there was no track from mini peak to main peak………after crossing several huge boulders bigger than our size  ….sweating and gasping for breath ………..we started to retreat …………..

After wading through the ocean of rocks and dangerous terrain for several hours, we at last reached the plains and started our journey to new base camp at Khulara…..since the slope was high, we did zig-zag decent to avoid stress on the toes constantly hitting the shoes…..

Rest of the group comprising Sasi, Captain Kutty and Praveen had gone to Kauri pass and returned. By the time we reached the valley, they all started towards the new base camp in Khulara.

Our trek to Khulara took almost 6 hours as we kept crossing meadows after meadows…….

When we reached the base Camp, we were greeted by the team and a sense of achievement filled our minds……the base camp was built close to a nice stream and full of beautiful flora and fauna…..

After dinner we had camp fire and music session…..when we finally crawled in to the sleeping bag, there was a big sigh of relief as there would be no more climbing !!

The fourth day of trek –Tuesday  16^th Sep Khulara Base Camp to Dhak  

The next day we could get up relaxed and under no pressure, enjoyed the tea and break fast before starting our decent at 7:40 . The trek took about 5 hours …..we enjoyed the pristine beauty of nature scattered all over the valley when we trekked downhill……

The giggling streams, the golden rays of sun through the foliage were painting ever changing pictures like kaleidoscope……chirping birds and friendly dogs with thick furs…….

We were fortunate to see the  amazing variety of Himalayan plants and trees …such as rhododendron flower and loudh plant whose root is used to cure fracture......

Cobra Flower

The Cobra plant had beautiful beads of red and green and when Captain Kutty plucked one to take home, but the village boy told him to throw it away immediately as it would hurt him…….

We spent some time with the villagers and their innocent children……

The valley had plenty of flowers, could easily be called another valley of flowers ( the original valley of lowers is situated up north ) ….the shutters kept clicking and our eyes never got tired……….

As engineers we were fascinated to see a real Water Mill in action ….a water mill runs with the force of water flowing from a height and rotating a turbine shaft which in turn turns a grain grinder kept in a small hut.                         

At last our long 4 days trek came to an end when we spotted our tempo traveler waiting for us !

Water Mill 

Trip to Badrinath Tuesday  16th Sep

Though not originally included in the package, our friend from Hardwar suggested to visit Badrinath as it is only 53 KM from Dhak !

We stopped on the way to have lunch and bought dhotees etc for the temple visit….

We reached Badrinath in about 1:30 hrs, had a quick bath in the hot sulfur pond ( 55 Deg C ! ) and had darshan of Vishnu…..it was interesting to learn that the deity was collected from Narad Kund by Swami Sankaracharya of Kalady in Kerala who installed it in the present temple in 1300 !! So the right for pooja is restricted to Namboodiris from Kerala only !  It was the day we left Hardwar that the government decided to make the pooja at Badrinath an annual affair to benefit the devotees. Currently the deity is kept in Joshimath during peak of winter ( Oct to May). The road leading to the temple was full of squatting " boom shanker" sadhus.....as if preparing for Nirvana........the ultimate reunion with God ! 

Boom Shanker !

After Badri visit, we returned to Hardwar and Dehradun as two separate groups via Rishikesh.

ISKON Temple Rishikesh

The route was full of signs of massive land slide that happened few months ago due to heavy rains bringing huge mass of stone and mud along the slopes of the mountain and dumping in the river.

We also saw hundreds of devotees walking on the road to Badrinath to offer prayers to obtain moksha.

Many of them were quite old and bare chested too. Some were bare footed and most had just a plastic cover that served as protection to foot. We who trekked with high strength and water proof Trek shoes with jackets and stick saluted them in our mind……..our achievement was nothing compared to the power of faith and trust in God that propelled these devotees……..

Tailpiece

The Himalayan lodge of GIO at Auli was excellent with all amenities in top notch condition. The tents pitched during the trek were good too. When ever any member of the group struggled to walk, the GIO guides helped them by carrying their bag etc…

Having come so close, we could have planned our trek better to include Badrinath and Kedarnath or the entire char dham in our schedule. It was good some of our group could stay in Dehradun and visit Missouri.

I felt we should have studied puranas a bit more as we missed the opportunity to visit places of mythical importance like Daksheswara Mahadev Temple - Kankhal just 2 KM away from where we stayed. Kankhal was the winter capital of Lord Shiva, the summer capital being Kurukshetra. The mythological story about this place is that King Daksha Prajapati, the father of Sati, Lord Shiva 's first wife, performed yagya at this place. Daksha Prajapati did not invite Lord Shiva, and Sati felt insulted. Therefore she burnt herself in the yagya kund leading to Shiva's famous attack on Daksha and beheading him there after......

Overall, we enjoyed the trek very much and patted ourselves for doing something that could be easily considered beyond our age and fitness. The GIO Adventure did an exemplary job with professional and friendly guidance,  timely meals, proactive support and assistance throughout the trek and the bus trips.