Friday, July 17, 2009
Deoriya Tal and Tungnath
After a couple of driving sojourns deep into the Himalayas, we decided it was about time that we took one step further and tried trekking, the experience of which many people swear is incomparable! We had little trekking or camping experience, with the only one being Harsh’s single trek to Dodital with a couple of friends, two years ago. Trekking is not a adventure sport per say, neither is it too difficult, all that one needs is the desire to be one with nature, and the rest is taken care of automatically. The experience of visiting places not easily accessible and the tranquility of those places cannot be described in words.
Since it was going to be our first trek as a couple, we decided to pick a route which is relatively easier and would involve a night or two of camping in the open. With this constraint, we started researching on possible treks either in Himachal or Uttarakhand. The first trekking possibility identified was the one to Beas Kund near Manali. However, since we had been to Manali just 5 months back, we chucked that and finally froze on a trek to Tungnath & Chandrashila Peak located near Ukhimath in Uttarakhand. We also decided not to drive this time around for a change, a decision which we regretted a lot later. The trip just did not feel the same, and would have been much more fun had we taken our mountain queen along with us.
The trip got off to a horrendous start, once we boarded the train to Haridwar from Delhi. It was supposed to be a four and a half hour travel, in the middle of night, and we were hoping to catch a wink to be rested for the bus/taxi ride the next day. However, as luck would have it, we were stuck with a bunch of howling kids, making it impossible to relax. Soon after reaching Haridwar, we caught a taxi to Ukhimath and reached by mid-afternoon. A decent room, a nice meal at GMVN followed by a brief afternoon nap was all it took to rejuvenate us. The evening was spent making plans and arranging for a guide cum porter for the trek. As it turned out, snow at Tungnath had not yet melted to provide sufficient camping ground and to add to that water was scarce at the place. So the plan had to be changed to a camping night at Deoriya Tal, a small but beautiful lake located nearby followed by a day hike to Tungnath. We had kept the Chandrashila peak as open, depending on weather conditions and time.
We hit the sack early to be properly rested for the next day. Early next morning, we took a taxi to our drop-off point at the base of the trek to the lake. It was a short but a steep hike to Deoriya, and it took us only an hour or so to reach the top. The track was nothing spectacular being quite close to a village, however the lake at the top was amazing. The lake was surrounded by a small forest, with crystal clear views of the massive Chaukhamba peak. Also visible were the peaks of Kedarnath, including Sumeru and Kedar dome. Far away in the distance, Bandarpooch was visible at times, but the haze played the role of a spoil sport. Afternoon was quite comfortable and did not require any woolens. A sumptuous meal, cooked by an obliging dhaba owner, and we were all set for our afternoon siesta.
There’s little one can do at camp sites, but gaze at the scenery and have never-ending conversations. It can be so relaxing to be away from the buzz of the crowd with the ever interrupting mobiles out of coverage area. It is on such occasions that one really gets philosophical and tries to think clearly what life is all about. Life’s priorities somehow appear to be quite clear and small problems which one faces in one’s daily life simply vanish. These experiences are the ones which really make a trip memorable. The evening was spent reminiscing and reflecting.
The next day, after a lazy breakfast, we decided to climb down and head to Tungnath. The climb from Chopta to Tungnath was quite a steep one though just short of 4km. Being one of the panch kedars, the place witnesses hordes of pilgrims during the peak season. Luckily for us, we found only a couple of them on the way up. After huffing and puffing for a good 2 hours we managed to reach the top. The sight of the ancient temple, minus the rushing pilgrims, was stunning. The tranquility of the place made us extend our halt by an hour, and we cooked lunch on our “little master”, had a nice cup of coffee by the temple and enjoyed the view till we were content. The walk down was strenuous as well primarily because of the steep gradient. One has to realize that while descending, it is the knees which get all the stress and one has to be careful not to over-strain. By evening, we were exhausted and raring to go back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep. Early next morning we caught a bus till Rishikesh, and had a gratifying continental meal at “our hangout” there, Café Delmar by the Laxman Jhula. A taxi till Haridwar and a train ride later, we were back in Delhi by late evening.
Thus, a 4 day, 3 night short trip came to an end. The biggest mistake of the trip was not to take our mountain queen with us. The frequent stops at scenic places, the joy of driving in the hills was taken away from us. However, there were wonderful positives of the trip as well. It opened up the Pandora’s Box of trekking for us, making us realize that it is quite doable and loads of fun. The trek eventually led to our 50km trek to Gaumukh & Tapovan three months later.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Gaumukh & Tapovan
June 2009
We’d dreamed of going on a long trek since quite some time, especially after our immensely enjoyable first trek to Deoriya Tal and Tungnath. This trek was however very short, with just one night of camping at Deoriya Tal, and we now wanted to experiment with a week long, high altitude trek, but not a tough one since it was going to be Aarti’s first. After two months of extensive research, going through the entire Outlook Traveller’s Trekking Guide and discussing with some experienced friends, we finally decided our destination - Gaumukh and Tapovan. A long, high altitude trek, which is relatively easy in terms of the gradient of the trek path – an ideal beginning.
So off we went in the second week of June. Our plan was to make the trip a driving cum trekking holiday, primarily because we hate to travel without our car! We had two huge backpacks, with everything a camper would need – a tent, sleeping bags, sleeping mats, a little stove with extra tiny gas cylinders, a lamp, a compass, all kinds of winter clothes, some ready-to-eat food, and lots of toilet paper!
We left around 12 in the afternoon and after a boring drive to Rishikesh, which we’ve done so many times that we know what the next signboard is going to read, we broke the night there at a friend’s place. The next day, we left his place early at 7am, since we had to reach Uttarkashi before lunch to get our permit from the DFO’s office there. The government declared the Gaumukh area a National Park in 2007 and since then they allow only 150 tourists to enter the park per day, including guides. We’d applied for our permit well in advance from
The next morning Aarti was quite scared – the thought of walking 14kms in a day had been troubling her since a while, but now that the day had come, she was getting cold feet! Harsh and Kanak were carrying the huge backpacks, with Aarti carrying only a lil tiny bag which consisted mostly of her ‘make-up’!
The trek path, on the right bank of the
Then the real trek starts… you can now no longer see the Gangotri township and the temple complex, as the path climbs steadily, always next to the
We got late in leaving for Gaumukh the next day due to our leisurely breakfast at GMVN. The 4km trek took us some 2 hours. The trek from Bhojbasa to Gaumukh is pretty flat, but is very rocky, and one has to carefully pick one’s way. One can see the snout of the Gangotri glacier all the way from Bhojbasa, but as one draws nearer, it becomes more distinct and clear and once at Gaumukh, you realize the real magnitude of what you are seeing – Ganga, India’s holiest river, gushing out of a blue and white opening, the mouth of the 26 km long Gangotri glacier. There is so much debris on it that its hard to believe that one is actually looking at a glacier – as one book describes it, ‘chocolate over vanilla’! After marveling at the sight before us for sometime, we again got on our feet, this time to traverse the most treacherous part of our trek yet – the climb to Tapovan.
Till Gaumukh, the trek path is paved and clear, but beyond it, one has to rely on one’s guide or on the pile of stones that the locals keep to mark the route. Starting from the banks of the Ganga, one climbs up, then moves right to cross the glacier, all the time hopping on stones, many of which are unsteady, with only the occasional crevasse reminding you that you are actually walking on a massive glacier!
We were just about to reach the base of the final 1 km steep ascent to Tapovan when two boulders fell on Aarti’s foot and we almost thought that we would not be able to make it! But thanks to Relispray’s magic and Kanak’s expert guidance, we were able to climb almost a vertical mountain in about an hour and a half, and reached the vast meadow just as it started snowing! What exquisite beauty! The Shivling massif rising up in a scoop of scree and snow, the Akash Ganga criss-crossing the meadow, and mighty snow clad peaks all around… if there is heaven on Earth, it has to be here!
After quickly setting up our tent, we trudged up to Mauni Baba’s ashram for dinner. He has been staying in Tapovan for two years now (he stays there for six months and in Bhojbasa for the other six) and has not spoken a word, hence the name ‘Mauni Baba’. He has two three ashrams there, where people who do not carry their tents can stay (that is where our guide Kanal stayed), and all people can eat, tent or no tent! A Bengali Mataji also has an ashram in Tapovan, but for some strange reason, she wasn’t very welcoming. A wonderful meal of dal and rice and Mauni Baba’s special jadibooti chai were the perfect end to an adventurous day!
We decided to stay in Tapovan the next day for two reasons – one, if we spent just one night in such a lovely place, it would be a crime; and two, we were very tired and bruised after two days of strenuous walking and trekking and our bodies desperately needed a break. And of course, our ambitious plan of also trekking to Nandanban seemed like a joke now!
Mornings are always adventurous when you camp – the reason being that you need to find the ‘right’ place for morning activities! There’s always that big tree or a hill which is the best spot, but what do you do at a meadow above tree line?!! Thankfully, we found some huge boulders which saved the day.
After a delicious breakfast of suji ka halwa prepared by Mauni Baba, we decided to venture out and explore more of the meadow. We spent some time clicking the Bhagirathi and the Shivling peaks from all angles, and then walked to a point from where we could see as much as we could of the Gangotri glacier. The view before us seemed surreal…. A vast expanse of snow covered peaks and the Gangotri glacier extending to as far as we could see, with the Bhagirathi peaks right ahead, the melting snow on them gleaming in the morning sun. Wow! We just stood there for a while taking in the magnificence of the scenery before us. Seeing a blizzard coming towards us, we then quickly retraced our steps back to our tent.
In the evening, we walked to the base of the Shivling and tried to also locate the source of the Akash
In the morning, after thanking Mauni Baba for his hospitality, giving him some money as gratitude, and clicking lots of pictures of him which we promised to send via our guide, we started our descent – the one thing that we had been dreading since the last 2 days! A steep decline is always more dangerous than a steep ascent, with chances of slipping being much higher. It took us about an hour to reach the bottom of the 1km high mountain on top of which Tapovan is situated, and then another 2 to reach Gaumukh. By lunch we were at Bhojbasa, where we spent an hour and a half relaxing, before starting the final leg of the day to Chirbasa, where we planned to camp for the night. Just as we were reaching there, it started to rain, and out came our green barsatis which we’d bought foreseeing such a storm.
We left early the next morning for Gangotri and were there by 12 or so. We took the path via the temple complex, paying our tribute to Goddess Ganga from the outside, not having the patience or the strength to stand in the long queue of devoted pilgrims to go inside the temple. After a hearty meal at a local restaurant and saying goodbye to our quiet but smart guide Kanak, we drove off to Uttarkashi, where we stayed the night at GMVN. It was good to be back to civilization and worldly pleasures – like a bath and some good food! We reached
Our first major trek had come to an end, leaving us all bruised and exhausted and sun-burnt, but the gleam in our eyes and the smile on our faces did not go away for a long long time.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Magical Kinnaur
We enjoyed our first road trip to Kumaon so much that when we came back, we went crazy planning for our next trip, and bought all sorts of books, one of which was the Himachal Pradesh Outlook Traveller. While going through this, we kept coming back to one article - the one which described Sangla and Kinnaur in detail. It had been just 3 months since our wedding, and taking another big break from work was not possible - at max we could plan a five day trip, taking advantage of a long weekend. But was it possible to cover a far-way place like Kinnaur in just five days? We had our doubts, but nevertheless packed our bags and set out on another trip, this time to discover Kinnaur.
We left early in the morning, had a grand breakfast of paranthas at Murthal, and then finally stopped at the CCD at Dharampur for lunch. We were worried since our scheduled stop for the day was Rampur Bushehr, another 170 kms or 6 hours from Dharampur. After a hearty lunch and some freshening up, we proceeded towards Shimla. The road after Shimla is very picturesque, passing through Mashobra, Kufri, Theog and Narkanda. We finally reached Rampur somewhere around 8pm and checked into the HPTDC there. We were dead tired and after a delicious dinner, hit the sack immediately!
The next morning was lovely, and we were all geared up to reach Kalpa, a small village which offers excellent views of the Kinner Kailash massif. However, our spirits were soon dampened by the poor quality of the road till Wangtu, due to the construction of some major hydel power projects on the way. However, some parts of the drive on the historic Hindustan-Tibet road were lovely, with the road being cut out of cliffs at many places! We reached Kalpa sometime in the afternoon, after a steep drive of 6km from Rekong Peo, the administrative HQ of the Kinnaur district. The HPTDC here is beautiful, built in typical Kinnauri style! The driveway of the HPTDC was lined with a huge pile of snow on both sides, and our Esteem just about made it inside! And the view! Oh the view! Right in front of you lies the ethereal Kinner Kailash massif in all its glory, all its ragged edges shining in the sun. A sight to behold! We spent the evening gazing at it, and clicking away till the sun went down.
There was no water at the HPDTC, all water having frozen in the taps! We just spent one cold night here, and got ready the next morning to go to Sangla. But not before buying two bottles of local wine from Kalpa! :)
We drove back till Karchham, from where the road bifurcates towards Sangla. This road is pretty bad and quite steep as well, and just when one is starting to wonder where one is going, the wide and open Sangla valley unfolds after a bend, the Baspa riven flowing through it, apple orchards all around, and surrounded by the icy snow peaks that cut India off from Tibet. Its difficult to believe that such a beautiful valley exists at 2700m! We spent some time by the banks of the Baspa, marvelling at how the snow on the banks hasn't melted yet.... and then checked into a dingy little hotel, 'The Baspa Guest House'. In the evening, we went up till the Kamru fort, from which one can see and admire the entire Sangla valley. We watched the sunset here, and then retraced our steps back to the hotel.
In the morning, we had a problem to deal with. Since our car was pretty dirty, we thought of washing the windscreen with our car sprinklers - and whoa! the water froze! We then had to get some hot water and splash on the windscreen before we could finally take off to Chitkul, 26kms away. We were lucky that the road to Chitkul had been cleared of snow just two days back, and that made the drive lovelier, with snow piled up on both sides of the road. We really felt that we were driving to the end of civilization, and when we did reach Chitkul, that feeling was complete. A village with a few houses spread here and there, all covered under a thick blanket of snow, and a closed dhaba with a sign that read 'Hindustan ka aakhri Dhaba' - that's Chitkul for you! One can actually see the road ending here, and if you stare long enough at the huge mountains ahead, you may even get the feeling that you see Tibet somewhere there! We walked on in the snow for a km or so, but then the snow started melting and we could no longer walk properly without our feet sinking in the snow. Reluctantly, we made our way back, and then drove off back to civilization.
Our plan was to return to Rampur that night, but since we were reaching there early, we thought of spending some time at the temple town of Sarahan before halting for the night at Rampur. However, Sarahan stole our hearts, especially the beautiful location of the HPDTC there, right in from of the temple and on the edge of the mountain, that we decided to stay the night there. We strolled around the temple a bit in the evening, had some nice food while looking at the Srikhand Mahadev range from the hotel's dining room, and then soon later hit the sack.
The next day was a long one - a 16 hour drive to Delhi, which got further extended since we stopped for a leisurely lunch at Shimla, roaming around the Mall a bit. We finally reached Delhi around 1am, exhausted like hell, but our eyes bright with the memories of the breathtaking place that Kinnaur is.
Friday, July 10, 2009
The Half-Big Trip
Manali had always beckoned me, and with Aarti having been there thrice already, I felt that it was high time that I made the trip as well. It had been a strenuous year, with quite a lot of workload, forcing us to put off our plan for "The Big Trip" (Manali - Leh highway) till next summer. The idea was to simply drive up to Manali and spend our Diwali break there, relaxing and exploring the hill-station. However, wanderlust bitten as we are, we landed up driving up till Baralacha La! Had it not been for my business obligations, we might as well have gone up till Leh. The route that we ultimately took was Delhi - Chandigarh - Swarghat - Mandi - Aut - Kullu - Manali - Palchan - Rohtang - Koksar - Keylong - Jispa - Darcha - Baralacha La - Jispa - Keylong - Koskar - Rohtang - Manali - Solang - Manali - Naggar - Malana - Chandigarh - Delhi.
The drive back to Koksar was uneventful, but the feeling of having covered our dream route at least half way was amazing. We both could not stop smiling for a long long time that day. The night was spent at the only available accommodation at Koksar, a PWD guest house, with Aarti reminiscing of the last time she spent a night at Koksar with her parents, 15 years ago!
We decided to spend the rest of our days on the trip at "The Johnson's Lodge". This way the delicious trouts would be at a stone's throw distance away from our room! Early afternoon saw us checking into our room, which was luxurious but obviously bang in the middle of Manali. That evening was spent at a quiet waterfall near Vashishtha, an old temple village near Manali. At night, we took a walk downtown Manali to check out the dishes at more restaurants, and what a waste that was! More than money, we had wasted our appetites eating at some random joint, when we could've had a delicious dinner at Johnson's Lodge.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Discovering Kumaon
Dec 2007
It was on one of our trips with friends to Kausani that we'd heard about Munsiyari for the first time - stopping on the side of the road for a break, we'd asked our cab driver what that place was, far far away from where we stood, right in the lap of the snow-clad Himalayas? That's Munsiyari he'd said, the starting point of the trek to the Milam glacier. Ever since then, it was our heart's desire to go there. And we were finally able to fulfil that desire when we got married and went off on our honeymoon on a roadtrip to discover Munsiyari, and Kumaon.
We started off early morning at 6 from
Our halt for day 2 was Chaukori. We left the hotel at 8am and stopped enroute for a breakfast of maggi and soup, cooked on our 'little master', the name we have given to our tiny camping stove. The drive till Chaukori was serene, cold, damp and it rained throughout. The colors were vibrant late in the evening at sunset, when the clouds cleared. We eventually checked into our cottage at the beautiful KMVN at Chaukori late in the evening.
Finally, after a delicious breakfast, we left early the next morning for home. After a strenuous drive of 11 hours, we were back in our Vasant Kunj home. We were tired, rather exhausted, but if given the chance, we would have driven right back there and then! While the satisfaction of having seen the mesmerizing place that Munsiyari is and discovering the unknown and tucked away places of Kumaon was amazing, we knew that the wanderlust bug had bitten us and our thirst to get back on the road and continue our exploration of such places would now never be quenched. It was our first roadtrip together, and we knew that there would be many more to come!