"What value is heaven to me, If this dog is not allowed to come along with."
Kedarnath It is definitely one of the amazing places on this earth. Visit it. Admire it. Love it. Treasure it.
It was my second year at Roorkee and I was still dumb and lame. Still goofing around. I did travel a bit but was limited to Haridwar, Hrishikesh, Mussorie, Nainital and Dehradun. It was all after I joined the Himalayan Explorer’s Club, that I really got into travelling. Kedaranth was my first trekking experience and I really cherish that moment.
Damn! I wish I had DSLR or some other gizmo! I definitly miss the moments that I should have captured.
This is my travelogue to recap all my amazing journeys. This blog that I have started is a tribute to the visual memories confined in my neurons and their interwoven network. It is the testimonial for my exhilarating experience. Comes lets start this journey from Kedarnath.
I dont need thermals. I am that cool
Well that was me when packing for the journey ahead. I was very reluctant and rather condescending on the coldness that I would be facing later. I thought I will be able to protect myself from the chilling weather by putting on multiple shirts. Well I was wrong and learnt it the very hard way.
We started at 3 in the morning. I was very excited and also wondering ~ what is the need of starting so early?
We took a bus from Roorkee to Hrishikesh and it us around two and half hours to reach. The twilight was over the horizon and I was enjoying my hot tea. We were waiting for a bus that would take us to Rudraprayag. Finally we found one and started our journey. Hrishikesh is sort of the gateway between the plains and garhwal regions of Uttarakhand. The journey onwards was interlacing network of roads. You can see the splendid beauty of the Ganges flowing along.
The journey was strenuous mainly because of the twists and turns. People with travelling sickness should definitely avoid this. We halted for sometime at Devprayag. After a quick brunch we continued our journey towards Rudraprayag. Rudraprayag and Srinagar have sort of become my second home. I have halted here many times. I take back many memories. I even discovered fire at this place! (That’s definitely another story to tell !!).
From Rudraprayag, we took an other bus to Gourikund - The base were we can start our trek to Kedarnath. The journey was uneventful except for the fact that we were delayed for a while due to clearing of a landslide. It was almost dark when we reached Gourikund. We immediately took a room that could fit 20 of us. I skipped lunch since I was feeling uneasy about the cold, the travel and also the altitude. While everyone played cards in the night, I only joined them chit-chat.
I was woken up by the numbing cold and found that two of my friends were awake too. We decided to the go to the hot springs of gourikund. This was must first experience with the hot springs and man! I was thrilled. The water was just Amazing! I took a dip in the pond and that’s it! I was lost in the ether-world! My body just refused come out of this warmth! I felt like staying inside for hours! But we had trek to do. That made me happy as well as sad.
We got back after sometime and some of them ready with their backpacks for the trek ahead. We had a aloo-parathas with butter and started our journey amidst the chants of ‘Jai Kedarnath’, along with some elderly people mounted on donkeys and horses heading towards the summit. The path was surprisingly wide and easy to climb. People got sorted accordingly based on their climbing speeds. Me along with two others started taking detour and climbing along the river Mandakini instead of the designated path. After some photo-ops near the stream, we tried to catch up with the rest of them by taking some risky shortcuts.
Wish I had A DSLR!
After Climbing 7 kms, which is halfway we reached Rambad. We quenched our thirst and continued. I kept forming new groups breaking old ones as my speed kept changing. As I neared the summit, the sight was breathtaking. The sun was hiding among the clouds, giving us enough light to enjoy the scenery. The tall and gushy mountains on the other side of the river was simply majestic. We watched them in awe as we waited for others. We moved on after quick attendance.
We were 1 Km away from Kedarnath and saw a new pathway pointiing towards Vasuki Tal. It would have been our starting point the next day, had we not decided to take the shortcut. We reached the city and had some hot parathas (That’s the only thing you get here, I got used to it long back.) I enjoyed some hot tea and enjoyed living amongst the mountains while some others visited the temple before it closed for the day. As it was getting dark, we found a place to rest.
We had no electricity and were completely dependent on the candle. We sat in our dark rooms and discussed with the hotel guys about the mythological stories associated with the place. We slept early to start our journey towards Vasuki Tal at twilight next morning.
It’s yours pants Idiot!
We had a brief breakfast and got some biscuits and cake packed. Since I had no thermals, I wore two shirts and a also put on jeans over my track pants (Which was really a bad idea). Around three of them refused to join us; They were completely down after the morning blues and felt like spending the rest of the day in kedarnath. Rest of us started walking in the direction of Vasuki Tal.
Even though there was paved way for the trek a km away, we thought of using a shortcut based on direction of ascendance. We were 15 and each was ascending randomly in the given direction. Our captain was equally clueless about the path we were supposed to take. We were pretty excited. Added to that, came the next horror; some 3 fluffy dogs started following us as we started climbing. Let me give a bit of background here.
The previous day, we were discussing some interesting Mythological stories related to Kedarnath and this is what we got to know -
Kedarnath is the place from where the Pandavas start their journey towards heaven. And interestingly a Dog starts following them and stays along the entire journey. Even though the rest of pandavas start dying one by one, the dog stays with Yudhistira till they reach heaven. After reaching the summit of Swargharohini, there is chariot waiting to take Yudhistira to heaven. The charioteer refuses to take the dog along even though Yudhistira insists upon it. Finally Yudhistira says I dont wish for heaven, if this dog is not allowed to join me. The dog was actually yama disguised to test his wisdom.
Coming back to present, we were shit scared at these dogs who were climbing seamlessly and following us. We thought that the mythology is going to be enacted again with some of us going down. To our comfort after gaining some height, the dogs stopped following. Our plan was to reach vasuki tal in and return by 2-ish, since the clouds will descend by 2 and the visibility will be very poor because of which getting down will become extremely difficult. After around an hour or so we finally were on the right track to our destination. But I was very much behind the others and was almost feeling that I am done with this trek. And when I was completely tired and thinking of giving up, came my trek leader; He saw my state and shouted at me - “Remove your pants idiot! you are wearing too much!” . I slowly removed my pants and one of my shirts. I was now wearing only a thin t-shirt and a track pant. The very next, I did the most lethargic thing I could think of. I threw away my jeans on the way and started moving forward. I did not bother about loosing it. I felt very light and started climbing. I was gradually able to catch up with few of them.
Most of the initial Climb was among lush green bushes. After around 2 hours of climbing, we reached a leveled terrain. There is no chance of getting lost, since the path is well marked. After walking for 20 mins the sun came out and started cursing us with his sharp rays. We took shelter under some huge rock and let our body cool. Around 8 of them had already proceeded further, I was along with 2 of them. After a relaxing for sometime, we continued our journey. We reached the apex from where we had to descend and reach the lake. The lake was very much visible, but around 2 km away.
The sight of Destiny
The very sight of the Lake was itself inspiring! I got charged up all of a sudden and started running towards the lake. Infact seeing me running, two others who were along with me also started running.
The sight of Destiny is very powerful I tell You!
The descend was not easy and the there was no path either, The downhill was completely rocky and skewed. We had to jump and hop among rocks - big and small. It was sort of those military training tracks. When we were around kilometer or so away from it, we could see the the outlines of others near the lake. I slowed down a bit and started walking, the way was marshy now. As we neared the lake, I just took a moment to look back and see the trail behind. I just halted there so that my adrenaline subsides. I breathed easily so that the everything around me sinks in slowly. I enjoyed every moment of this bliss. I was given a number as soon as I reached the small huddle. I went near the lake and took a sip and eww! it was very salty. I took a some small stones and made a pyramid just as my stamp for coming here.
After taking some snaps and brief rest, we started the return journey. The time was around 12 and we were far behind our schedule. We should have started going back an hour ago. We were all hungry and helped ourselves with the leftover biscuits. Water was available but limited. The clouds started approaching and the sun light was mild. This time we forgo of pursuing any shortcuts. We stuck to the established trekking route. At around 3-ish the mist had arrived, and nothing was visible beyond 10 feet. I found the jeans that I left behind and took it along with me. All of us were dispersed, invisible to each other, but were shouting like hell in the fog just for fun. Some times we dashed each other not knowing somebody was in front. We finally reached back our room and had many tales to share with the people who hadn’t joined us.
I had something to appease my grumbling stomach and immediately left for the temple along with few others. The temple is very small, and with the backdrop of Kedar peak the temple appears much smaller. When you enter the temple you will see carvings of the pandavas and draupadi on the walls. Talking from mythological point of view they were the once who built this temple. You are allowed inside the garbha-gudi. You will see a stone at the centre which kind of shape of a Bull’s hump.
What story goes is that Shiva in order to disguise himself from the pandavas, was roaming in the form of a Bull. When pandavas came to know about this, he tried to escape by burying into the ground. But Bheema the strongest of the 5 brothers caught the bull by the hump. At that is were they constructed this temple.
We met a sadhu outside the temple who blessed us wholeheartedly and presented us with ‘Vibhuti’. There are couple of shops outside the temple selling rudrakshas, kalash, ganga-jal etc. I bought some souvenirs and went back to our rooms.
Heart is Heavy
We woke up next morning and started descent from kedarnath to gaurikund after a quick breakfast. We reached the base by around 10 and immediately took the bus that was leaving for Devprayag. The journey was uneventful. My heart was very heavy for having to leave this place. Ofcourse the approaching mid-sems were also, sort of, scaring me. We thought we could make it to Hrishikesh by night. But the bus journey was really slow and we halted at Srinagar for that night. We found a really large room where 20 of could sleep. We roamed around Srinagar for some time, before calling it a day.
The next day we hopped onto to the first bus that we could get in the morning. We reached Hrishikesh by noon. We had our lunch there and got back to Roorkee by night. But my mind was still wandering near Vasuki Tal.
Instantly I made a promise to myself -
I will return to Vasuki Tal some day and spend more time.
