Tour to Kedarnath is a dream for every Indian, as far as I know I can say this about all the Hindu community. Still many other people love to travel down to the place seeking peace and adventure. It is considered to be the Heaven on Earth Situated in the lap of nature, it is one of the toughest treks to cover unless and untill you make use of any conveyance. Be it it either winter, when snow clad roads does not make climbing easy or during the summer when the uphill terrain gets too hot to walk. During the rainy day, it gets to dangerous with slippery path and landslides. I was planning a trip since many years, and suddenly we have an immediate plan in place in October. But will it going to be easy?
Kedarnath is a holy pilgrimage site located in the Himalayas, about 3584 Mtr above sea level near the head of river Mandakini.
I already made up my mind to travel to this place. Finding an opportunity, I quickly pack my bags. While many people plan in advance and makes all preparation with regards to lodging , travelling etc. Mine was an instant plan. Our tour is divided into 4 part. Delhi - Haridwar – Son Prayag – Kedarnath. Means we are going to stay at 4 different places in a matter of few days. Luckily, we managed to make the train reservation on time. Firstly, we travel to Delhi. I have my home, so we did not face any challenge for accommodation and food. There are many travel options available to Haridwar our next stopover.
Chaotic Train
We took an afternoon train to Haridwar on a hot and humid day. It was a 5 hrs journey, and the heat and humid weather already started taking toll on our body. But the atmosphere inside the coach was completely chaotic. Ther were few group travelling from western part of India and they were too going towards Kedarnath.
These people making the train atmosphere quite nostalgic. The fun of travelling in groups is that, they create an all different atmosphere. Having a same destination, it didn’t took long to mingle with them. They sang , chants, hymns during the entire train journey. It was quite nostalgic feling getting inside the train. Many a times the train coach echoes with the salutation in the name of Lord Shiva. Finding so many devoted people around us we did not felt lonely. In fact they make a good start to our journey.
Peaceful Haridwar
By evening 7 we reached Haridwar. It was a familiar place to me, as I had been regular during my office weekend. We checked into a hotel for overnight stay and went out to Ganga River for a dip. It was quite an adventure swimming in the fast-flowing ganga at so late night.
We had the dinner afterward. We get too hungry after 5 hrs of train journey and then bathing at Ganga. There were many restaurants so finding a meal is not a problem.
We also need to check upon a traveller bus or a private vehicle to go upwards. Kedarnath is still too far away from Haridwar. After negotiating a good deal with a travel guy, we booked a mini car for our next morning further travelling.
We find the weather bit cold next morning. It was completely different from what we experience in Delhi. We checked out of hotel and bought some snacks and fruits for the breakfast before boarding our vehicle.
Risky Roads
Driving in hills is not an easy job. The quick turns, deep gorges, and chasm on one side and traffic in front make it difficult to drive. It need an experience hand to maneuver the steering and we get one in Manish (name of our driver). The travel to our next stoppages is going to be a bit risky.
At many places the roads were blocked due to landslides few days ago. We have seen the glimps of natural devastation at many places. Big boulders damaged roads and huge rubbles lying all over the roads. It shows the amount of devastation the region faced during monsoon rain. We too get bit scared looking at outside. You never know when the next boulder comes rolling down.
The fun of travelling in hills is that you will see some amazing natural set up. Enough to make you fall in love with the place. While Manish was taking care of the steering to safely pass through the risky roads, we were silently enjoying the beauty of nature. We have seen some amazing mountain all along the way. We were slowly getting into a different world. From Land to Mountain, you will find many difference from language to lifestyle to custom and looks.
Short Layover
We feel tired , we feel hungry. We almost travelled 4 hrs continously and needed a break to stretch our legs and body. Even Manish need a rest. We stopped at a roadside eateries. While we eat few light snacks, we also met a bikers group who were ridingnonntheir bikes from Punjab.
Breathtaking Devprayag.
Travelling in mountains always amazes with some Breathtaking views. Devprayag is one such place which is also known as panch prayag
Devprayag is the place where the holy rivers Bhagirathi and Alaknanda meet, merge into one and take the name Ganga, making it a unique pilgrimage. - Wikipedia.
The place is famous for confluence of two river. This is a place where two different river 1. Alaknanda and 2. Bhagirathi merged together to form Ganga. As you can see the confluence can easily bee visible with the Green water and Muddy Brown water. Both flow from different direction and unified at Devprayag.
Apart from the natural river dlowing besuty, we also seen the man made structure all over the places. The entire confluence is covered with houses / shops etc. It is amazing how people managed to build at such location.
We spend nearly half an hour for clicking photos. We already made a nuisance on roads by creating a mini traffic jams. But also many other traveller too get down at the place for selfie.
It was already noon, and we still needed to cover few more hills to make tonour next destination Sonprayag
We filled our empty bottles with fresh mountain water and moved on towards Sonprayag. We were in a hurry as we don't have any booking for overnite stay. And as per our knowledge there were limited places for accomodstion.
More "Adventures in Abundances at Sonprayag......in next post.
Hope you enjoy our journey so far.
