Chpt 9. 14th August

This was the end of our stay at Ghangria and we woke early since we didn’t want to miss our bus back. We hired three ghodas, loaded our bags and set off. Vidya and Liza decided to trek down and started off while I waited for another ghoda and passenger to be added. After yesterdays one ghodawala disappearing incident, we were wiser and wanted two ghodawalas. I met Shekhar on the way our when we were paying toll for the horses. Thanked him for the chocos and he seemed almost embarrassed.

The journey down seemed unending, I guess it was because we weren’t all that eager to go down as we were on the journey up. Liza hopped on to one of the spare ghodas while Vidya, after the previous day’s harrowing Hemkund trip on ghoda, decided to walk the entire stretch down to Govindghat. It began to get really hot. We passed Rana and the rest of the bus gang walking down and we knew we would be back at Govindghat earlier than the others.

By the time we reached Govindghat it was noon and the sun was scorching. We waited for Vidya on the steps of the Gurudwara and after resting a while, we set off to find the bus. We reached the parking lot, and found no GMVN bus! Some of the shopkeepers told us that there was another bus stand and I set off to look if our bus was there while Liza and Vidya waited outside a veggie shop. The bus wasn’t at the other parking lot either and I got worried.

I tried calling Rawat on his mobile which he didn’t pick up. What if the bus had gone off with our luggage and left us back? The telephone booth operator told us that the GMVN bus goes back to Joshimath and comes to pick up the people only later, and we heaved a sigh of relief. We went to one of the stalls at the parking lot to have lunch and midway, Rawat shows up. None of the other bus passengers reached until around 3 p.m. By this time, Rawat began to worry about crossing the landslide prone ghats to reach Badrinath, where we were to spend the night, before 5 p.m. when the gates would close for one way traffic.

Luck was not on our side….we left around 4, only to be stuck 20 minutes into the journey due to a landslide. We waited till 5 p.m. and turned around and went back to Joshimath. The scenery on the way back was beautiful and Vidya, sitting right at the front of the bus was busy clicking photos of the mountains, the mist and the great views.

In a way we were glad to be back at the GMVN guest house at Joshimath, we had a great room this time. And we were reintroduced to the pleasures of running water, a geyser, electricity and we made a excited fuss about just everything. After Ghangria, this hotel room was a palace. We washed up, lazed, did accounts, ordered pakoras and chai and began to relax. The food at GMVN wasn’t all that great and they took forever to serve the food….we were quite grumpy about that. We went back late at night to the room to find that Rawat had given me a missed call (this was the first of the many missed calls he gave me as I later discovered). He asked us to be ready to leave anytime after 6 a.m.

We went to sleep after that, Liza missing her nightly glass of date flavoured milk…

Chpt 8. 13th August

We had planned on getting an early start on the day’s trip to Hemkund Saheb. Most pilgrims get going as early as 6 a.m. and therefore running water in all taps is only available between 4.30 and 6 in the morning. We, of course didn’t even plan on getting up this early and made do with several buckets of water which were brought up to our room , sometimes even delivered through the window of the bathroom!

We were up and ready to go by around 7 a.m, and we began our search for the ghodas [also known as khacchar in the local lingo]. After all the walking the last two days, we all agreed that ghodas were the way to go- and what a wise decision it turned out to be in hindsight. Our ghodawala, a youngish chap told us that he will guide all three ghodas [Reshma, Karishma & Kamala – pronounced with the ‘h’ being silent] and we were on our way with Kamala, my young, spirited horse leading the way. Unlike the trek to the valley, this one seemed to be much steeper- we after all had to reach a height of 4400 mts from ghangria which was at 3048 mts.

The path up to Hemkund was lined with rocks and when it started to drizzle, the rocks started getting slippery. Going by my vast experience of riding mules (most experienced of the three of us), I was used to them walking along the outer edge of the path. But there were a few heartstopping moments, especially at the turns when a rock on the edge slipped away and fell into nothingness. Within an hour or so into our journey, the drizzle was quite steady and we were in the midst of clouds making the cold seem even colder.

We stopped at around 10 at our ghodawallah’s friends shop for some snacks. Vidya and I stuck to the chai, and Liza had her usual- Maggi. I must admit though, that Maggi somehow tasted so much better up in the Himalayas then when we made it in our city kitchens! After about half an hour we moved our aching backsides back on the mules for the rest of the journey.

When the drizzle cleared we were able to spot the flowers, some of which we knew the names (thanks to yesterday’s trip) and some new ones [e.g. the Brahma Kamal]. Unfortunately we couldn’t take photos of them sitting high up on the mules. The breathtaking scenery though was captured on film (digitally actually). We saw clouds swirling around and mountains in a slow dance and rivulets begin their long journey to the Alaknanda. There was also a patch of snow which had not melted! There were moments when we had a clear sky, but the sky remained cloudy for most of the day.

Along the way we passed many pilgrims, all ages and sizes making their way up the treacherous path. I think it was only faith or belief or whatever one wants to call it that gave them the strength to carry on up the mountain. We passed an old lady and a young 20ish girl walking together, the older lady chanting a prayer and the girl, probably her daughter repeating it after her. There were young couples carrying babies in their hands and older people encouraged along by their families.

We reached Hemkund around 11.30. We could catch glimpses of the temple over the last few bends and we reached the summit to be welcomed by thick mist and sweeping winds. We got off our ghodas and made our way to the main temple area carefully sidestepping the droppings of the many mules ‘parked’ at the entry point.

The lake was almost covered completely by mist and we could barely see the surface at some points. The Sikhs bravely shed their clothes and holding on to a rope dipped themselves in the lake- not once but thrice. We took a few photos at the lake area and then went into the shelter of the gurudwara. Liza and I were too frozen to remove our raingear and shoes and enter the main area , so Vidya quickly took a look inside and joined us in five minutes. We then went to see the Lakshman temple adjacent and left Liza in the warm shelter of the gurudwara. As we made our way back to the gurudwara the mist began to clear and the lake was more visible as were the surrounding mountains. We found Liza, who was chatting up with the people who looked after the gurudwara. They told us a little about Hemkund and how the army was called in every June to break the ice on the lake for the pilgrims. They also insisted that we too take a dip in the lake waters in the separate ladies section and tried to convince us that one would feel refreshed after the dip and that it wasn’t all that cold. We didn’t believe them!

We decided to head back soon and when we walked to the entry point there was no sign of our ghodawallah. We only knew the names of the ghodas- so we kept calling their names, much to the amusement of the other ghodawallahs. Luckily, we spotted him ‘chilling out’ in a corner and we got back on our ghodas. His name was Lakshman. The ride down on the ghodas was even more torturous that the one up- we were even tied to the saddle of the ghoda so that we wouldn’t fall off. Lakshman instructed us to brace our feet against the stirrups and lean back to balance ourselves and we discovered it did really work – in reducing the torture, not eliminating it!

Our trip down was quicker and we were at the same chai shop in no time. We stopped for a snack and got back on the ghodas and set off. Two minutes down the slope, Lakshman discovered he had left back his umbrella, and after talking the ‘ghodas’ into waiting for him, he ran back to pick up his umbrella. The train of ghodas was being led by Kamala, who decided she didn’t want to wait any longer and set off, the others obediently following. We tried to get them to stop, and pleaded with passerbys to help. There we were three maidens on horses (ok, let your imagination run a little wild) and nobody was willing/able to help us. Screams of “lakshman ji, lakshman ji” [in retrospect, in a very filmi style!] didn’t help, except to amuse the other pilgrims and we began to get more frightened with every bend in the road. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Lakshman ji appeared and was severely scolded by us!

We reached Ghangria without much other excitement or scares. The horses refused to move beyond their usual resting place a little outside the village area, so we hopped off and walked back to the hotel. Vidya had decided to get down a little earlier and came back a little after we reached. It was still bright light when we reached, we stopped for a quick late lunch (for me mostly) at one of the numerous Punjabi places before heading to our room.

We were all bone tired by this time and hit the bed for some zzzz. Liza took a walk out and met Shekhar. He later sent some chocolate to the room and a thank you nice to have met you note. We had planned to take a walk down to the sarovar park tent area but never got around to it that day. We passed time playing word games (the UNO cards were unused through the whole trip) and after dinner we all fell asleep.