Traveling is good
I have always been fascinated by lofty mountains & rivers. But no sooner than this summer, my fascination rose to the level of determination to visit “GOMUKH” – the so called origin of river Ganga, A documentary on ganga was aired on national geo provided further insight into the mythological aspect of it. Also one prominent reason was that I hail from Patna which is located at the banks of river Ganga.
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Instead of writing directly about my recent trip to Yamnotri & Gangotri I realized that I should give some brief description about the holy state Dev Bhoomi – Uttrakhand so that all the readers can be benefited by enhancing their knowledge to know about this place & I expect the same from the others who already have the information about this Holy state.
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Part I covered our journey from New Delhi to Uttarkashi, during May 10. Our first night halt was at Rishikesh (220 kms from New…
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Summer days are here again – with bagful of fantastical to-do’s in the oncoming vacations. I suppose we, who are on the wrong end/side…
Read MoreThe cool wind in my face, the crispness of the fresh air in my lungs, high up in the mountains, the sound of river…
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Let me first tell all the readers that I got the motivation to write this after reading through many of the posts at ghummakar….
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Several places sacred to Hindus lie along the banks of the river Ganga, including Haridwar, Allahabad and Varanasi. During the Loy Krathong festival in Thailand, candlelit floats are released into waterways in honouring the Buddha and the goddess Ganga for good fortune and washing away sins.
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You are covered by Mountains on either side and from front Gangotri Glacier. We spent close to 1 hrs. at Gaumukh.After taking chilly holy dip at Gaumukh we decided to return. On this stretch, returning too is tough because for many kms. You have to walk on pointed heavy stones.
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Water started to flow down the hill crossing road (damaging it) from multiple points. The turns were muddier and appeared slippery. All of a sudden a silenced atmosphere appeared in the car, everybody was quite including our music player. I could able to sense their tension but said nothing or not even reacted, just concentrated on road. By 6 pm, we started to look for a good place to spend night, as it was too much for the day. We stopped in small village, Dharali, some 18 km before Gangotri and so did the rain. There were around max 20-25 houses, all lodges, I guess and couple of restaurants. After taking 15-20 minutes rest, we came out for sightseeing, as the river Bhagirathi and mountains behind her were marvelous. After roaming for an hour we came back to the village and had our dinner. At the start of the trip only we have decided that we will have dinner no later than 8 pm and will sleep (try to) by 9 or 9:30 max. This will give us enough sleep before getting up again early next morning. I made it very clear that by any means we should be on road by 6 am, keeping IST in mind.
Stats:
From Haridwar to Dharali – 265 km; time taken – 12 hrs; breaks – 3 (15+30+60 mins)
Road condition – Excellent/ Good (occasionally bad patches 2-3 km each)
Tip:
1. There were two roads from Chamba for uttarkashi, I believe I took the long one, but in google maps the another one, which is also the NH seems around 20 km less.
2. Do not rely on mapmyindia GPS device in these parts, they are not properly updated. And the coordinates will always confuse the device as you will be rotating up/down the hills.
Present temple of Gangotri was built in 18th century, by Gorkha General Amar Singh Thapa, is located near the spot where the goddess Ganga is said to have first descended on earth from heaven, as an answer to the prayers of King Bhagriath! Gongotri is the highest and most important temple of Goddess Ganga. The origin of Bhagirathi river, Gaumukh glacier is 18 kms from Gangotri and there person can reach only by foot. One can go by horse riding but up to certain point and from there by foot they have to go. Gangotri remains opened from May and get closed on the day of Diwali festival. During winter, Gangotri temple remains closed due to heavy snowfall.
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Trekking and walking by road is the best thing if you want to feel the naturalness of small places like Harsil. It was cold in the morning but still walk was very pleasant. My kids enjoyed trekking a lot. We reached back our room and taken hot water bath. We went for the breakfast and enquired locals where and what to visit in Harsil.
After taking breakfast we packed lunch and snacks for kids and visited the following travel spots with the help of local villagers. They are:
Dharali which is 3 Kms away from Harsil and easily approachable by road
Mukwas village is 1 Km away from Harsil, is the home of Goddess Gangotri during winters because due to heavy snowfall all the ways towards Gangotri Dham are closed.
Sattal is a 3 kms from Dharali and 7 kms from Harsil. Sattal is a cluster of seven different lakes where you can reach by road or go by trekking. The journey towards Sattal is beautiful and full of picturesque views.
In the morning, view outside our tents was spectacular. We saw snow capped Mountains all around , took some pics, but after 15-20 Min Mist covered the valley and mountains were not visible. We were supposed to start early , but got late, we finished our breakfast by 8:30AM and started walking towards Gidara.
From Dayara one black dog started walking with us , we thought it will go away after sometime but it remained with us till the end of trek. The Dog was too hairy, and resembled a bear , got scared of him twice, he also had a bad habit of crossing the path when there was a difficult climb or narrow path.
While on the trek an idea popped up that we should also visit “Dodital” ( Lord Ganeshji Birthplace ). Dodital situated at a distance of 30 km from Dayara Bugyal, is also popular among tourists. Going there meant an extension of 2 More days , which we could not afford. Hence all agreed to keep walking towards Gidara.
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