Gangotri-Gaumukh

First glimpses of Himalayas always excite me more than anything. I still treasure that first sight of mountains from the train to Kalka en route Shimla when i, a 10 year old boy shouted in joy “Mummy, look, Mountains are here”. As i go deeper in the hills, my inquisitiveness augments with each bend we take.

I could relate the ecstasy of Shimla toy-train in my childhood to a topical Spiritual-Adventurous trek to source of River Ganges, Gaumukh.

One lazy afternoon, I was following through the map of Uttarakhand, preparing a list of treks i would accomplish this year. Gaumukh was always in my mind and after a whisk of thoughts i decided, lets plan for next week. !! September 2010, monsoon breaks all previous records and severely damages the vulnerable hilly roads of upper Himalayas. Was it enough to discourage me? No. I called gmvn for the current updates on roads and treks and i was not happy to hear that portions of the road to Gangotri are washed away. Still hopeful, I postponed my plans for two weeks and now, my plan was ready.

Day 1: 7 Oct 2010, Thursday;

I came back from office at 11pm, Wednesday, and my plan was to depart at midnight considering the long drive and bad roads. Bunty called me to advise that we should leave by 2 am so that we do not reach Rishikesh earlier than required. In reality, he wanted to have a quick nap. Dubey Ji and Mathew were already at my place but obviously the trio didn’t sleep for those 3 hours. 2.00 am sharp, we were in my Wagon R and after picking up Arora from his home, we headed towards Uttarkashi.

Mathew clearing roads for us

Road to Rishikesh was not as bad as we thought. 7 am we had our typical touring breakfast of Aloo Parathas and moved further. Drive till Chamba was a smooth one and we started to satirize news channels for showing bad road conditions of Uttarakhand during monsoons. Post Chamba, things did not remain the same. Roads and Arora’s jokes were getting bad to worse. While the roads were still tolerable, Arora was not. May be he was the reason that Mathew couldn’t stop puking, or may be the hilly roads. 

The journey on the first day included waterfalls, the famous Tehri Dam and awful roads which forced us to get down of the car several times before we finally reached Uttarkashi. 4.00 pm, we arranged a permit for the trek to Gaumukh basis the fax i had sent in advance to DFO Uttarkashi. While Arora and Mathew preferred to sleep after a tiring day, i, Bunty and Dubey ji went to explore the town and to pay a visit to famous “Kashi Vishwanath Temple”.

Dubey ji at Kashi Vishwanath Temple

 Day 2: 8 Oct, Friday;

Harshil Valley

We had our breakfast after some bewilderment, what and where to eat when all the Dhabas look the same? Finally, stuffed with Parathas, we headed towards Gangotri. A taxi driver warned us about the bad roads but the warning was ignored as usual. The first few kilometers were smooth and we stopped every 15 minutes to get ourselves clicked. Roads were getting narrower and sometimes, we could spot a large chunk completely washed away. We reached Gangnani at 12.20 pm where a petit waterfall welcomed us. So called warm spring water in the Kund was not warm, it was Hot. It was difficult to acclimatize with the boiling water but we still had a dip while Arora and Bunty were testing their resistance in the hottest part of the Kund. The Roads after Gangnani should not actually be called roads. It was a driving test for me and a patience test for Arora as the quartet had to get down every now and then due to low ground clearance of our tiny car. 

Bunty and Mathew at Suryakund

We passed through the beautiful valley of Harshil, ate bowlful of Maggi and a cup of sweet coffee (Courtesy Dubey ji) and finally reached Gangotri at 5.00 pm. We found a good budget lodge and went to explore the village. After Surya Kund, a beautiful waterfall in Gangotri, our next destination was the Ghat. I didn’t take a dip fearful of the chilling water and neither did Dubey ji. Bunty and Mathew enjoyed their plunge and quite surprisingly, Arora was bathing like a buffalo in the glacial water. We did a bit of shopping of cans to fill Gangajal and I also purchased a torch for the trek. Bunty’s casual attitude forced him to say “why did you waste your money?”

Day 3: 9 Oct, Saturday;

Finally, the day arrived. We decided to ascend 18 kms to Gaumukh and back the same day, which seemed to be an easy task but turned out to be an ordeal!!

Trek to Gaumukh

6 am, we were ready and started to mount. Trek did not seem to be an easy job as we thought and i realized it only after we came across 2 plain logs of trees placed over a mountain rivulet to cross it.

The trail till Chirbasa, 9 kms from Gangotri is through lush green valleys of Gangotri National Park. Arora and Mathew stopped every half a kilometer to recharge themselves, Arora to munch anything edible found in his bag and Mathew to take a nap. Arora was incessantly cursing Bunty for his instructions to carry our own sacs. Bunty is a speedy trekker, i and Dubey ji were steady and Arora and Mathew didn’t like the idea to trek.

After having a cup of tea and some biscuits at Chirbasa, we continued on our trail. Sometimes the path was not defined and we had to find our own way.  There were hardly any trekkers except for some foreigners and a couple of Sadhus.

Fist view of the glaciers

The landscape was changing now. Glacier Caps were fast replacing the green cover and i was delighted to see Bharal (Blue Sheep) which can only be seen above 4000 mts. We were dead tired when we reached Bhojwasa, 4 kms short of Gaumukh. To celebrate our success, they decided to take a nap under the sun and i, continued to gaze at Bhagirathi Sisters - the three glacier source of Ganges.

2.00 PM, somehow we managed to creep till Gaumukh and not a surprise, everyone collapsed and dozed without worrying about the second half of the trek. The sage at a small temple suggested us to go further 500 mts to the source of Ganges but we decided to abide by the warning mentioned near the Temple-“Don’t proceed ahead of this point”. If we were not much drained, i am sure we would have ignored this one too.

Bhagirathi Sister peaks

Time was running and we decided to descend back before it gets dark. Dubey ji was not feeling well and instead of taking rest, he fled away, all alone. 

We reached Chirbasa and it was getting dark. There was still no sign of Dubey ji and while we were having our tea, we all were worried about him. We asked the tea stall owner to accompany us till Gangotri but despite of a bargain, he didn’t agree. He was asking for 1000 which we were not ready to pay under any situation. We decided to rush and pretty soon, it was all dark. Now was the time for me to feel proud of my little torch which saved our lives that day. I was selected as the navigator. We were petrified of the narrow track and wild animals .Mathew was in a constant impression that a black bear is following him and i could see him sweating in -4 degrees. No idea how we reached that checkpost where we found Dubey Ji shivering in cold. We deduced, the Chaiwala in Chirbasa would have mixed a pinch of opium in the tea which gave us this energy. We all had a sigh of relief and thanked Ganga Maiya for bringing us back. We had our dinner and i could scarcely walk to our hotel with those swollen legs. That day, i pledged never to overestimate myself and not to rush through a 3 day trek in a single day.

Proud Arora after 18 kms

Day 4: 10 Oct 2010, Sunday;

We woke up late, at 8.00 am and had our breakfast with leisure. We shouted Har Har Gange and packed ourselves into the car for the return journey. Today we were not in a hurry and cruised through the Garhwal Himalayas recalling the previous day. With loud music and lots of snacks we enjoyed the journey while not paying any attention to Arora’s gibberish talks. After a car wash at Chamba, we continued with our retreat to Delhi whilst i was thinking about the next day in office.

HAR HAR GANGE !!!!