Five star Camping

Finally managed to organise and do a camping/trekking trip to Kuari Pass. This wasone of the best camping trip I have ever done... Raj style :-) with our very own Raju Guide.

The planning started back in April 2010 and with enough persuasion from couple of the team members the trek was chosen to be one that was not too difficult or high to impact AMS (altitude sickness) but high enough to keep us honest and get some nice views. So the kuari pass was chosen as this was 6 days long and went up to 3600Mts. The team consisted of the nomads, our novice camper friends , Piyu and Pooj the y-gen reps.

Trip started from Delhi on the train to H

aridwar and a jeep ride to start fo the trek. The roads were exciting after the recent floods, at one point it was really bad, with just enough space for our qualis to get through on a very muddy stretch , when I decide to enquire the driver about the toad, and asked 'यह कब टीक होगा? - when will this be fixed? ' His answer was 'पहेले खराब था, मगर अब टीक है, अब गढ़ी चल सकती है - It was not ok before, but its OK now, the car can go through' - implying what are you on about, we are going trough aren't we.... I learnt my lesson no more comments about the road :-)

The brochure/email we had got from Grand Adventures India 'http://grandadventure

sindia.com/index.htm' we expected to have a walk of about 3 hours on day one. Well with the exciting ride that we had, it was almost 3pm ( 9 hours of a bumpy drive) by the time we reached Ghat the starting point.Well it was himalayan 3 hours :-) Priyas comment summed it up, after half hour of walking she goes 'perhaps should have done more steps'.

Day one camp was reached when the sun was just about setting and the guys did not have sleeping bags. We thought hmmmm indian trek company.. However, to give Raju credit he fixed the problem. Got some new and

very heavy doonas for that night. Next day early mrning a guy was sent out to get the missing sleeping bags and they arrived by 5 pm next night

! From then on each night was sensational and the food an absolute hi

ghlight. Here is a picture of our dining tent being set up by our entertainer/helper Debu ji. The food each night was sensational as was the brekky and our packed lunch

The walk was as wonderful as we expected with wonderful views of the nandadevi sanctuary and the mountains there like donagiri, nandadevi, godhagiri etc.

The nights were camp fire and dancing . Cant wait for the next trip.

We had these fantastic people looking after us. The cook and his helpers had left by the time we took this picture.

Our Himalayan Trip

Deciding to stay in India meant we had to do at least one trip to the Indian Himalayas. What better place to visit here than the 'Valley of Flowers' So did the research and decided to undertake a trip to Uttaranchal in late June. This would ensure that the monsoon would have just started and the pilgrim crowd will start to dwindle (or so we thought)
As per plan reached Haridwar let evening of June 26th 2006 Booked a ticket in the bus to Govindghat the little shack town from where the trek to 'valley of flowers' starts. The bus ride was an experience which would save you a trip to the chiro! Given the ways of the driver and the road condition, all your bones get well and truely realligned. Mind you this gives you a chance to parctice your faith in the gods and sit back. After 14 long hours reached Govindghat. The place was full of 'Sikh' pilgrims that were heading towards 'Hem kund Sahib' the holy lake above the Valley of flowers where Guru Gobind Singh is supposed to have spent time in meditation and doing his penance. The rooms were small and basic and had to pay Rs1000 for these. The good news was that there were buckets of hot water supplied so could have a shower. Food was the standard punjabi dhaba offering of Aloo parata, dhal etc .

Next morning hired a porter to carry our backpacks, that was carried in a bamboo basket hung on their back via a rope over the head/forehead. Guess it did make it a sort of backpack! Initialy felt bad as it was a really old man, but after seeing guys carring your average punjabi woman weighing 70kgs the same way, thought our bags weighiing just 25Kgs was not too much of an ask!

The walk to Gangaria is shared with the pilgrims. It was a bit of a dissapointment, in that the serenity of the palce was lost in the noise and crowd, but despite that it did not deter the scenery. The one major drwaback was the fact that the pilgrims tend to use mules, these clever animals take care of themselves and hence stay to the path, but forget to take into account the three feet overhanging on either side of them (what with the fat pigrims and their bags... Guess the mules get a lot of 'puniya - or blessings', as they are the ones who are alking) So beware if you are walking next to them, as you can very well get pushed off the track! Be sure to stay on the hill side of the track :-)
The good news about the crowd is the number of shops enroute. Feels like a high street in London, with your standard Parattas and lassis (if you are game for it) We stuck to the bottled water for which you pay a premium in this walk
The walk from Gangria to the start of the Valley is shared with the pilgrims. It is very steep and quite narrow. Also, the day we started this it was drizzling, this makes it almost hazardous with all the ponies on track. Fortunately you only share the path for about a kilometer and half, then its BLISS. We saw thousands of pilgrims going to hem kund sahib, however, I counted all of 13 people on the track to Valley of flowers including us.
Now where do we start describing the Valley.... It was a cloudy day and hence the peaks were playing hide and seek with us. When the cloud lifted for those brief moments (usually for about a minute or so, you felt great and insignificant at the same time. With the awesome peaks and the beauty of the valley, you can believ all those stories about the great saints meditating here! Its such a serene atmosphere, that even my mind quitened down. The rain did finally pick up, and the little streams began to flow like rivers, and we had to turn back...
The next day was back to gangria, and govindghat, as the rain did not relent. The way back was quite slippery and one of the old punjabi woman decided that I was a fit person to hang on to. that was tough walking down the steep huill with this old woman hanging on to my arms. Well managed to reach Govinghta and take a jeep to badrinath

This was a sensational little place. Loved the little temple town It is set in the best possible area and with the weather clearing up the views were sensational. Went to the temple on day one, along with the hot springs right next to the temple. Its considerd HOLY The next day went for a long walk, after paying respects to our anscestors, in the true hindu way! Spent three wonderful days up here, and the walk to almost the border of Tibet (about 27KMs) was a highlight. It was lovely to see the gentle hill folk working on their potato farms and the army barracks near the border area. there was absolutely nothing else to spoil teh beauty of the place.