Trip to Hemkund and Valley of Flowers

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Hi there,
It was a wonderful experience being on this trip..... Sri Hemkund Sahib and Valley of Flowers .

Group Introduction:
The group had 13 members in total, generally with age group 25-30 with two members above 40.
10 of them working in same organization - ST Microelectronics Pvt. Ltd. with one of the friend from Freescale Semiconductor (including her parents). There were 9 male members and 4 female members.

The trip started on (evening) Friday the 31st of August 2007 and ended on (morning) Thursday the 6th of September 2007.
We had all sorts of experiences over the trip like experiencing the (mini) bus ride on the dark hilly roads, Trekking with our heavy backpacks, Taking a bath in freezing cold water, trekking in rain and during late evening with dim torch light....etc.
I do not want to scare you, but it was a lifetime experience going on this trip.

So you enjoy the day-by-day details.

Day by day details:
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DAY 00: Delhi-Haridwar
(Friday 9:00pm)
We boarded the train to Haridwar from Old Delhi railway station at around 9:00pm.
Most of the group members directly went from office and few preferred going home and reaching station directly.
Soon everybody retired to their births and had a good night sleep for the upcoming adventure ahead.
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DAY 01: Haridwar-Joshimath
(Saturday 6:00am)
Haridwar is 200kms from Delhi. Train reaches Haridwar station at 6 in the morning, after having short and sweet breakfast we took a local bus to Joshimath from the bus terminal - (Bus terminal is just outside the Railway Station).
(Joshimath is 270kms approx. and 1874mts.)

The seats in the bus were quite comfortable as compared to the local transport here in Delhi.
With two halts (due to land sliding) that took almost 5hrs of our time on the way, made us reach Joshimath at around 9:00pm.
Not being the rush season of the year, we were lucky to get a budget hotel and retired in the beds after the tiring long bumpy ride.

Lunch: Enroute
Dinner: Joshimath
Altitude: 1874 mts
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DAY 02: Joshimath-Ghangaria
(Sunday 6:00am)
The way to our next destination Govindghat was 22 kms and has to be covered by road.
There are entry/exit gates at each end of the road that connects Joshimath and Govindghat, the gates opens at particular time from each end just to manage the traffic properly. So to catch the first bust to Govindghat we checked out from hotel early morning at 6:00am and reached the bus terminal to find that all the buses are full and we have to wait till 9:30am when the second time gates will open at this end and second round of busses will go.
The morning was bit foggy and so seemed our luck, but fortunately someone guided us to the local "Jonga" (jeep) junction that takes Rs.25 per person for a ride to Govindghat. All 13 of us climbed into one Jeep and started towards Govindghat.
The road was quite wide for 2-3 cars to pass side by side. And the scenery on our route was very interesting. The most interesting thing happened when our jeep broke down in the mid way (covering 10kms), its clutch wire was broken, but fortunately the driver was trained for these situations .... he slide under the jeep and took about 20 mins. to fix this, meanwhile we took this opportunity to shoot as many as photographs possible.
Almost by 8:00am we reached Govindghat from where our 13kms. trek starts.

After visiting the Gurudwara (Holy Temple of Sikhs) and a short breakfast at Nescafe bar most of us got our bags loaded on the potters and few daring people decided to carry them along by themselves.

It was around 10:30am when we first put our feet on the bridge from where the trek starts. after a tiring trek of 13 kms with several halts and splitting the group into subgroups of 2s and 4s we reached GHANGARIA (3049mts.) in the evening at around 5:30pm.
After relaxing bit in our Hotel rooms we had a nice dinner there.

Hotels at Ghangaria :
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Mostly the hotels are quite budget type.
Electricity is not there in the area, so every hotel has its own generators, which run from 4:30am to 8:00am in morning and 7:00pm to 11:00pm in the evening.
Food at the hotels is quite OK .... you can have stomach full of good food (not best)
Always rely on bottled water...
Mobile network is straight NO-NO and STD/ISD services are also very poor. STD is up in the evening from 7:00pm to 11:00pm and after lot of redials you may finally get lucky to talk to your dear ones.

Note: If your legs are feeling too tiered, then there are people available for massage who will make your legs relax like anything.... do try them.

Lunch: Packed(from Govindghat)/Enroute
Dinner: Ghangaria
Trek: 13kms
Altitude: Govindghat - 1828 mts
Ghangaria - 3049 mts
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DAY 03: Ghangaria-Valley of Flowers
(Monday 6:00pm)

Next morning with our breakfast+lunch packed we started for the Valley of Flowers. It was 1/2km from our hotel, the point where the route for VoF and Hemkund Sahib gets split.
From this point VoF is 3kms and Hemkund Sahib is 6Kms.

You have to make an entry in register at the gate of Valley of Flowers, then you move on the rocky route ... with a beautiful view on your left side....
Don't forget to look back often, because you may miss the beautiful scenery at your back .....
After walking for about three hours and taking lot of pictures enroute, we reached the starting point of Valley Of Flowers, yes after you cover 3kms you actually reach the starting point of Valley. From this point onwards it is nearly 8-10kms inside the Valley. Its up to you how deep you want to go into the Valley.

At the entry point you have to cross a bridge (temporarily made) over a fast flowing wide stream.
We decided to have our meal here ...... we enjoyed our meal at this beautiful spot and then started further.
Just at the entry point there are two trekking routs. One goes towards a place marked as Hanumaan Choti on the map and the other goes into the valley. We choose the later route and started into the valley.

Many of friends got tiered after walking another km inside the valley. Me and a friend (Subodh) decided to go deep into the valley. So we crossed 4 different streams and had gone almost 4 kms inside the valley, then at 3:00 pm we decided to return back.

At this time of year (Sep.) there are not much species of flower. The best time to see the flowers is Jul-Aug.
Till the end of Sep. all the leaves turn yellow and the valley becomes golden.

Imp Info: It is important to know that there are no shops/vendors available inside the Valley of Flowers, so get your breakfast+lunch packed for the day and have at least two water bottles with you.

Bkfst/Lunch: Valley Of Flowers (Packed from Hotel)
Dinner: Hotel
Trek:14kms in total (to and fro - 6kms upto valley + 8kms inside the Valley)
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DAY 04: Ghangaria-Sri Hemkund Sahib-Govindghat
(Tuesday 5:30pm)

(We were bit confused a night before in deciding weather to go on foot or take horses for a one way ride up to the Gurudwara. Then finally 5 of us decided to go on foot and rest on horses.)

We (the on footers) started at 5:30 am in the morning.
This trek is bit difficult as compared to all the treks till now. It is continuous inclining 6kms, taking you to the height of 4329 mts. After the tiring trekking with many short breaks on the way, we managed this 6kms in 4.5 hrs. (which is actually good)
Our second team (people on horses) managed it in decent 2.5 hrs only. We reached there at almost same time.
Few of us dared to take a bath in the freezing water of the “sarover” (Holy pond).
Then we visited the Gurudwara sahib (the main temple) and then had a hot "khitchree" and tea in the “langar” hall (common kitchen hall).
At around 12:30pm we started to move back in small groups/pairs and by 4:30pm we all were down at the hotel.
We had already packed our stuff a night before and after taking short rest for 1/2 hr and some food at the hotel we started our journey back to Govindghat (13 kms trek). We were aware that it will get dark on our way down so we had our torches ready. After first few kms we all were moving in different pairs as some walk fast and some walk slow.
At around 7:15pm it became little misty followed by the growing darkness of night and soon we were hearing nothing but the sound of river and the black night. It was kind of bit scary also. There were hardly any people moving on the route at that time, the route was all rocky and there was no light on the way. Interestingly our torch light got dimmer and dimmer ..... we quickly replaced the batteries.
At this point of time the sky looked as beautiful as it can be with the tinkling stars far above. I have never seen a sky so clear and beautiful in my life.

Finally we managed to get down by 11:30pm and soon checked into the hotel and retired into our beds, yes we also had nice dinner before going to good night sleep.
(Many of us had swelling feet and tiered legs)

Bkfst/Lunch: Ghangaria
Dinner: Govindghat
Trek: 12kms (up and down) Hemkund Sahib
: 13Kms (back to Govindghat)
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DAY 05: Govindghat - Haridwar
(Wednesday 10:30pm)

Next day we got up little late. Of course after 3 days of hard trekking it was obvious.....
3 members from our team had plans to visit Sri Badrinath, which is another 22 kms from this point.
Rest of us were going according to original plan i.e. coming back to Haridwar and catch our train to Delhi.

After having breakfast at Nescafe bar we hired a Sumo at 10:30am and started our journey back to Haridwar, by 10:00pm we were at Haridwar Railway Station. Train was scheduled to departure at 11:00pm
So we had approximately an hour for our dinner.
We had a nice dinner at a nearby restaurant and boarded the train at 11:00pm

Lunch: Enroute
Dinner: Haridwar
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DAY Last: Delhi
(Thursday 08:40am)

Train reached (Old) Delhi Railway station at around 8:30am, few of our friends decided to go to office so they flew for that. And rest of us were on rest for the day at home.....

A nice trip came to an end.
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Comments

[Rohit]

wonderful
U did gr8.. only a published post was to complete the trip of VOF...

[bama]

too good
mazaa aa gaya .. aisa lag raha hai khud ja kar aayi hoon

[Tripti]

Kudos!!
Gr8 job done :) Capturing the vital moments n details . Hats off infact the pics esp of the flowers are so amazing that they look far better than actually seen frm naked eye ! I agree it ws a trip which u wud remember for lifetime :)

[Ankush]

Nice recap :)
Nice to read about our trip in brief. Brings back nice memories n smiles :)

[anonymous]

amazing...

[h@rry]

nice one :)
Hey bhaaji, It was amazing reading it. I went to hemkund sahib wen i was in 9th class(almost 10yrs from now).SO it was a great feeling to c the pics of valley and gurudwara sahib. keep it up:) cheers !!!!!!! h@rry