I have been delaying writing this trek report for a long time. This is anniversary time for my first trek in the Himalayas, so I thought it would be a nice idea to finish writing my experience. The report is not fully written yet and it is coming in parts. I have been going through a marathon session of writing this experience since last week in whatever spare time I could get, and amazingly enough, I still remember a majority of the events which occurred during the trek and the entire trip in general. This, I believe, is the charm which the Himalayas bestows upon you if you happen to wander in her enchanting surroundings. The problem of writing is that I have to actually write two trek reports (we did two different treks) and one trip report for my first Himalayan adventure, but I will complete it for sure.
HAPPY HIMALAYA ANNIVERSARY to Pradipta and myself for the first Himalayan trek up in Northern India. And I am for sure will be venturing the Himalayas once every year at the least
Disclaimer: The story is long and probably boring too, so if you intend to read, read it at leisure.
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FACT FILE
Place: Gomukh and Tapovan
Famous for: The source of the mighty Ganga and a nature's delight - dream of a lifetime. A place where you can attain the peace you have been always searching for.
The route: Delhi - Haridwar - Uttarkashi - Gangotri - Gomukh - Tapovan
No. of days (ex-Delhi): 8 days approx. (if everything goes as per schedule), better to keep 10 days in hand.
How to reach Gangotri (ex Delhi):
Delhi to Haridwar: There are several buses and trains connecting Delhi with Haridwar. I would recommend travel by train since it would be very comfortable. A few of the trains are Mussorie Express (4041), Dehradun Express (9019), Haridwar Mail (9105), Utkal Express (8477). The best options are the Mussorie Express or the Dehradun Express since these trains reach Haridwar early in the morning latest by 6:00AM.
Haridwar to Uttarkashi: Buses and shared or reserved taxis are available at Haridwar for travel to Uttarkashi. Buses are the best option for the budget trekkers. One has the option of taking either the state-owned Uttarakhand road transport buses or the private buses operated by GMOU (Garhwal Mandal Operator's Union). I would recommend taking the GMOU buses as they are faster. The first GMOU bus to Uttarkashi probably leaves at 5:00AM and to be able to catch that, you have to come by Dehradun express from Delhi which reaches Haridwar around 3:30AM. Else, if you come by the Mussorie express, you can take the next bus which is at 7:00AM. The 7:00AM bus reaches Uttarkashi around 15:00 hrs.
Uttarkashi to Gangotri: Buses and shared jeeps are available for the travel.
Places to stay: One has to necessarily stay at Uttarkashi and Gangotri if public transport is used. There are several hotels in Uttarkashi right next to the bus-stand which are cheap and OK for a night's stay. At Gangotri, we stayed at Mandakini hotel and it is located on the way to the trek and also at a height. This hotel is also nice for staying.
Best time for the trek: Depends on the weather Gods. Gangotri opens on Akshaya Tritiya which falls sometimes in April and then closes on Deepawali night. So, essentially, the trekking period is from May-September every year. We went in August and the weather was not very good although we were lucky to see a few peaks. I believe May 2nd week and September would be an ideal time for the trek.
Best place to tent during the trek: Chirbasa and Gomukh (avoid the place where everybody tents and find a secluded place before reaching the general tent area)
Total Budget: We spent approx. 10000.00 INR per head for two of us (ex. Bangalore) and traveling by sleeper class on train. This was our first trek there, so we did not have the right idea where to cut costs, but the trek can be done within 8000.00 INR(depends on the number of people and can be even less).
Some important tips:
1. Ensure that you have the permission to trek in the region much before the actual trip. The forest dept. prefers the persons going for the trek to be present when seeking the permission and if you are lucky, you can get it within a day. But, it would not be a good idea to reach there, get the permission and then do the trek.
2. Arrange for guides and porters for the trip from Uttarkashi itself since food and other necessary items are easily available. There are local folks available whose rates are much cheaper than if you go through an agency. One can call up some of the hotels in Uttarkashi and then find out the availability of guides too. Alternately, one can get it touch with GMVN (Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam - http://www.gmvnl.com/newgmvn/) for a package trip.
3. If you are getting your own tents and sleeping bags, ensure that they are the ones which can be used at high altitudes. My suggestion would be to just carry your clothes and other necessary accessories in a rucksack and then get the tents, sleeping bags etc. through your guide or the travel agency on rent. They can easily arrange it. Good materials are available at NIM (Nehru Institute of Mountaineering) in Uttarkashi.
4. Check for the weather conditions before the trip. The road to Gangotri gets closed many times due to landslides and if that happens, your entire trek may get canceled as sometimes, the clearing of the road takes time. Maybe, you need the blessing of mother Ganga to accomplish the trek.
5. Wear sturdy shoes for the trek - we wore the Woodlands ones and they were good. But one has to get used to the shoes for atleast a month before using it during the trek, else you can have problems of soreness like I had.
6. Carry rain gear, a good jacket (sometimes not required, but good to carry), a good powerful torch light, good socks (couple of pairs), monkey cap, knife and more importantly a box of medicines containing electral, first-aid kit and pain reliever sprays. Also, toffees for the trek.
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We had just finished our bath in the hotel at Uttarkashi when there was a knock on the door of our hotel room. The time was around 15:00 hrs on Tuesday, 5th Aug. 08. It was Mr. Balbahadur and his team of another two people, our guides for the next 12 days of trek - first to Gomukh/Tapovan and then to Dodital. He told that he had brought us the permit from the department to trek up to Gomukh and Tapovan. Myself and Pradipta were overjoyed since that was one of the hurdles for us as we were told that without permission, we are not allowed to trek. But, the moment we saw the piece of paper from the Forest department, we got a shock. First, both our names were wrong on the paper. My name was written as Santanu Ghosh (instead of Santanu Singha) and for unfortunate Pradipta, they wrote it as Mrs. Pradipta Ghosh (gender change) as if we were here for a honeymoon trip. Further, we found out that they had given us permission to trek up to Gomukh 
only and that too for only 2 days and the date of entry they had mentioned was on the 8th of Aug. That was just impossible as we did not want to waste one additional day in Uttarkashi. There was an exchange of words and Balbahadur promised us that there won’t be any trouble whatsoever and we can start for Gangotri the next day, i.e. 6th Aug. OK, with everything temporarily settled, we all sat down and gave the details of what we would like to have for breakfast, lunch and dinner during the entire trek. Our guides wanted to buy all the necessary stuff for the trek and pack the stuff before we start for Gangotri the next day. In the meanwhile we went to the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM - http://www.nimindia.org/nim/index.aspx) to pick up the tents, sleeping bags and other accessories. NIM is a very beautiful place located on the top of a small hill and it was around one and a half kms from the Uttarkashi bus stand. By evening, all the arrangements were in place except for the transport. We were informed that the bus services were temporarily suspended 
on the Uttarkashi to Gangotri road due to landslides. There was no way out to reach Gangotri other than hiring a jeep. Hiring a jeep was expensive - Rs. 2000.00 for the 100km distance from Uttarkashi to Gangotri - it seems the risk factor was very high. It was not in our budget, but we were forced to go for it. Now that everything was settled, it was time for a walk towards the Ganges, have dinner and take rest. Uttarkashi is a small but beautiful place and being on the banks of the Ganges makes it even more important. The thrill was about to begin the next day and we were fully charged for the first trip to the mighty Himalayas.This trek was planned in advance. I was in the final stages
of my PhD thesis submission, the dates of which were not finalised, but the dates for the trip were already decided. It was either I submit the thesis and go for the trip or ditch the submission, go for the trip and then come back and submit. It was a lot of pressure on me to submit the thesis and then go since I will be at a peace of mind then. Additionally, I would be saving some money in terms of the tuition fees at the Institute if I submit latest by July 31. As usual, I like doing things at the last moment and this was one of those situations. And as always, I hit the deadline dot at the dead time. July 31st was a thursday and I submitted my thesis in the department at 5:15PM, just 15 minutes before the office was to close. There were all those heavenly obstacles which tried to stop me from submitting, but I could beat them. Take this for example - I was at the Xerox centre to collect my bound thesis at 4:00PM and it was bright sunny weather. 
Suddenly, a heavy downpour started and I did not have an umbrella. I waited and waited for the rains to stop, but to no avail and it was 5:00PM already. I had no choice but to request the shop owner to pack my theses with polythene and then I enjoyed the rain all the way to my department office which was almost a km from the xerox centre. I was dripping wet when I shook hands with the office staff for meeting the deadline. That was it, with the major job over, the focus shifted to the logistics for the trek. Our train to Delhi was on saturday, the 2nd Aug and we collected the required accessories for the trek the whole of friday. We were on the train at the dot of time and our trip begineth here – Himalaya Chalo. The train journey was interesting too and there were quite a few excitements like holding the train at a particular station for solving some problem in the train toilet, but I leave those stories behind. 
The train was slightly late when it reached Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station in the morning of 4th Aug and our connecting train to Haridwar was at 14:30hrs. We had time to freshen up at a small hotel near the railway station and meet up and have lunch with a friend who works in Delhi. We were back at the railway station well in time and the journey to Haridwar started. The train was dirty and I don’t think we used the toilet even for once during the 6 hrs of journey to Haridwar. We reached Haridwar by 21:00hrs and our bus to Uttarkashi was sometimes next morning. We took up a room at a hotel in Haridwar and then enquired about the travel to Uttarkashi. There are few possible modes of travel to Uttarkashi – one is to catch a bus either from the UP state transport bus stand or the GMOU (Garhwal Mandal Operator’s Union) bus stand or hire a Tata Sumo or share a Tata Sumo with other passengers. The frequency of buses and Sumos direct from Haridwar to Uttarkashi are 
not too many, but one can travel up to Rishikesh (25kms, around 45 minutes of travel time) from where there are frequent buses and Sumo connections to Uttarkashi. For us, we decided to catch the GMOU bus direct to Uttarkashi at 7:00AM the next day morning since they are smaller buses and supposed to be faster than the UP road transport buses. We were slightly tired of train travel and it was difficult to wake up in the morning the next day. We reached the GMOU bus stand (around 500 meters from Haridwar railway station and one can ask the directions which is very easy to locate) at 6:30AM and took our seat in the bus.
The bus started right on time and the initial journey to Rishikesh was on normal plain roads with lot of potholes. Rishikesh to Gangotri is around 150kms and as the bus started moving beyond Rishikesh, we slowly started gaining altitude and habitation began to reduce. The surroundings slowly began to clear up, the atmosphere was cool and we could see small hills at a distance. On the way, we were supposed to cross some small places like Narendranagar, Chamba, Tehri, Chham and Dharasu. It is at Dharasu that the road bifurcates – one goes to Uttarkashi and the other goes towards Yamunotri. As the bus climbed further, the roads started to be very curvy with steep turns apart from becoming narrower. We found Chamba and Tehri as very beautiful places. We had always heard of Tehri dam and the related issues but this was the first time we got a chance to see this place (from the bus, though). Tehri is an awesome place and the backwaters of the dam looked green from the bus. 
There was lot of water and the surrounding hills were all covered with clouds at the top and the views were was just amazing. All along the road, Bhagirathi was giving us company and it was flowing in the opposite direction. The river looked very muddy too with lot of silt flowing and also turbulent at few of the places. Time just flew by when we realized that we were in Uttarkashi. We got down from the bus and then called up our guide Mr. Balbahadur. He came to meet us at the bus stand within a short while and we decided to take the room at one of the hotels nearest to the bus stand. The bus ride of course was tiring, but the excitement of trekking to Gomukh was enough to kill everything else. ............. to be continued
there is a 'thumbs-up' mountain which you can see when you travel by train between Manmad and Kopergaon. Both places are in Maharashtra and if you have travelled by Karnataka express to Delhi you would go by this route. Is the picture in this blog from the same region?
ReplyDeleteYes, this picture is from the same region.
ReplyDelete