GUPTKASHI ... 18/10/06

18th October, 2006.

Get up @ 7 am, pack some food and off we go towards Guptkashi camp, 150 KMs, about 6 hours away. Misty morning, damp windshields, soon sun wipes it away; nice drive up the road, winding up and up hugging the river; we take it easy till Deoprayag, the Sangam where Bhagirathi and Alaknanada rivers meet to form Ganges. Shoot some pictures of the sangam and sit on the road side just soaking up the picture. People say there’s little traffic now-days, the 4 Dhams ( Gangori, Yamunotri, Kedarnath and Badarinath) will soon close for the winter, the pilgrims will avoid the cold; the season opens up again around April once the snow up the mountains clear, till July when rains bring in land-slides and slush, the river turns coffee-brown with rainwater and will roar down in spate.

We reach Srinagar 67 km and 3 hrs later around 10 am, stop to catch up with a friend. Only network working here is BSNL, caught him on the mobile; tough luck, he’s off to Delhi!!!! We’re once again on our way past the Khakra Bridge and reach this serene spot; one side huge mountain, winding roads going up and the river flowing down a deep gorge. Needed to stop for the photo chance and to stretch our legs. Spend 10 minutes strolling around, catching some sun; there’s a chilly wind blowing down-hill following the river, looks like its icing up at the top. Reach Rudraprayag and take left turn to Guptkashi; the wind has turned real cold and we catch raindrops on the windshield; sun is bolted out and by the time we reach Agastyamuni around 12 noon its like a dark evening. Rain pitches in, it turns cold and the heater is blowing away warming the cabin. Thankfully rain clears in 30 minutes and we reach Guptkashi 4 Dham camp around 2 PM, alt around 6000 feet.

The camp is on the hill-side, we get outside the car, the cold hits us, must be around 11/12 degrees with the wind chill kicking in. We’re soon into our tents, its cold everywhere; the bed, the chairs, the towels, thankfully there’s running hot water. We dig out the warm cloths and are on wollies up to the gills and still feeling cold, it must be the wind !!!! We have a nice lunch; these guys cook some great food and hot too. We bed down to take rest for some time and are asleep soon. The kids are in another tent and have a field day running round the camp, they have the entire camp staked out and we know what is where. Its 5 pm; we hear the bells ringing and chanting going on, there’s a Majaraj doing pooja on the camp temple, we attend the aarti, today its early as its dark already with clouds, raining on and off. Maharaj takes us to the Vishwanath Temple; its dark already, we drive up the dirt road, more like a rally route, boulders and rocks and broken roads and sharp turns, Fusion negotiates it beautifully though we burned rubber with the wheel spin on 1st gear. Down the steps to the temple and in time for the Aarti. Amazing thing about 2 streams of water gushing into the compound sink there; they taste very different one is very sweet and another normal soft water; reportedly, they are Ganga and Saraswati rivers. We perform the famous Gupt Dhan Pooja and finish Shivji’s darshan, drive back up to the camp carefully, have an early dinner and sit outside the tent talking. It’s uncomfortably cold, it must have dropped a couple of degrees more now and night temp would be 7 ish. The camp guys give us hot water bags for the night, small respite for the night.

During dinner we plan the next day with Mr.Pathak, the camp manager. If we have to make it to Kedarnath and back in one day, we need to start early and get back around 6/7 PM. It’s a trek 14 km up, from Gaurikund (6500 fts), its 4900 feet climb, Kedarnath is 11924 fts. You can use the horses ( pretty tough on the groin and hamstrings; many people do it in 2 days to avoid the pain and agony) , the Dhol (4 porters carry one person, costs around Rs.2400/- faster, les strenuous, so we thought). Anyway you look at it, its going to be one hall of a day for us and the kids.