[Red Liner]

Gaumukh. The birth place of the might Ganges.

Ever since 2011, I have been doing yearly pilgrimages to the Himalayas to quench body, mind, and soul. My trips are typically between 20 days to a month and I try to visit a particular section of the Himalayas to do a proper deep dive into the local myths, sights, food, customs, people, and culture.

This time, in October 2017 was no different. It had to be a walk alongside the heavenly river we call the Ganges, all the way to the Gaumukh glacier (or what was left of it).

First, we start at Haridwar. I stayed at the Anandamayi Ma's guest house as I had never visited the ashram and her final resting place in Kankhal.

Jai Ma.

Rooms were fantastic, and so was the food from the kitchen. We had some interesting friends staying over like us who joined us for dinner and breakfast.

Our next port of halt (I say "our" because I was joined by a friend for just this portion of the trip) was to a little temple dedicated to the great Lahiri Mahasaya.

And then it was off to the Krishna Das concert in Rishikesh! Packed trip this was turning out to be.

Beats any night club worth your deep house.

I had decided to stay a few days at the Vasistha Guha Ashram about 40 kms off Rishikesh by the banks of the Ganga. Now, normally they absolutely do not allow anyone but Sadhaks who practice there to stay over, and the facilities or the lack thereof pretty much scare the rest away. A dear friend who does stay there long term however turned out to be my visa.

Wonderful misty mornings.


Interesting snacks




Calm evenings spent in silence or a book






And a night to remember

[Red Liner]

Now, I split from the calm environs of the Ashram and my friends and pushed on towards the main agenda of this trip - Gaumukh.

My first port of halt would be Uttarkashi. It takes about a day by bus, which starts at about 6 AM from the main bus stand at Rishikesh. Distances in the mountains are measured in hours and days, not kilometres.

At Uttarkashi, I stayed at the Eagles Nest, run by Tilak Soni. I had wanted to meet this guy for a while, and figured staying over at his place would be a great introduction.

The views from his place overlooking the Ganga are gorgeous.

I was also using this time to acclimatise myself to the rising elevation, and used the evening to explore town and the local Shiv temple.

I also visited the Tapovan Ashram in Uttarkashi, which was quite closeby to where I was staying and had my dinner there. Wonder of wonders, I ran into a few friends and acquaintances who were also on a trip to Gangotri (my next port of halt) the very next day in a hired car. They very kindly offered my a seat, which I am thankful for to this day.

Some sights as we passed by the very beautiful Harshil valley

At Harshil Valley, we had to step out to put an entry into the log book manned by the sentry of the ITBP, my most favourite guys since I run into them ever so often in my sojourns.

Met this Gentleman Officer who made me promise that I would come back and stay in Harshil on my way back, which was not to be. However, a promise made is a promise to be kept, so go back I will.

Enroute, we stopped at Gangnani, which is a natural hot water sulphur spring. Absolutely marvellous. I doubt I could stop at places like this if I was in a bus or on my motorcycle with all my gear and what not. Somethings are best left to the divine.

And here's a guy in different stages of undress (or redress).

Privacy is next to non existent in places like these. Not something that fazes me in the slightest bit. You gotta do what you gotta do.

And then we arrived, as suddenly as daylight breaks.

I split from my benevolent friends and walked right down the little swathe of Gangotri town to figure out where I would spend the day and night. I walked right out far beyond the temple and came across some locked up outhouses belonging to various ashrams, but these were obviously meant only for private use of said ashrams and were probably out of bounds for travelers like me. On my way back after I crossed the temple, I came across the always trustworthy GMVN tourist home which had lovely dorms for something like 100 bucks a night.

Once I had my pack off, and a hot chai later, I was much lighter in the foot, and used the evening to hunt down all the spots of interest in Gangotri, as also use the time to further acclimatise to both height and weather.

My first halt was the Tapovan Ashram in Gangotri. This ashram used to be where Swami Tapovan ji spent all his time and practiced his many austerities. He gave it over to his disciple Swami Sundaranandji who is a brother disciple of the more famous Swami Chinmayananda.

The ashram is a veritable treasure trove of artefacts.



A waterfall by the ashram. You have to cross a bridge to the other side.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-W1pJ9g..._web_copy_link
PS: My apologies to direct you to my instagram page, but I wasn't able to figure out how to embed this video here via instagram.

After spending some time with the wise septuagenarian, it was time to get back to the warm confines of my bed. You see, it was probably about 8 in the night and it was frighteningly cold. I also had to be up early the next morning to make my way to Gaumukh!

[Red Liner]

I had gotten my permits to secure entry into the Gangotri National Park the previous day. You see, only about 150 are allowed entry each day into this national heritage park to minimise human impact in the area. Well done.

I left a majority of my stuff with the caretaker at GMVN and began to make my way to Gaumukh. The trek to Gaumukh would take two days. First I would have to reach Bhojbasa. The trek to Bhojbasa is done in two legs. The first leg is to Chirbasa where you typically target lunch. This sits at a distance of 8 kms from Gangotri. The second leg is about 6 kms from Chirbasa to Bhojbasa - which is base camp to get to Gaumukh, and then Tapovan.

Some pictures of the trail.

As I was walking along the trail, I heard loud chatter in Tamil. These guys were heaving and sighing about the ups and downs of the trail. This is one big reason I like traveling alone. I am left to myself, like Alice in Wonderland, and am usually lost in my own thoughts or the lack thereof.

Never to miss an opportunity at a prank, I walked right up behind them and boomed right up in Tamil, "If you guys talked less, you might probably be able to walk more!"

My conscience caught up with me, and I slowed down for them to catch up. Guys, don't rest too much - try and keep a steady pace in the mountains. The trick here is to go slow and pace yourself over longer jaunts, not tire yourself out over short fast distances.

These guys were heading all the way to Tapovan with a guide, and that was never a part of my itinerary. The boys however convinced me to join them for a small additional fee since they were going anyway.

As we ambled along, we came across a cold, mint glacial tributary across which we had to steady on with a prayer on our lips.

A quick video with sound: https://www.instagram.com/p/B-W61FyA..._web_copy_link

By this time, I had lost track our friends and I was on my own again enjoying the vistas till the eyes could gather no more.

Very soon I was upon Bhojbasa.

I made my way to the GMVN and it was completely full up with the bedded roofed accomodation. My only other option was the tent, but it was biting cold. I dropped my bags off and came out. Folks who had booked the beds in advance at the roofed dorm hadn't come yet. We would wait until 6 or 7 in the evening, by when if they didn't come - the beds would be vacant and stand "canceled". I booked the first such bed, and quickly jumped in when the clock struck 6.

My friends were at the mercy of their guide and had to settle into a tent. God, I was not envious of them.

[Red Liner]

Today, I woke up with a slight headache. The whole lot of us clambered out stiff from our warm beds to begin the hike up to Gaumukh, and thereafter to Tapovan.

My headache was not a good sign, but the guy that I am, I decided to go with it anyway. The trek to Gaumukh was just about 5 kms, but its a good uphill climb and lots of boulder hopping to do. If not heading up to Tapovan, then its 10 kms up and down for the day.

I think I had called off my visit to Tapovan as I was feeling steadily worse by the minute. So I decided it would be Gaumukh and back to see how my health keeps up instead of pushing on to higher environs. Was an extremely sensible decision in hindsight.

Some pictures of the climb to Gaumukh.











Somewhere around here, we spotted Himalayan mountain goats. Let's see if you can spot them.









This image is to give you the sheer scale of the mountains we were around. We had to stop for a bit, because the goats and kicked down some scree, and a wee kid all of 5 years who was following me with his family had gotten hurt.

I had reached Gaumukh. I don't know where those pictures went, or maybe I didn't take any at all. I was delirious by now with the headache increasing, and I knew I was playing with fire. I had to cross the Bhagirathi and there was no bridge. We had to go all in with our feet, and it was already mid day. There was a pretty high chance that the river will be uncrossable within an hour for the way back.

I made the very difficult decision to pay my obeisances right there without crossing over. Gaumukh was about another 750 metres of bouldering away. But it was not to be. Not this time. I had a quick sip of the blessed water right there, and watched in disdain as the rest of the folks behind me got across the river to make their way to Tapovan.

I had to turn back and rushed my way back to Bhojbasa base camp. This was altitude sickness and it was coming on slowly but surely. For some reason all my acclimatising hadn't worked, and though I was carrying meds, I knew popping them now was useless. I had to get back into bed, weather the night and get the hell back to Gangotri the next day.

A video of the majestic mountains: https://www.instagram.com/p/B-XAqBtA..._web_copy_link

[Red Liner]

The trek back to base camp was swift with only one goal: my bed

I managed to weather the night, without any sleep at all. I kept my positive spirit up, and come day break, I was up packed up and ready to head back.

The trek back to Gangotri was also quick. I am usually well prepared for my treks, and this time I had decided to carry a lighter mountain jacket with me. My other trekking jackets were good but very heavy on the back after a few hours. I figured this lighter jacket coupled with fleece should be good to go.

Wrong.

On my trek back to Gangotri, I was walking against the wind. There was a very strong wind blasting its way past the mountains all along the route to Gangotri. And I was walking right against this freight train of cold. My jacket was just not enough and I was beginning to feel this was not good news.

Anyway, I had made it back to Gangotri and I immediately felt better. We were at the fag end of October, and Gangotri was shutting in two days, so I had made it back in the nick of time for a bed. GMVN would shut too along with the temple.

The next morning was for the mandatory ritual head on bath in the icy depths of the Bhagirathi Ganga. I steeled up my nerves and walked straight to the banks with a mug and proceeded to do a Om Namah Shivaya before I lost all feeling and sensory perception of every part of my body

I visited Sundarandji again that evening to pay my respects and tell him about my little trip to Gaumukh, or the lack of completing it. Not to worry, reasons aplenty to make the trip back again. He offered me a ride back to Uttarkashi in his car as he was going too, but two days later. I declined with a heavy heart, as I wanted to get back sooner, god knows why. But it all worked out.

Standing outside Gangotri town and finding a shared cab back was not working out. There are no buses, only shared cabs. After an hour or two of waiting, I finally lucked out and was bundled into the back of an overloaded Sumo to head back to Uttarkashi. I briefly entertained the thought of getting off at Harshil, but buried that thought away for the trip next time.

Once I reached Uttarkashi, I made my way to the Tapovan ashram there with the hope that I could strike a room. Not to be, there were a whole horde of students visiting from the Chinmaya schools, and not a vacant room in sight. I trudged out and ended up walking into the neighbouring Sivananda ashram which I didnt even know existed right there. A good pleading with the resident Swamiji who verified my antecedents with a lot of questioning, and I was given a room there to stay put for a few days.

That few days turned into a week. You see, all that walking against the wind coupled with my light altitude sickness had turned my chest into a war zone. I was down with a bad fever the very next day, and so spent the week sleeping, recuperating, and generally having a jolly good time.

The ashram was a small one, with very limited guests. They dont entertain any, and as a walk in I had lucked out with the grace of god since I was half dead and no where else to go.

A brief introduction to my friends there. The ashram calf who took a fair liking to me.

Stop eating the only dhoti I have.

The milk was from the cow in the Ashram, and the curd was to die for. Milk, curd, and paneer in the mountains is just something I cannot do without. Unfortunately, curd was out of the question until I recovered, and I was severely reprimanded by the Swamiji during every single luncheon when I tried to steal some.

I also had the privilege of striking good conversations and lasting friendships with these two brothers who were put to help out in the ashram alongside going to school in Uttarkashi by their parents who probably lived a tough life in some far out village.

The ashrams rules weren't strict by normal ashram standards (i'm an ashram junkie, if you hadn't figured that out by now).



Instead we were out doing this.



Ah well, boys will be boys.

It was soon time for me to leave, my flight tickets were non negotiable. So with a heavy heart, I bid good bye to the loving folks who took care of me, and beautiful Uttarkashi, making my way back to Rishikesh.

There was a bit of a struggle trying to get a bus to head back to Dehradun airport from Rishikesh. You see, the airport is closer to Rishikesh than it is to Dehradun. But the buses do no ply there. So we had to go to Dehradun, and then find connecting transport back to the airport. Yeah, whatever.

I bumped into this guy who is a Garhwali, but could speak tamil! My god, will wonders never cease! He was a godsend though and made sure we took the right connections to get to the airport on time.

This guy I met while in Gangotri. He was part of an organised trek. We left it there, but wonder of wonders, I ran into him again at the bus stand in Rishikesh. So we spent some good time chatting at the airport waiting for our flight. He was regaling me with his stories of having funded his own trip to Antarctica whilst still a student. What a brilliant kid.

And just like that, 20 days in the high mountains had come to an end.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[akshay_ritz]

This is an absolutely phenomenal thread. Thank you for sharing your experiences.

[sayyam.gaur58]

Absolutely amazing! I've been visiting Vashishtha Guha with my family from the last 20 years, great to see the place especially the Guha picture and that amazing river bed still intact and clean.

[Miyata]

My earlier reply somehow did not go through for whatever reason!

Wonderful post. Reading through also reminded me of a book I'd read a long time back - "autobiography of a yogi". Looking forward to now dust it off during this lockdown and read at least parts of it!

[earthian]

What a great travelogue and very good pictures too. My wife and i like going to Uttarakhand but unfortunately, we don't have the capability to 'take it as it comes' anymore. We plan our stay mostly and that means following a fixed itinerary which is a bummer. However, off late, we have tried to 'wing it' on a few occasions. We like staying in Ashrams too, but we take permission in advance.

Wish you many more of such wanderings.


Romba nanha irundhedu

[Red Liner]

I didn't know there were so many ardent fans of walking in the mountains. I have many more. Maybe i will post a few of them. Its fun to go back in time and relive a few memories for myself.

[manipal]

Let me complete it for you friend, I was there during the 4th week of September 2019.

[Red Liner]

Beautiful pictures brother! Hah! I can spot the GMVN right there beyond the temple.

[Ironhide]

Lovely Travelogue there Redliner. Kudos.

The mountains have that effect on man. There’s something magnetic that draws you to them, & then set right the balance within.

Every time I head out to meet the mountains , they remind me of lines from Namgay Doola – a story by Rudyard Kipling …

” ……the night had closed in rain, and rolling clouds blotted out the lights of the villages in the valley. Forty miles away, untouched by cloud or storm, the white shoulder of Donga Pa—the Mountain of the Council of the Gods—upheld the Evening Star.

The monkeys sang sorrowfully to each other as they hunted for dry roosts in the fern-wreathed trees, and the last puff of the day-wind brought from the unseen villages the scent of damp wood-smoke, hotcakes, dripping undergrowth, and rotting pine-cones. That is the true smell of the Himalayas, and if once it creeps into the blood of a man, that man will, at last, forgetting all else, return to the hills to die…..”


This I guess is partly true. I’ve always found a strong connection to the mountains. They have a calming and therapeutic effect on most people, & most definitely on me. They are massive, solid, unmoving (literally) & they make you realise that we’re rather insignificant in this whole scheme of things. So we ought to take our inflated self-images and stuff it. Literally. Though they may not say it in words, their grandeur and regal poise kind of conveys it to the seeker without having to speak.

The travelogue was a great read and brought back a flood of memories. I had gone there in 1993-1994, staying for a goodly amount of time in Uttarkashi and then on to Gangotri - Gaumaukh - Tapoban. We had stayed in the GMVN huts (as it was colloquially called then) in Chirbasa and explored the area in and around Gaumukh - Tapoban and venturing even beyond. The area was pristine and the Bhagirathi valley beautiful. The vistas (coupled with the altitude) literally took one's breath away ! Maybe I'll do it again sometime - already have plans to motorcycle down to Harsil - Gangotri & then trek to Gaumukh sometime. Let's see when this sees the light of the day !

Once again - lovely travelogue !

(PS : Not with an intention to to hijack your thread, I'm attaching a few pictures of that time, and a beautiful video of the Bhagirathi Valley)


Bhagirathi Valley - as seen from Gangotri



Shivling


Shivling as seen from Khara Patthar


Shivling


Bhagirathi Group of Peaks as Seen from Gangotri Glacier


Cheers !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNXr76uEZ28

Video Courtersy : You Tube , Chandan Prakash

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by Ironhide

The mountains have that effect on man. There’s something magnetic that draws you to them, & then set right the balance within.

That is the true smell of the Himalayas, and if once it creeps into the blood of a man, that man will, at last, forgetting all else, return to the hills to die…..”
Cheers !

Ironhide, you resonate the true call of the mountains beautifully. You know, when I tell people I can actually remember how the Himalayas smell, they think I am hallucinating. Actually, it is a form of hallucination, albeit a very strong one

These mountains are a great thresher of our egos. Unfortunately by the time you return, all is forgotten, and hence a yearly pilgrimage is essential to relearn all the lessons.)

Your pictures are stunning. More so, considering how much the Gaumukh glacier has changed or retreated over the years. This was something Sundaranandji showed me in his pictures (he has a great camera and used to take stunning pictures back in the days with film). He has a lovely coffee table book that got printed as well.

I just happened to see a video of Chandan Prakash in tungnath a couple of days back. I have to put that travelogue down as well.

I plan to do a similar thing, ride upto Harshil, park the bike in a safe place and then hitchhike to Gangotri to do a hike to tapovan and back. Parking in Gangotri is non existent, these days I make strong mental notes of these things on my hike, because the next time around it will be in two wheels to make local road exploration easier.

You write well, have you considered dropping a travelogue from the years gone by with still pictures for the rest of us? I found reliving such memories and writing about them very therapeutic. You are guaranteed an audience