Day 5
Gangotri-Bhojbasa
Our plan was to get up early in the morning, obtain the
permit, get done with the breakfast and Ganga Ji’s darshan – the presiding
deity of this temple town and finally leave for Goumukh. But what we hadn’t
factored into this scheme of things was the cold induced laziness. My eyes had
fluttered open once or twice, and lying in that warm bed, I was mesmerized to
see the magnificent view outside. Lush green pine-forested mountain slopes,
snow-capped peaks towering over the valley, torrential Bhagirathi flowing down
the mountains and circling the rock over which our room was perched upon and
the tiny hamlet of Gangotri in the distance, all creating a magical scene, the
likes of what we would see in Rivendell of the Middle Earth. The view outside
the windowed room was simply astounding. Vishal took the lead and went to the
bathroom to get ready. Kishan was already dressed up for the day and was now
hovering over me. Finally, I relented, stretched myself, stifled a yawn and got
onto my foot. Since, Vishal was using the bathroom, I decided to record a
video, capturing the beautiful setting in that otherwise mediocre room and
Kishan helped me with the narration for the video. He could take up any job
that would give him even few seconds of screen presence. By the time, we were
done with the shooting, Vishal had come out. I was wondering how Vishal and
Kishan took bath in that icy cold water. They didn’t want to enter Ganga Ji’s
temple without bathing. Whereas, I had no such reservations. For me, staying
well and healthy was more important than taking bath under cold water for
religion’s sake. After all, we had a long journey right up to the source of
Ganga, ahead of us.
By 8 AM, we were out of the hotel rooms. Lugging our
backpacks on our shoulders, we headed for the Government offices near the taxi
stand. Getting the permit was the most important task to be accomplished. But,
since the officer had assured us yesterday, we were relaxed. He had said that
its lean season and we would definitely get permits for going upto Goumukh. Once,
in the office, we were greeted by the same officer whom we had met yesterday.
Seems like he lived in a quarter next to his office. He doled out a form, where
we had to fill in our details like name, address, emergency contact numbers,
etc. We also filled a declaration form saying that we would be responsible if
anything happens to us. We showed our government authorized ID cards to him and
he gave us the permit. As simple as that. I am not sure, how much money we paid
him as the permit fee. But I am sure it would be very nominal.
We now headed towards the main shrine. Yesterday, by the
time we had reached there, the shrine had closed and we couldn’t make out much
in the darkness anyway. But today in the daylight, we clearly saw the simple
structure of this world famous temple. I wondered why wasn’t the temple as
glorious as the other Himalayan shrines like Badrinath or Kedarnath. Probably,
under the constant threat of natural calamities looming over the region, it
wouldn’t make much sense to add any grandiose to the structure. Keep it as
simple as possible, so that it could be rebuilt, if need be so.
Vishal had conspired with the priests in the temple and had
some elaborate pooja planned, where the priest would chant some Mantras and ask
us to participate in the procedure. I stayed at the back as I hadn’t taken
bath. A few years earlier, I used to take a lot of interest in these rituals,
but over the years, my interests had changed. I now emphasized more on the
inner beliefs rather than strictly following rituals, definitely not unless I
understood their significance.
We went down to the tiny Ghat like structure where we could
dip our fingers and sprinkle some water over us to signify that we had taken
bath in the holy waters. There were a lot of tiny temples and shrines in the
Gangotri temple compound, each having an associated legend. We didn’t have time
to linger there for longer as we had to grab some breakfast as well before
beginning our trek. We went to a decent looking restaurant that was flocked by
a lot of foreign tourists. We thought that if the place is popular among the tourists,
it would indeed be hygienic and safe. We ordered Aloo Parathas for each one of
us followed by a round of tea. Once, we were all full, we decided to get done
with some last minutes shopping before heading into the wilderness.
I also bought a pair of leathery looking gloves for a price
of 130 Rs. They looked quite promising with their look and feel and warmth. I
anyway didn’t want to spend over the costlier hand gloves sold by those
shopkeepers as I wouldn’t have been sure about their quality anyways.
It was time to begin our trek towards Bhojbasa, the place
enroute Goumukh where we would stay overnight. Bhojbasa is a scenic spot on the barren
moraines, situated at an altitude of 3,775 mts above sea level. It can be
reached by 14 kms trek that starts from Gangotri. The trek goes through rugged
terrains along with the Bhagirathi River. The place literally means ‘Forest of
Bhoja trees’, though I didn’t come across any. Although, I came to know that
government afforestation efforts are underway to populate the place again with
the Bhoja trees which had rendered this mythical place its name. Bhojbasa acts
as the last point of accommodation on the way to the sacred Gaumukh Glacier. It
is situated 5 kms before Gaumukh Glacier, the source of the river Ganges. This
beautiful place offers enchanting views of the Bhagirathi peaks (6,856 mts).
The Bhagirathi sisters hold the Gangotri glacier.
We had planned to stay at Lal Baba’s ashram in Bhojbasa for
the night.The ashram or rather I should say the camp is run by a hermit called
Lal Baba, who stays at that dizzying altitude all the year round, even when the
village of Gangotri downstream shuts down for over 6 months. During the 6
months, from late April to late October, when route to Gangotri opens up, he serves the oncoming
assault of pilgrims and trekkers and provides them with shelter, food and
water, before they could proceed towards Gangotri glacier and places like
Tapovan beyond. For the remaining 6 months, when the place is covered under
tons of snow, he just stays put in his Ashram, meditating like the mythical
Himalayan sages, with none to disturb his ‘Saadhna’. His life’s purpose during
the ‘pilgrimage period’ becomes to serve Goddess Ganga’s devotees and provide
them with atleast the bare minimum necessaities- food, water and shelter in
that inhospitable terrain. Of course, he has his own set of followers, who help
in realizing this mission of his life. They provide him with timely supplies of
fuel, ration, clothes and blankets to serve the continuous stream of tourists
and devotees to Bhojbasa.
We had finally begun our trek around 9AM. By the time we
reached the forest checkpoint, we had roughly covered 2 kms. We showed the
permit paper that was issued in Gangotri at the checkpoint. The officer looked
like an army men, probably being close to the Tibet border, the region would be
manned by army men. He asked us if we carried any plastic bottle or polythene
bags with us. We showed him the 4 bottles that each of us carried. He counted
them and asked us to pay Rs 50 per article as a security deposit. He said we
could collect the money back on our return journey by showing this plastic
bottles again. In short, he meant that throwing a plastic bottle in the fragile
ecosystem of Gangotri glacier would cost us Rs 50. In reality, we had a lot
more plastic articles in our bag. My entire luggage was wrapped in some or the
other kind of polythene bag to protect it from rain or snow. But we have
anyway, always been sensitive towards nature and had no plans of dumping any
non-biodegradable waste in the Gangotri National Park region.
Moving ahead, we found the terrain changing dramatically.
From the pine trees covering the mountain slopes, we now moved to a region
devoid of any vegetation, except an occasional bunch of shrubs. We were now
penetrating deeper into the rocky barren highlands of Himalayas, following a
path that hugged and moved high along the steep slopes. The Bhagirathi valley
is actually very narrow, crowded with towering mountains on either side and the
Bhagirathi flowing at the bottom, cutting its way through the Himalayas and
following a path that it had carved out for itself over the millions of years.
We had roughly covered 9 kms on foot and encountered a patch
of pine forest ahead. I instantly recalled a place called Cheerbasa (Literally
meaning ‘Forest of Cheer or Pine’) that I had read about during my research on
the region. I was delighted by the prospect of nearing our destination for the
day but that also meant that we were now soon going to cross the most tricky
part of the entire trek. Infested with loose crumbling rocks, this section is
prone to landslide and in common parlance is often called as ‘Geela Pahar’. I
hadn’t anticipated the seriousness of the danger that we were soon going to
face, until I witnessed it with my own eyes.
The path had now become very narrow and was generally
sloping towards the valley below. It was covered with loose sand and gravels,
making it even more difficult to place a firm footing on the ground. On top of
that were the warning signs, welcoming us in the landslide prone zone and
asking us to maintain silence because apparently even a slight sound was enough
to disturb the fragile surrounding and send precariously resting rocks and
stones on the slope rolling down below. The sweeping wind over the centuries
had created dangerous looking towers along the entire path. It’s difficult to
explain these geographical formations in words. On our way, we also came across
Dilip, Vatsal, Sushrut and Sharat, who were just returning from Gangotri
glacier. We quickly got a picture clicked with them and took tips from them. Wishing
them good luck we proceeded ahead.
After a couple of hours our path soon opened up overlooking
a flat wide valley strewn with moraine and rocks. We had finally arrived at
Bhojbasa. And that meant the end of our long tiring journey for the day. The
relief that shot through us was palpable. We rested for several minutes,
looking down at the tiny settlement below us and the glacier glistening under
sun in the distance. In reality, the glacier was still a good 5 kilometers away
from us. But, it looked so close. The vastness of the landscape, the dizzying
heights of the mountain and the majestic snow-capped peaks over us, made look
all the distances small, all our hardships puny. We soaked in our surrounding,
clicking pictures and recording videos and generally thrilled at the prospect
of getting closer to our destination.
We spotted the Ashram, remarkably distinct with a temple
pinnacle enclosed within the ashram compound. Beyond it, laid the Government of
India’s meteorological department, vividly distinct due to its array of
instruments, antennae and towers protruding out of it. We also spotted another
structure, GMVN’s guesthouse. But it appeared to be locked out. We were anyway
not dependent on it. Not with the economical and easily accessible Ashram of
Lal Baba.
We hastened our way towards the Ashram. It was around 3:30PM
and we were hopeful of getting lunch, though we knew in our hearts that our
arrival was way after the lunch hours. On our arrival, we paid 250 Rs per head
and were allotted a tiny room, with a mattress laid on every inch of the floor,
leaving just a tiny strip of floor near the door where we could place our shoes
and backpacks. It was a double bed mattress and we were shocked to realize that
it was supposed to hold all 4 of us. We quickly changed into something
comfortable; after all we were supposed to be there until morning. As a
precaution, I applied Vicks vaporub and applied pain relief balm as we still
had a lot of distance to cover on foot before we could afford to rest.
When we all laid down,
we barely had space to turn around. We anyway didn’t make any effort to move
much. The fatigue and tiredness had grown over us and added to it was the bone
chilling cold that clawed over us. We made every effort to lay still and
conserve our body heat to warm the blanket. At that time, we were even thankful
for the small place, that helped us to stay warm. But eventually, it started to
get suffocating. I looked around and was surprised to find the other 3 deep
asleep or at least they looked so. I was anyway sleeping at one corner, closest
to the cold, damp lime plastered wall. But even that coldness was not
sufficient to bring any relief to me in that suffocating surrounding I found
myself in. I wondered how the others especially those sleeping in the middle
were coping with the situation. I threw aside my blanket and got onto my foot,
wore the shoes, picked up my camera and went outside. No doubt it was
increasingly getting cold, especially now with the setting sun.
Cold winds had taken over the entire valley, probably
originating somewhere high above near the mountain peaks, and sweeping down the
slope and onto the valley at its base, where we had camped for the night. I
wondered if it was really a safe place. Wide open valley with not a shrub in
sight, strewn with huge boulders and rocks along the entire valley floor and
torrential waters of Bhagirathi snaking around along the sides. It hadn’t
gotten dark yet and that gave me a perfect opportunity to wander around outside
the Ashram in the valley as if hoping to stumble across some treasure. And came
across, I did, but the treasure of beautiful nature all around me. I wandered
as to why did I waste the little day-light I had at my disposal by remaining
huddled in that tiny dingy suffocating room. I should have come out much
earlier. Just when I was pondering over this thought and trying to find my way
through the rocks splattered undulating ground, I spotted a group of trekkers
pitching in their tents, further down from the Ashram and the Met department’s
office. I circled around the Met department’s block and moved towards the
trekkers. I had now begun to take pictures and even asked one of the curious
onlooker among those trekkers to take a picture of mine. There were huge
majestic mountains all around closing over me and casting eery shadows over the
Bhojbasa valley as I sat along the Bhagirathi
recalling my time along Pushpavati in the Valley of flowers, probably at
the same altitude, but in an entirely different setting. While Pushpavati’s
valley was adorned by countless varieties of wild intoxicating flowers,
Bhagirathi’s upper reaches were entirely barren. I wondered how time flies by
so quickly. Only 2 months back, I was in the same state, amidst the same
Himalayas but in a different stretch, in an another valley with a different
group of friends
It was now getting dark and extremely cold and I realized
probably it would not be very safe to sit out in the open, so exposed to the
wildlife of the Gangotri National park. I began to make a move towards the
Ashram just when I caught a glimpse of Bhagirathi peak, bathed under an
entirely unique shade of Golden reddish orange and probably there was a touch
of purplish blue in the sky around the peak as well. I couldn’t really make out
the exact shade I was witnessing. It was arguably one of the most beautiful
sights I had come across. Just when I was soaking it all, a cold wind blew into
my face and startled me and set me back onto my track towards Ashram which was
now lit under tiny bulbs, evenly spread across the entire compound.
We were informed about a light out at 9PM and were suggested
to be done with all our activities before that. I called out my friends for
dinner who were now busily snoring under their blankets. The dinner was a
simple affair of Roti, Soya-Paneer and Channa dal. Not a very delightful dinner
but it was more than what we could have asked for in this inhospitable terrain.
I was surprised to meet a group of trekkers from Thailand, one of whom I had
befriended over a travel forum while researching for Gangotri. We caught up with
each other, discussing our experiences and giving out suggestions and tips.
Apparently they were sleeping, just next to our room, albeit there room was
much larger than ours. Not that it mattered to us. We chatted for a long time
and then decided to call it a night. Once inside the room, we began discussing
our plans for tomorrow. None of us were really feeling sleepy. We took out
things that we might need after the light-out, like candle, matchstick, mobile
phones, etc. We also played several rounds of card games until 9PM which
extended even in the candle light. Finally, we decided to sleep, so that we
could be fresh and energetic for the long journey we would undertake the next
day, from Bhojbasa to Goumukh and then back to Gangotri, a total of 23 kilometers
in a single day. I was now sleeping in the middle with Bharath next to me and
Kishan and Vishal at the two extremes. If the evening sleeping session was
suffocating, this was pure agony. We were already getting restless, probably
due to lack of sufficient oxygen in the air and added to it was the cramped
space where we were put up. I even had to take a short trip to toilet in the
middle of night mostly to catch some breath. But somehow I finally fell asleep
in anticipation of an adventure filled day ahead.
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