Day 6
Bhojbasa-Gaumukh-Gangotri-Uttarkashi
Today, I was the one lazing around in that warm blanket
because it was simply too chilly outside. Every time I thought of getting out
of that cozy blanket I was reminded of the horrid experience I had last night
while going outside in the dark of the night to relieve myself. It was pitch
dark and my only source of light was the flickering glimmer of my dying phone’s
screen. The water in the makeshift toilet’s bucket was completely frozen. You
couldn’t just do anything with that block of ice. But the view of the mighty Bhagirath
Peaks looming over the moraines of Bhojbasa and so close that you could almost
reach out to them, yet so far to actually touch them, was breathtaking.
Glittering like an iceberg in the starlit sky, the majestic view left me
awestruck and I forgot all my miseries. But now with the dawn of a new day, it
all started coming back to me and I sunk deeper into my bed.
In the mountains, it’s safer to begin your expedition early
in the morning, when the melting is minimum. As a result the flow of water in
the streams, waterfalls, rivulets and rivers is also minimum. Hence its always
easier to cross them, early in the morning. In addition, you don’t have to face
the scorching heat of the sun. Finally, I was reminded of the ill-consequences
of delaying and the risk associated with reaching Goumukh around noon time -
the glaring sun’s heat weakening the glacier’s outer walls, thereby causing
icefalls in the vicinity around the glacier. Vishal and Kishan were done with
their morning chores and I had no option but to get up and get going.
Though, I, Kishan and Bharath had managed to get few hours
of sleep in that painfully small cramped room that was being shared by the four
of us, the same was not true for Vishal. Apart from the discomfort throughout
the night, he also suffered from breathlessness adding to his woes. The high
altitude finally took its toll in the form of restlessness, headache and
breathlessness. And probably that’s why
he was the first person to get up and wake us all up for the day.
Even though it was hardly 6AM in the morning, there was a
lot of commotion outside in the Ashram’s porch. Throngs of people with mugs of
piping hot tea in their hand were chatting with each other and with Lal Baba,
probably taking tips for the adventure that lay ahead. Some of them were
getting ready for their return journey to Gangotri while others were preparing
to leave for Goumukh and Tapovan beyond. Vishal had somehow found a charging
point for his mobile. And we wasted no time in putting our mobiles and camera
battery for charging. The temperature was below zero degrees but the warmth in
the air was sufficient to charge us for the journey that lay ahead. The four of
us were comfortably wrapped in multiple layers of warm clothes. All the warm
clothes that we had been carrying for days were now put to some use. Infact, I
was covered with 4 layers of sweaters and jackets. After having some biscuits
with the much needed glassful of tea, we began our journey.
It was past 6:30AM. We could see several trekkers, mostly
foreigners, preceding us on the trail that began at the ashram’s porch,
reaching the base of the adjacent mountains and winding up high along the
mountain slopes. Eventually, we had hiked high enough along the mountain slopes
and could see the whole of Bhojbasa camps behind us and the beginning of the
massive Gangotri glacier a few kilometers ahead of us. On our way, we had to
cross several frozen streams and ground covered with frozen slush. We even
spotted a herd of endangered Himalayan Blue Bharals (sheep), climbing down the
mountains and galloping towards the Bhagirathi flowing in the narrow valley
below us. The herd was kind enough to give us ample opportunity for
photography. As we moved ahead, we left behind the wide expanse of Bhojbasa and
kept turning into new corners. At every new turn along the trek, we would find
a new snow capped peak peeking out of the morning fog and shrouded under the
mist. Many of them had now turned into golden beacons under the rising sun
rays. The entire scenery was magical. While some peaks had still not received
the first rays of the day, others were already shining with a new promise. In
about an hour and a half, we had reached a spot from where we could clearly see
the mouth of the glacier for the 1st time.
As we approached closer, we realized that what appeared to
be a tiny opening at the base of an icy rock face was actually a giant fissure
at the base of a towering mountain of solid ice. I was constantly busy
recording videos on my mobile phone, but unfortunately when we ascended the
final hillock from where we could have the most clear view of Goumukh from the
distance, the camera battery died. We were still at least half a km away from
the ice wall of Goumukh. We found a lot of people offering their prayers to a
makeshift small temple representing goddess Ganga’s abode. There was a
considerable sized group of people around that place. Most of them were
preparing to move along a path leading from there and going along the sides of
the mountain and over the glacier to a place called Tapovan, another 5 kms from
there. But the path to Tapovan is quite risky. A proper guide is very important
to navigate through the crevice infested glacier path. We had neither time nor
resources to undertake journey to the Tapovan, rather, we were quite happy to
have managed to reach Goumukh itself.
There was a huge board over there, proclaiming that owing to
the fragile nature of Gangotri glacier ecosystem, it was the last point until
which tourist and trekkers were allowed. I didn’t even see any trail going
towards the snout, except if you want to climb over a series of precariously
placed huge boulders and rocks, which were almost protruding into the icy cold,
swift flowing waters of Bhagirathi below. Moreover, I didn’t see anyone going
towards the glacier snout. Most of the people were either returning back from
that point or were going sideways towards the trail going to Tapovan.
But since we didn’t find any authority there policing
around, we decided to try our chance. So we climbed over the first boulder to
get a better view of the snout. At times, we had to almost crawl on all fours
and sometimes we had to walk along a narrow ledge on the rocky formation directly
above the icy river below. Any misstep and we would tumble straight into
Bhagirathi. We tried our best to find a path away from the Bhagirathi, as far
as possible. But since our aim was to move towards Bhagirathi’s glacier
snout(mouth), it only made sense to stick close to the river and keep moving
towards its snout. We had almost given up seeing a very difficult stretch of
rocks. We anticipated that it was very easy for us to slip over them and fall
into the river. We were already wondering if we were doing something that
nobody else does and unnecessarily endangering our lives. Just when we were
about to give up, we found a Pahari following us. He had come there as a guide
to few foreigners. He encouraged us saying that the stretch was very much doable
and that he had done it many times. Seeing more people following us, we were
refilled with new enthusiasm and vigour and continued our hiking towards
Goumukh. Finally, we cleared all the hurdles and reached a small sandy stretch
of land along Bhagirathi.
We walked along the tiny path with a huge icy wall on one
side and torrential waters of Bhagirathi, gushing out of the snout on the other
side. The guide had warned us not to spend a lot of time there. Since the
glacier was very fragile, it was breaking apart slice by slice. Especially
during the day, under the intensity of sun’s heat, it becomes a very dangerous place with huge
ice boulders chipping away and falling left, right and center. Under the sun
light, the glacier reflected various colours. We were amazed to see the various
shades of solid ice – black, brown, purple, blue and even yellow and orange.
It is said that these glaciers are made of various layers of
ice, deposited over millions of years and compressed under its own weight. So
each layer tells a different story from a different era. For several
kilometers, the entire Bhagirathi valley was filled with this solid ice,
several kilometres wide and hundreds of meters deep. But the overall picture
was like this – solid wall of ice, withholding a reservoir of ice for thousands
of years, acting like a dam, with a small fissure at it bottom from where
Bhagirathi gushed out in all its fury.
It was mesmerizing and frightening at the same time. Here I
was standing at the source of the mighty river Ganga that had shaped the
destiny of our glorious nation for ages, without pausing for even a single
second. Every second, gallons of water gushes out of this glacier, that
nurtures the lives of millions of countrymen downstream before it meets the
sea. Nature is truly glorious. It’s strong and fragile at the same time. It’s
said that the rate at which Gangotri glacier is melting has increased over the
past few years, probably due to the global warming and the glacier is now
receding at an alarming pace. It won’t be long when this entire massive glaciers
disappears entirely from the face of earth. As per several estimate, the
glacier could disappear completely by 2030. I shudder to think what would
happen for the crores of people whose lives depend on this precious water.
Though, we all had bought plastic
flasks to be used to carry the holy Ganga Jal, I got too lazy to carry it all
the way to Goumukh. But Vishal, kishan and Bharath remembered to carry it all
the way to the source and so they got to the work. While they were filling
their jars, I used the time to take a lot of pictures. We were reminded of the
guide’s warning when we saw a huge chunk of ice falling behind us. We already
had our share of fun and adventure at that mysterious place and decided to make
our return journey.
As I mentioned before, it’s always
safer and more convenient to begin hiking early in the morning. It was now
close to 10 AM and there were hardly any trekkers left near the sign board.
Couple of hours ago, the same place was crowded by trekkers many of whom were
paying their obedience to the Goddess. Probably they had all moved on to their
destinations. For some it was Bhojbasa and Gangotri eventually while for others
it would be Tapovan. We didn’t mind the deserted place. We had the place all to
ourselves. But by now the sun had risen high up in the sky and it was becoming
very inconvenient. Even though it was extremely cold outside, inside we were
profusely sweating. Soon we removed almost all the layers and tied them around
our waist. It was a very confusing situation. Once we were out of our layers,
we started feeling pangs of cold. Finally, we decided to proceed without adding
the layers again. We figured out that the hike and the exercise would provide
us with enough warmth.
We kept walking along Bhagirathi,
trying to retrace our path but there was not a single soul in sight. It was as
if we were walking through a waste land strewn with huge rocks and boulders
over the sandy uneven mountain slope culminating into the icy river, so we kept
hopping from one boulder to another, finding our way between Bhagirathi on one
side and boulders strewn mountain slope on the other. Unfortunately, this
entire stretch looked unfamiliar. Eventually, we started wondering if we were
on the right path. Just then, we spotted a string of trekkers coming from
Bhojbasa’s direction, hiking high along the slope, almost 100 meter higher than
our current position and then it dawned over us. The actual trail was the one
vertically above us.
We tried to figure out a way to merge
with the path above us, without having to retrace back to the place where the
two paths would converge. We realized that the shortest way to reach the actual
trail would be to climb over the rocks projecting from the slopes, the way
Frodo and Samwise did in Lord of the Rings while trying to climb into Mordor
over the Minas Tirith. Kishan and Bharath didn’t want to take the risk of
tumbling down from an almost 90 degree gradient rock strewn slope. So they
began their journey back to that make shift Ganga temple and then climb on to
the correct path and reach back to the place where we were looking at right
now.
On the other hand, Vishal and I
were totally game for the rock climbing session. Only difference being, we
didn’t have any harness/rope to support us in case we slip or tumble down the
slope. The rappelling session that we
had near Rishikesh finally came to some aid. We would place our foot on the
first rock , get hold of the rock above, check if it was firmly into the soil
beneath and then we would hoist ourselves to get footing on another rock higher
than the current footing. We continued ascending in this fashion for several
minutes, looking for the best hand support and the best footing. Soon we were
out of our breath, especially because of the heavy bags on our back. The
gravity, rarified atmosphere, high altitude, glaring sun, cold winds,
everything was working against us. Inside we would be sweating profusely but on
the outside, we would actually be shivering. What appeared to be a medium hike
from below turned out to be excruciatingly long. Soon we came to the first
landing, a small clearing, a tiny patch of land, at the base of the next flight
of rocks. The path above still looked at the same vertical distance, as if we
hadn’t climbed at all. And that drove us crazy. We each took a sip of water and
replenished some energy and then began the next round of rock climbing. After
what seemed like an eternity, we landed back on the main trail. We waited for
some time and were soon joined by Kishan and Bharath. So either we were too
slow in climbing or they were too quick to go all the way back to the crossing
point for the two trails and come back to that point on the main trail. But
either ways, all 4 of us were back together and resumed our journey towards
Bhojbasa, from where we would pick up our remaining luggage and get something
to eat for lunch. The return journey was pretty fast, probably because we were
descending down and were too hungry to trudge along.
By 11 AM we were back at Lal
Baba’s Ashram in Bhojbasa. Lal Baba was sitting out in the Ashram porch,
soaking in the morning sunshine and enjoying drags of Chillum with his
followers. We greeted him and he waved us off nonchalantly. We quickly went to the
tiny kitchen where we had kept our remaining luggage in the morning, packed it
with the rest and assembled in the porch. Even though it was too early for the
lunch hours and the lunch preparations were still underway, Lal Baba instructed
his assistant to serve us lunch. He came out with whatever he had prepared for
the day and it was enough to quench our hunger. After a daylong hard trek, the
steaming hot Dal Chaawal in that cold barren land seemed like a blessing from
Goddess Ganga. He apologized for not being able to serve us curry/sabzi, but it
was anyway not his fault. We gorged over the food and kept accepting his
multiple servings until our stomachs were full. We kept back the thaali and
glass back to the cupboard after washing them and took bid goodbye to Lal Baba.
He nodded in his usual nonchalance manner. He never talked directly with us,
always lost in his own thoughts and activities. But he and his assistants
provided us food and shelter in that inhospitable terrain and that was more
than what we could have asked for.
The Impossible
I was now hoping for something
unprecedented. I had a train reservation from Haridwar to home for the
following day at 12:30 noon. Exactly 24 hours later.
1. I
knew for sure that even if we were quick enough, we would reach Gangotri only
by late evening. And by then, there wouldn’t be any bus or shared jeep to ferry
us back to Uttarkashi.
2. And
even if we somehow manage to reach Uttarkashi by nightfall, we would have to
wait until the next day to catch another means of transport to Haridwar.
3. And
that would easily take anywhere between 7-12 hours.
4. So,
in short, there was no way I could hope
to get back to Haridwar by 12 noon the following day.
Of course, by hiring a dedicated
cab, the plan could still be achievable (though keeping in view the banned
traffic after sunset in Uttarakhand, even that seemed unfeasible), but the
bigger reason was to keep things under budget. The camping in Rishikesh was
luxury enough and didn’t want to put more strain on our dwindling financial
resources by hiring a taxi. It wouldn’t be fair on the others especially since
they didn’t have any urgency.
I was wondering if it was somehow possible
to reach back to Haridwar and eventually home and keep up my promise to my
family that I would be back for Diwali.
All this while, I had kept my concerns to myself. But now Vishal too
knew it. He was discussing the return plans with me when I told him about my
reservation. Even though, he’s very practical, he said that we can try reaching
Haridwar. In my heart, I knew it was going to be a futile exercise. I should
rather spend my time here well instead of rushing through in a hurry. But then,
I realized that we had already spent the last week, soaking in the Himalayan
beauty. And now it was indeed time to get back to home. Better now than later.
So, I and Vishal began working towards achieving this seemingly impossible
goal. We decided to take it one step at a time. Our first task was to get back
to Gangotri quick enough to catch the last shared cab.
The Return
We climbed back to the hill
overlooking Bhojbasa and looked behind one last time before heading in the
direction of Gangotri. Lal Baba’s ashram looked tiny amidst the sea of rocks
dotting the bowl shaped wide valley of Bhojbasa. Nevertheless, we could easily
make out the pinnacle ‘Shikhar’of his temple overlooking the surrounding Ashram
area. Beyond it, the meteorological department’s antennae and instruments were
glimmering in the sunshine. We wondered what would happen to it once the place
gets submerged under tonnes of snow during winter. We knew for sure, that come
what may, Lal Baba stays in his Ashram even during the winter. Like an oasis in
a desert, like an island amidst a vast ocean, he stays put there to serve the
devotees visiting Goddess Ganga’s origin- the Holy Gangori glacier.
Beyond all these human structures
and beyond Bhojbasa itself, we could see the icy mass of Gangotri glacier,
several Kilometers away from us, glittering like a large jewel embedded deep in
the Himalayan valley between the towering peaks. Overlooking the glacier and
the Bhojbasa valley itself, we could see Bhagirathi peak. We could see mist
swirling around the peak, probably a storm brewing up on its crest, which would
lead to an avalanche. If only we had a
pair of binoculars, we could have known for sure.
It took us just few minutes to
fall in love with this magical place and now after spending 2 days, we were
finding it extremely difficult to leave its calmness and serenity, isolated
from the rest of the world. I don’t know about others, but for me it had been
the proverbial Shangri La, where I would strive to keep returning back always.
The weather had been very
supportive over the past 2 days. A lot of things could have gone wrong because
in reality, we had been extremely ill prepared. We had come beyond Gangotri
with just a few layers of warm clothes and the most basic shoes that one could
have thought of. Had it snowed even the slightest, it could have taken a heavy
toll over us. Without spikes below our shoes or the hiking poles or ropes or
waterproofing in the bag, clothes and shoes, we had trekked straight upto the
Gangotri glacier. And now that we were returning, we only prayed that the
weather be kind to us for another few hours, the way it had been over past
week. I still shudder to think about my ordeals during the Valley of Flowers
trek and wonder about Kishan’s reaction if such ordeals were to dawn over us
here in the Bhagirathi valley. We were rapidly descending down along the way
back, taking care not to slip into the steep valley, hundreds of feet below.
Vishal had probably gained some supernatural powers as he was dashing through,
while I was trying to stay back with the duo of Bharath and Kishan.
We crossed back the tricky
landslide zone, taking care not to disturb the crumbling landscape. We
successfully crossed the most difficult section of the trek, the part where the
trail tapers into a hardly 10 inch narrow path, hugging a landslide prone
mountain and sharply inclining up first for 50 meters and then inclining down for
another 50 meters, all the while sloping towards a deep valley. On top of that,
this part was covered with shifting gravels and sand, making it even more
difficult to get a firm grip over the ground below. I kept wondering for myself
and all the people in my group, what if any of us slips over this shifting
narrow trail and tumbles into the deep valley. How are we going to rescue them?
I was afraid for Vishal because he was no longer in sight. I shuddered to think
what if in his haste, he had slipped down? Hoping for every one’s safety, I
walked quietly but firmly, all the while making sure to pause and keep looking
back for my friends. I sighed with relief, when we had all successfully crossed
on to the other side.
We now quickened our pace. I was
eager to make sure if Vishal was alright. Soon we were fast enough to locate him
in the distance trekking ahead of us, along the tiny trail hugging the giant
mountain slope. In these gigantic settings, even kilometers of distances appear
to be short. But when you spot a trekker on the trail, you realize how small
you are compared to nature’s marvels. We were now able to see Cheerbasa in the
distance. I recognized the place on the way, where we had met Pallu and his
group while ascending towards Bhojbasa and wondered if they had successfully
made it back to civilization. We were soon nearing the deserted cabin, marking
the entrance of Cheerbasa and found Vishal standing there, talking to a group
of trekkers heading towards Bhojbasa. The group was just about to leave by the
time we closed the distance between us. We greeted each other and wished a
succeful journey. We gave them some water to drink as they had run out of it and
they gave us some biscuits which again fuelled us. In no time we crossed the
rocky trail interspersed with Cheer trees in the Cheerbasa region.
With the rising sun, it was now
becoming unbearably hot. On top of that, we were now anxious to get back to
Gangotri to execute our plan of reaching Haridwar by the next day. So we
decided to keep pace with Vishal. The path looked long and torturous. On the
way, we also met our friends from Thailand, returning back to Gangotri. We
greeted them and rushed passed them. They had plans to rest for the night at I
and Bharath were religiously following Vishal and didn’t realize when we lost
Kishan. He would have probably stopped somewhere on the way for resting while
we would have dashed ahead. So we asked Vishal to move ahead, finish up with
the formalities at Gangotri’s forest checkpoint, take refund for the deposit
that we had made while entering Gangotri Forest zone and wait for us outside
that checkpoint. The two of us were now back to our old speed, waiting for
Kishan to catch up with us.
We reached forest checkpoint just
when Vishal had just finished the formalities. We decided to split up. While
Bharath sat outside the checkpoint waiting for Kishan and catching his breath,
I and Vishal decided to keep moving towards the Main Taxi stand. It was 3:20
PM. We were still hopeful of getting seats on one of the last departing shared
cabs of the day. On the way down, I saw a detour from the main trail, a flight
of steps leading down straight to the temple porch. It occurred to me that I
hadn’t yet fulfilled the most important task- Gangotri’s USP. I hadn’t filled
my white plastic flask with Ganga Jal. I asked Vishal to keep moving towards
the Chowk, seal the deal if he comes across any and wait over there. I quickly
descended down and covered the short distance to Bhagirathi, filled my flask,
paid my homage one last time to Goddess Ganga and hurried across the Bazaar
which was counting its last days before the town closes down for the next 6
months due to the arrival of winter and snow.
I found Vishal idling around in a
tea shop with pakoras in his hand. He told me that there was this one cab- a
quails, scheduled to leave at 4 that evening. My heart beats began to race. I
wished dearly that Kishan and Bharath arrive there on time so that by night
fall we could reach Uttarkashi and maybe, just maybe I could think of catching
my train from Haridwar. I quickly occupied a seat in the waiting cab and placed
Vishal’s bag on another and started waiting for the duo, patiently.
Kishan and Bharath did arrive at the taxi stand but not before
4. They were actually held up at the STD booth, calling back to their home,
informing them that they were safe and almost back to civilization. But by the
time they reached us, it was 4PM. However, I was still inside the cab, and the
cab was still in Gangotri. In fact, it didn’t move at all for another half an
hour. So, now we were all safely seated inside the Qualis and only when it had
stuffed 13 people along with the driver, did it move.
The next few hours were pure
agony. We were already beyond tired due to the 23 odd kilometers that we had
trekked today and lack of a proper diet and now inside the cab there was hardly
any place for us to sit, forget shifting around our pained legs. Infact, Vishal
was sitting on top of Bharath’s and my legs.
Not that it was comfortable for him in any way, but it was painful for
us. We couldn’t shift at all with such heavy load on us. Though, Vishal tried
to sit as lightly as possible, but we were all beyond caring. We were in so
much misery, that we would wish for people to get down quickly, we would wish
for the distance to close soon, we would wish to get magically transported to
Uttarkashi and maybe Haridwar if possible. The agony lasted for almost two and
a half hours, when finally few people got down and we got some space to
ourselves.
We reached Uttarkashi by 9 PM and
immediately zeroed on the hotel where we had last stayed. We booked the same
triple bed room but with an extra mattress this time. After all, we all had to
get the much needed rest. Since it was already too late, we went down into the
street to look for some food and coffee. In the meanwhile, I asked around the
local people for transport options in the morning. I was told that usually the
shared cab would leave by 6 or 7 in the
morning, provided they are full. But that meant, we would reach our destination
only in the late afternoon and that would defeat the whole purpose. I also got
to know that often there are cabbies who have to collect passengers from
Haridwar. So they would drive out early in the morning as early as 4 AM and
might even give lift to the passengers. But that was strictly conditional and
there was absolutely no guarantee. Nevertheless, I was counting on that. I
informed everyone that we would have to get up by 3 and get ready to leave
Uttarkashi by 4 provided we manage to find such a cab.
Despite, their tiredness, Bharath,
Kishan and Vishal readily agreed. That was more than what I could have asked
them for. They could have taken all this easy on themselves but for my sake,
they stretched themselves, right from hiking 23 KMs in a single day to bearing
the agony empty stomach in that overcrowded jeep to forgoing dear sleep and
getting up early again the next morning and enduring another long journey back
to Haridwar, only so that I can catch my train on time.
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