First of all, I genuinely thank all of you for your love and suggestions for my previous blog i.e. A trip to badrinath and hemkund- Part 1. All of your praise for my work is very motivating, equally important to internal motivation. And those who have missed first part, may read that one first to catch up the second one.
With the alarm ( subah ho gyi mamu), we started getting ready with no plan of where to go. But never underestimate chai pe charcha, specially with this splendid view.
Fortunately, with the last sip of tea, we managed to decide our next destination and its valley of flower and hemkund sahib trek since both of the treks start from same point but we didn't know anything about the distance and time.
It's 11:00 am and we are leaving for govindghat, just 20 km and 1 hour drive away from joshimath and having a dream that we will trek and see the hemkund glacier today itself.
but here comes the first disappointment after talking to some locals, as we came to know that we can not drive our personal vehicle beyond govindghat as it is the last motorable point and then comes the second disappointment i.e hemkund sahib is 21 km trek away. Means today we can't reach hemkund sahib. Today we can trek upto ghangariya only which is 14 km away from govindghat but first 4 kms can be covered by local taxi service (Rs 50 per person) from govindghat to pulna and beyond pulna, trek is there till ghangariya.
One more struggle is yet to come.... to find the cash. Though ATM machines are available in govindghat but all empty, so basically of no use. Since after govindghat you will hardly find any network signal. So, no paytm zone starts here. only cash will help you. we gathered all this information only after reaching govindghat.
We went to joshimath again to get the cash and came back to govindghat. That was a sort of punishment for our ignorance.
Note: helicopter service is also available from govindghat to ghangariya but it will cost you around 3000 rupees and hardly takes 4 to 5 mins.
Here you have some beautiful pictures of the trek from pulna to ghangariya
After a continuous trek of almost 10-11 kms and 6-7 hrs , you may start looking for hotels and restaurants but I would recommend to visit gurudwara first and have tea as refreshment. We did the same and it was very relaxing to wash our feet in natural chilled water and to walk bare feet in the gurudwara. Then, we booked a hotel till next morning.
After having a light dinner, it's time to take a good sleep before another trek to hemkund (one of the most steepest treks) next morning.
Good morning everyone.
We are leaving from hotel around 5:30 am. Though outside temperature is around 3-4 degree Celsius but it's hardly been 15 minutes on the trek and we are full of sweats and have to remove our jackets.
After 1 km of trek, you will find a diversion to valley of flowers, which needs a full seperate day to explore whole of the valley. Because of time constraint, we decided not to cover valley of flowers but only hemkund sahib. If you plan a trip, so please keep 2 days, one for hemkund sahib and another for valley of flowers.
Hemkund trek is 6 km long in distance and 1.2 km in height, one of the steepest trek. Because of steep slopes, trek is very exhausting. But the moment you decide to rest, next view encourages you to continue for few more minutes.
If you just want to reach hemkund and avoid strenuous exercise then you may avail a porter or mule service as well, like Mr nirant (one of us) did.
You will get idea just by referring to this picture of mine (just few meters before hemkund) that what it takes to get benediction of hemkund sahib.
Finally we are at an altitude of 4633 meters and one of the highest Gurdwaras in world.
And taking a dip in this revered lake is just like icing on the cake.
Only this much is there to share from this trip. Hope you enjoyed reading this blog and finding all the information of some use.
Thank you very much for all of your love and support. Wish to interact with all of you again with another blog on another trip.
Till then tata, good bye.
Phir milenge chalte chalte.