After having spent the night in Rishikesh, I started my journey towards Govind Ghat in the morning in a Tata Sumo, going to Rudraprayag. By the time I reached Govind Ghat, the night had set in. Still I was happy that I had managed to reach the basecamp for Valley Of Flowers and Hemkund Sahib.
I was travelling alone, so I decided to join my fellow Sikh passengers, who were going to visit the shrine nestled 15,000 ft. above sea level. I was excited.
The first night, we had community meals or Langar and slept in the dorm assigned to us.
The next morning, I got up to trek towards Ghangaria, and realized that I had to walk a 13 kms of steep, morbid stretch, which I had to cover before noon, if I have to cover both Hemkund Sahib and Valley Of Flowers in the next two days.
At 0500 hrs when I had begun trekking, there were no signs of the sun or its sunshine. I reached Ghangheria during lunch time, which meant that I had completed the first leg of the pilgrimage in due time. On reaching Ghangheria, I realized the difficulty level of the task at hand. For the next two hours, I waited for the body to come out of the exhaustion and the duress it had caused from the back breaking trek. I was wondering if I will be able to visit and come back the same day and decided to cancel the plan to visit the shrine and instead go to the valley. Tired and disappointed, I washed myself, ate and slept in the Gurudwara, hoping to get my grit back, something that I needed for this trip more than ever.
The whole trek, starting from Govind Ghat to Hemkund Sahib measures 19kms approx. As far as Ghangaria is concerned, it is the only place where pilgrims can come and rest with their families. There are food, water, toilets and beds available, so that people can rest before they go further up towards the shrine, which according to people, is the most steep and tough.
I had overslept and thought was late, panicked and just raneven though my legs sored in pain and toes were hurting. On the way, a few cautioned me saying, “Oh, it could be dangerous”. I simply ignored and skipped through the security checkpoint making my way into the valley.
Once in, I understood what am I getting into as I began to find broken prunes from pine trees on along the path – which I started picking up to examine if a beer had snipped it? And from what I could gather, it was only safe to assume that there was a beer in the area because where I was standing, there were all pine trees. And no animals other than a beer could have climbed those trees. To avoid confrontation, as I walked, I began plunking the stick loudly on the ground. I started singing in high-pitched annoying voices to divulge my presence.
It is only now, when I think about it, I really wonder if it was utter foolishness that I risked my life like that. Because it was the first time I actually took into account that I was neither carrying a matchstick, nor a lighter, or a fire-torch, or a blade or a knife. I knew no skill that can give me an edge if faced with a dangerous situation.
I would say I was lucky and managed to capture some very scenic views of the valley.
By the time I reached close to the entry point, a strong, mild-mannered army person, politely asked – are there any more tourists inside?
“No, nobody is inside,” I replied.
The man who might be of my father’s age, very quickly changed his tone and said, “Do you know how dangerous it is… to walk into the jungle like that? What do you think, we are here for?”
“I am sorry, but there was no guard there and I really wanted to see the valley,” I replied apologetically. The man then told me about the dangers of the valley and told me not fool around like this. After he calmed down, he gave me some more lecture and then let me go. The next morning I heard people talking about seeing a bear with her cub close to the Gurudwara. I started climbing down from Ghangheria to Govind Ghat.
