Valley of Flowers – Hemkund Sahib

I got up at 5am and looked outside. It was raining and everything was misty. I was very disappointed to see that. Bina was very much tired after the last days walk and wanted to rest. As suggested by Nandu, we decided to go to Hemkund Sahib on a horseback. We hired 2 horses as even Muneera wanted to stay back with Bina. By the time we sat on the horse by 7am, the mist was cleared a bit and we were able to see the mountain peak of Hemkund Sahib. This is a 6km of trek, pretty steep ascent that takes you to the height of 14000ft. This is a very narrow road. The pilgrims who were walking must be finding it very difficult to climb it at the same time save themselves from the coming in a way of horses. Many times my horse would go so close to the people walking that my shoes would brush their perfectly white clothes.

We reached Hemkund at 9.15am. Sun had come out from the mist. The gurudwara and the lake in front of that were looking picturesque. But due to the height, and our sudden rise, I started feeling giddy. Was not able to walk properly. I wanted to go around the lake and take pictures of the gurudwara from the other end but somehow I felt that I am not able to do that. Meanwhile Nandu got convinced by one young Sikh pilgrim to take a dip in the holy water. When he put his feet inside to see how cold the water was, he wanted to run away. But being the atheist to the core, he gathered the courage and took a dip in the Kund. For ladies they have separate arrangements for a holy bath. Then we went inside the Gurdwara covering our heads, which is mandatory. Here they give you blankets as almost everyone is out of the icy water and the air around you is icy cool as well. Here we went around the Granth Sahib and sat with other devotees. Though we could not follow most of the prayers, as they were being recited in Gurubani, but we lowered our heads and prayed. In the end we joined everyone when they screamed “Wahe Guru Di Fateh, Wahe Guru Da Khalasa”. By this time we have heard this so many times from Govindghat that it was by heart now.

We did not wait to have Lunghar food as I was not feeling comfortable. I now feel that if we had spend some more time there and had eaten some of the lunghar food, we could have got acclimatized. We started our descent and within no time we were down in Ghangria. By 2pm we reached the guesthouse, where warm food was waiting for us. We ate properly and took some rest after the lunch.

In the evening we went about loitering in the market place. Then we visited the Shop of Wild life Photographer and trekker Rajnish. We also attended a 45 min. documentary film on Vallery of flowers at the tourist center just next to our guesthouse. Before retiring for a day we spoke to one guide for the valley of flowers trek. He said he would arrange the packed lunch, water and two pithoos, one for Muneera and the other for our backpacks. We went to sleep early, praying that next day should be clear day, so that our Valley of flowers trek, the main attraction of this rigorous trip could be a success.