The experience of Life: The Trek Begins

Prolog:

The experience of Life: Drive Along The River

Date: 20th August 2017

It was very nice weather at Pandukeshwar with slight drizzle and misty clouds.
I woke-up early morning and took bath with hot water provided at the hotel.

The view was refreshing from the hotel, with wet roads and misty mountains in the background.

The group had breakfast at 8AM

Breakfast before the trek

The Group started for the 4 day trek by 8:15AM.
We reached at the initial checkpost on the tempo traveler where a registration needs to be done for all the members. The Leads had some arrangement which avoided us standing in the queue.

Check-post to cross the bridge

From that point, there is no private vehicles allowed.  The authorities take in their vehicle for 4 kilometers from where the trek to Gangria starts. There are Mules' available in-case if someone is not able to trek for 10KMs.
We reached the spot to start the trek at 9AM. The luggage were offloaded to be carried in mules. The group carried on day-pack for essentials and then we started the trek.

The weather was bright and rain had stopped. Ideal weather to enjoy the scenic view during the trek. Soon the group was divided into subgroups based on the speed of different members of the group. This was the tone for almost the complete trek during the next 4 days where the group used to meetup only at some break points.
The Leads used to coordinate : one of them were on the front and the other behind for most of the trek.

I was mostly involved in shooting pictures and taking few videos during the walk.

The refreshing sound of flowing water from the Lakshman Ganga was heard throughout the trek.

 

 There were lots of waterfall on the way.

Waterfall

I reached the break point at 10:45AM.  It was planned to have a early lunch, but still we got a cup of tea from the stall as soon as we reached. There was a long break at that point and had lunch ~11:15AM.After the lunch we resumed the trek by 11:45AM. 

I was walking slowly and alone for long time after lunch. 

It was refreshing to see and experience the flowing water , the greenery around, the blue sky, the flowers, the bees around the flowers, the butterflies and birds chirping. 

The collage captures the theme of the trek

 There were many mules on the way in both directions. One of the initial challenge during the trek was the navigate between the mules when there were too many in some places.

Mule walking with its helper down the path

At 1:20PM we reached the Sangam of Lakshman Ganga and the Bhyundar river. Weather was bright and then scenery was really beautiful.

Rivers leading to the Sangam. Bottom is the Lakshman Ganga and top is the Bhyundar river

The group re-grouped again at this point after a short break. Another 3.5kms to go and its expected to be a steep climb. The Leads also requested to walk bit faster as the weather could go bad later in the day. It started to drizzle a bit just to pull my poncho and then it stopped. 

We could see the helicopter multiples times which is catering to people who wants to avoid this path complete and reach Gangria faster.

After a long walk, we reached a small area called "Kajila" by 3:20PM. Gangria is just 600mts away from there!!!.
We regrouped at this point before proceeding further towards Gangria. There were lots of flowers in that area.

The group reached Gangria by 4:15PM. The weather was cold and rain had started.
The entry of the town was full of Mules. The town is one long stretch with building on both sides. These Building are made of concrete bricks but all are just made to be used for the 4 month long season after which the entire town will be deserted.

We reached Hotel Guru Kripa where we got Hot Maggi Noodles and tea. That was the best maggi which i had for a long time now :)

After a brief discussion (rather argument :) ) about the rooms allocation with the leads, we checked-in to the rooms. Just basic rooms with few cots. The rooms were attached bathrooms but with only cold water on the taps. Seems they charge per bed for these rooms but all charged were inclusive in our trek. So that was the our settlement for 3 night during the trek.
After a while, the group ventured out into Gangria street and found a government office where they shows a small 10 minutes video about Valley of flowers capturing its bio-diversity, flowers, medicinal values of plants and the history of the place. It was informative for us.

The group had dinner together and after a short briefing from the leads we called-off the day for much needed rest.