Day 1( 11th Nov., 2006) : Delhi to Tungnath

We set out from Del. at around 9 pm and after halts at Merrut, we reached Rishikesh at 3.30 am. We were told to wait till 5 am at the Rishikesh Laxman Jhula Police barrier. I am told these days, night driving is not permissible in hills due to the accident prone areas. But,I confidently held out my Times Of India, Press Identity -card and was given prompt entry :-)
It meant that luck was with us and we would have a good trek !!!!

We crossed Devprayag in nite and could not take any pics as it was pitch dark.
Devpraprayg is one of the holy towns being the place of confluence of river Bhagirathi(coming from Gangotri)and Alaknanda(coming from Rudrapyayag. Infact the river actually becomes known as Gangaji from this point onwards as this is the point where last of the tributaries if Gangaji meet and holy Gangages is formed.

Finaly, Surya bhagwaan(Sun god)came in and we took few pics of the most reverred river on this earth Gangaji. Gangaji was shining in the dark green colour and looked so grand in its approach.

We are somewhere near Srinagar.

We drove across Srinagar(a small picturescue town along river Ganga)and popular for being centre for the only University in Gharwal i.e. Gharwal University.
Rudrapraprayg is one of the holy towns being the place of confluence of river Mandakni(coming from Kedarnathji)and Alaknanda(coming from Karnprayag)

We were expected to meet our guide which took little while giving us oppertunity to go down to meet Gangaji :-).

You can see Girish and Arvind on the riverside at Rudraprayag.

Madakini coming from Kedarnath.

It was Girish idea to go down to the river Ganga and we happily enjoyed chilly waters of Gangaji. I got too adventerous and ventured into the wrong side of river stepping over slippery stones and had a small fall onto the rocks/ water and thankfully did not get hurt!! again luck was on our side and we thanked Gangaji for the same. After breakfast, we finally managed to locate our guide and drove off from Rudraprayag to Chopta at 10 am eagerly awating the sight of the himalayas. We wanted to touch and kiss the magnificant himalayas :-)


The ever beautiful valleys and cultivated lands were a feast for our eyes and welcome relief from concrete jungles we all view in Delhi. After all, we are in the Dev Bhoomi(land of Gods)where all the simple things are full of beauty and energy.


This is our first view of the himalayas (the mighty Chaukhamba)which I was told would be pefectly visible from Chandrashila peak. I cudnt wait to reach the summit anymore !!
The himalayan view were amazing and we took a break to admire the valley and the surroundings.


As we drove further, the view of the himalayas become better.
The cimate in Nov. is little late to witness lush greenary, but himalayas as are too grandeur and the greenary that greeted us was just too good. We came accross the GVMN rest House at Chandrapur which seemed to be a great place to relax / stay as it is being beside the river providing good himalayan views. Its very surprising to see excellent himalayan views even from the low altitute valleys along the route.

The route from Rudraprayg till Kund is all along the lush green valleys very rich in flora(we hadn't seen any animal till now)and fauna and providing continuous Himalayan views. The actual ascent starts from Kund when we head towards Ukhimath.
From Kund, one roads runs onto Kedarnath via Gupkashi and other is towards our destination Chopta via Ukhimath.


We saw several waterfalls along the way, but had to stop at this one to take pics


You can see the green finely terraced farmlands at Ukhimath.
Ukhimath is the winter seat of the pandit of Kedarnathji for winter season when the doors of Kedarnath temple are closed till next season.

Somewhere near Ukhimath, we entered Kedarnath wild life Sanctuary, meaning that there would be abundance of wild life / trees. From here till Gopeshwar, there is nothing but dense dense forests for 70 kms !!



Huge rocks were jutting out into the road which seemed kind of scary !!
We were feeling hungry on the way and Girish(the impossible guy who makes everything possible :-))suggested that we venture into the fields and just pluck the tasty Oranges(known as Malta in local language). My god they were so yummy :-)


Here Girish is happily stealing the oranges from the fields, good the owner was nowhere to be seen :-)



True to its word, the entire stretch till Chopta was very dense forest and we were struggling to see the sunrays venture into the road. The trees seemed very green as if they were hand painted. We were all desperately looking for the sighting of the elusive Tiger/ Leapord, but at the end we did come across some lone Fox and jungle Rabbit :-)

When we were near Chopta, we got disappointed when our guide told us that there is no snow at Chandrashila summit. We had come so far see the snow and all of us stood in silence for few minutes. But, still we were enthusoistic to scale the peak !!

We were happy to see many people camping near Chopta. Chopta directly overlooks the Himalayan peaks and a very dense forest area. All the hotels were closed as this was the near end of the tourist season and it were only few die hard trekkers like us who would dare in such extreme climate. The whether gods were playing hide and seek with us due to which Himalayan views were lost.

We had a quick lunch at one of the very few dhabas and proceeded for Tungnath. It was was difficult climb from Chopta(2800 mtr.)to Tungnath(3800 mtr.)of 4 kms meaning that we had to ascent nearly 1000 mtrs, phew !!!

This is the gate at Chopta for Tungnath which was the starting point the trek.
The climb is a mix of steep and gradual ascent. The good thing is that path is well laid and maintained (unlike ones I encountered at Roopkund / Panchachuli Glaceir). It crosses bugyals(green meadows/grasslands) which start immediately after Chopta and continue till Tungnath.
There were several patches of solid snow settled from the previous snowfall indicating the high altitude of the place.


We could not see the snow peaks due to bad clouds, but what we saw on the way to Tungnath was nothing short of spectacular beauty.
We saw several junglee chickens along the way, but they managed to vanish by the time I took out the camera !!


This is known as Ravanshila(just 1 km before Tungnath), the rock where Ravana is said to have done penance to please Lord Shiva !! Tungnath was now finally visible from this point and we had solace that we are so near to our base camp !!!

We had to reach fast as it was getting dark and we had to quickly make further ascent which we did rather easily !!
There was so much of snow at Tungnath which set us thinking of the snow up to Summit, but we were on the roll and had no time to think on those lines !!!

We quickly pitched our tent after a lot of effort as we could not find any plain areas nearby and had to pitch tent near a hut. We noticed that we were the only species in the Tungnath tonight, apart from any animal lingering(or snow leapord ??) behind ths hills around us :-)
We had the luxurious dinner of Sambar rice(yummy :-))made out of the MTR readymade meals packets I carried with me.
We quickly went to sleep by 9 pm with full knowledge that this would be one of our coldest nights of our lives. It was very cold night with lots of strong chilly winds.