Himalayas

Another record was broken: 172 km in 11 hours, with 2 half-hour breaks. That makes it 17.2 km/hour – WOW!

The first day of the trip we spent on the road, winding, narrow, literally, half of it washed away by landslides and the monsoon this year. The drops we drove right next to, about 2000m above sea level sometimes made me sweat so badly, that I actually came to appreciate the air-conditioning. Lucky enough the car we travelled with was a really good 4WD, spacious inside and we got the best driver in the region – thanks to him we did not have any issues apart from the exhaustion. It was confirmed again that next to the break, the most important second bit on any car is the horn around here, when the traffic got a bit heavier during midday, you couldn't hear anything else just these ridiculous tunes – made me practice meditation a few times, trying not to go completely mad.

The views where so overwhelming that I could not hold the ears back: huge, I mean HUGE mountains around, waterfalls on every half a mile, the Ganges 2000-2500m below, fog in the valleys below and the sun coming up, godbeams (I like this word.. J) breaking through the clouds……….. Magical!

We had breakfast and lunch at roadside cafés; stopped at the birthplace of the Ganges (Devprayag) where the 2 different colored streams of the Bhagrati and the Alakananda becomes the holy river; stopped at a monument where John had to have a photo taken, after having read the 'The man eating leopard of Rudraprayag' when he was 15; and had to take a 30km detour (2.5 hours) because of a landslide that made the "National Highway" closed. I tell you that 30km of horror was the longest 30km of my life. We reached our destination in the town of Okhimath around 6pm, did some yoga, meditation, had dinner and were out by 9, hoping for the morning to come quicker, for us to be able to set off on our hike and finally, finally see those breathtaking views of the Himalayas. 

Day 2's destination was the little lake, Deoria Tal – a holy place of course -, for which we set off from this tiny little village called Sari. We got a local guide there, Umendra – not that we needed him as the treks were pretty obvious, but it was nice to have someone local telling us stories ('us' being, me, Mr Kenguru and Silvia, latter who lives in the ashram and arranged the whole trip – big thanks to her again!!), and someone who had enough common sense to tell us when to turn back to reach the village before the night fell. The lake turned out to be only a 2-hour long hike so we decided to continue towards Chopta, the starting point for the Day 3's hike, which we never reached as, towards 3pm the skies fell down with heavy rain and - "white rain", as our cook later explained, not knowing the word for - snow J, on the higher peaks. The cook by the way did a miracle that night: he put ginger and black pepper into the chai latte – so, I have a new favorite drink dear friends, after all…   

On Day 3, we agreed to pick Umendra up at his village at 5am – which meant a bloody early start and still we ran late as I predicted… - so after the hour long drive to Chopta, the following half an hour delay didn't make any difference, and we decided to have a quick breakfast at the start of the trail. It turned out to be the best meal I have had so far in India; nothing special just a paratha, but so tasty… SO tasty!!! It was freezing cold that morning – yes, I did make use of the winter coat finally, and was already looking forward to the sleepingbag I carried all the way along with me, for those 3 nights… anyway.

The hike was with a 1400m altitude difference but gradually going upwards so nothing extremely difficult. I have to admit though that I felt the last 300m after Tungnath on 3800m, it was the classical having had to stop after every 20-25 steps to catch up with the breathing. The weather was clear until Tungnath too where it immediately became  overcast – and as unfortunate as we were, we missed out on the best 360' views in the region on Chandrasila peak. We had the csucscsoki (peak choc-bar) but no cigi this time (shocker), and started to head down after we'd been done with the photos; it was really getting cold. On the way back, John and Silvia insisted on doing prayers at the temple on Tungnath but I was too cold (and not excited about the prayers at all to be very honest), so I headed down, absolutely loving the me time and silence; warmed up at the first sunny spot and enjoyed the amazing views of the snow covered peak of Chaukhmba (7200m above sea level, the highest peak that is visible at this part of the world).

Down at our breakfast spot I gave in to the temptations and ordered a cup of Maggi noodles – I don't thin I ever appreciated the plastic food that much before. It was a 10 minute release from curry-overdose, a great thing after a while for my European stomach.. ;) In the afternoon the weather turned into full-on winter, we saw snow slowly covering the mountains around us so we headed back to our base, went for a stroll and saw the Omkreshwar temple in Okimath, had an early dinner, a nice rest, and started to head back to Rishikesh at 9am the following day.

This time the 172 km only took 8 hours, even with making a stop at a cave – another holy spot, me restless to get back to the ashram but J&S has to meditate (I dont blame them, in the end this was their purpose of the trip..), I go along but freak out on the few rats that start to crawl way too close to the spot where I sit, J&S not realizing any of this at all, I run away, and so in the end I promise myself yet again, that noone will ever get me do anything which I am not at least 90% sure of. J

Quick facts: the highest point we were on was 'only' on 4090m not the previously announced 5000+; I learnt that for such hights we would have needed to drive twice the distance from Rishikesh. Unfortunately we still had to spend 2 days in the car and only hiked for another 2, but considering the time constrains of J&S it was not much more I could have done unless setting off on my own. The costs – again because it was not a trip alone – came down to approx. 110 EUR each, including the car, driver, all meals, accommodation, and guide and tips as well. Well worth it, I have to say!

If you need a guide, do contact Umendra Negi, here is his contact details:

trekking guide or tent-accommodation in uttrakhand india
name  Umendra singh negi
mobil no 08958647802
                09456534062
email  umendra.negi100@gmail.com