Back to the chaos

Day 6 described here

Day 7 - Leaving the Valley and coming down to earth

The way up was drizzly and wet for the most part, while our trek down was sunny and cheerful - blue skies, fabuous views - to start with, and blazing hot as we finished, with aching toes and thighs trembling with tiredness!

It was a bit dreary coming into Govindghat, to the flies and garbage along the slopes of the river.  Such moments always makes me wonder about the path of development that we have chosen.  Along with this explosion in consumption, where are the necessary systems for civic smenities?  Sustainable development is just not happening as yet.

It was good to see Manmohan though, cheerful as ever, with his Tempo Traveller all ready for us.  We escaped from the flies into the Bhagat Palace, and we used the common toilet to change out of our smelly trekking clothes - atleast some of us did.

Lunch -  which was wonderfully tasty - done, and we had to go pick up one of our group from the Joshimath hospital - she had suffered altitude sickness and luckily was able to take the helicopter down.  She was also lucky that we had doctors on the group, to attend to her.  When all is well these are the things that one overlooks, and if one is going on any trip like this, we should be aware of the medical emergency help that is possible,

Early evening, and we were down to Monal at Rudraprayag. 

This is a view of the resort that faces the Alakananda river.

And this was what greeted us in the morning.  Mist over the river

The next morning, we strolled through the gardens, but Vidya, Sreelata and Damayanti with Abhimanyu were more adventurous, going back down to the river  and the Koteshwar temple, for a dip.

They reported that the water level had risen so much, it was above the steps on the waterfront, and almost lapping into the temple.  I did regret having been lazy, on hearing that, but I was in a mutinous mood - no more ascending or descending for my legs!!

Breakfast done, and it was back to the tempo and down to Rishikesh

The river was by our side all along, gushing in a narrow  gorge sometimes, and looking very lethargic in the wider spaces, but brown all along, filled with silt.

2 pmish - And then we arrived at Rishikesh.  It was drizzling again.  The pictures do not do justice to the chaos and noise around us, but here goes.  All these picture are taken on the E72 Nokia mobile.

Crossing the Lakshman jhula, the first time.  The main temple can be seen. 

Abhimanyu took us to the Ganga River View restaurant, on the opposite bank, and we were suddenly ina peaceful coccoon!

The views are just beautiful.  This, as we recrossed the jhula

The bridge itself

More river views

I think this was the Ram jhula

The Ram jhula - see how packed it is with monkeys, cattle, humans and two wheelers.  There were foreigners seeking nirvana, businessmen on bikes, housewives off on some errand, gawking tourists like us.  One white lady insisted on having her picture taken with her hand on a cow and her eyes half closed in bliss (mind you she was in the skimpiest of shorts), in the meanwhile she held up all the traffic, and the bridge seemed to sway and judder alarmingly.  Deep breathing and a panic attack averted!

6pm - and we thankfully fell back into our van and shut out the honking buses and blaring loudspeakers!

It was an emotional evening at Haridwar, which was our night halt.  We had to say goodbye to Abhimanyu, our friend and guide for this past eventful week.  We congregated in Damayanti's room, and filled in Arjun with all the stories of our exploits, and we were very pleased at how impressed he was with his wife's performance.  And the ladies had a complete giggling bout to see his horror at the massage stories - I shall not elaborate further here!

In the process, I almost broke Damayanti's sofa cum bed, and this resulted in more hysterical laughter.  A nice way to end the evening.

And so ends this Valley of Flowers diary of mine, as the next day's drive into Delhi is too mundane to write about...except the fact that Gapi and I got gypped on the huge crate of mangoes that we each took.  They did not travel well and when we returned, I had to make them into juice!

Until we meet again, here's to my fellow travellers on that wonderful wonderful trip - Abhimanyu, Archana, Damayanti, Gapi, Jayita, Manmohan, Prem, Raji, Sonya, Sreelata, Vatsala, andVidya.

My bird list - Valley of Flowers trip

With the exception of the first five, I saw all these birds for the first time.

Species	Scientific Name	Date	Location	Comments
Rock Pigeon	Columba livia	21/07/12	Haridwar
Red-vented Bulbul	Pycnonotus cafer	21/07/12	Haridwar
House Sparrow	Passer domesticus	21/07/12	Haridwar
Black Drongo	Dicrurus macrocercus	21/07/12	Haridwar
House Crow	Corvus splendens	21/07/12	Haridwar
Himalayan Bulbul	Pycnonotus leucogenys	22/07/12	Devprayag	A pair up on the telephone wire!
Eurasian Blackbird	Turdus merula	22/07/12	Rudraprayag	Also seen all over Ghangria
Yellow Wagtail	Motacilla flava	24/07/12	Govindghat	During the trek to Ghangria, next to the Pushpavati river.
Yellow-billed Blue Magpie	Urocissa flavirostris	24/07/12	Govindghat	During the trek to Ghangria, next to the Pushpavati river.
Red-billed Blue Magpie	Urocissa erythrorhyncha	24/07/12	Govindghat	During the trek to Ghangria, next to the Pushpavati river.
White-browed Shortwing	Brachypteryx montana	24/07/12	Govindghat	During the trek to Ghangria, sunning itself on the rock, next to the Pushpavati river.
White-capped Water Redstart	Chaimarrornis leucocephalus	24/07/12	Govindghat	During the trek to Ghangria, sunning itself on the rock, next to the Pushpavati river.
Variegated Laughingthrush	Garrulax variegatus	25/07/12	Valley of flowers	Seen and heard in Ghangria, as well as in the wooded bits and rhododendron bushes in the valley.  Lovely bird!
Common Rosefinch	Carpodacus erythrinus	25/07/12	Ganghria	Commonly seen through valley of flowers, Ganghria town.  Both male and female.
Rusty-flanked Treecreeper	Certhia nipalensis	25/07/12	Valley of flowers	creeping up a tree!
Oriental Turtle Dove	Streptopelia orientalis	26/07/12	Ghangria	Seen and heard in Ghangria, two pairs in the conifers.  Swift flight, and beautiful wing pattern.
Whiskered Yuhina	Yuhina flavicollis	26/07/12	Ghangria
Streaked Laughingthrush	Garrulax lineatus	26/07/12	Ghangria
White-collared Blackbird	Turdus albocinctus	26/07/12	Ghangria	Sweet song.  Picking on jamun fruits

Ghangaria - the camp and my day of solitude

The Amazing Valley described here

July 26th 2012.  Day 6

This was the day for Hemkund.  Abhimanyu strongly discouraged us from walking (very wise after the fact) up, and I did not want to go any other way.

So I decided that rather than subject a mule to lugging me up those slopes, I would stay at Ghangaria, walk around and do some desultory birding.

The fittest fab four of our group attempted to walk, while the rest went on mules/horses.  Vayysala stayed behind as she was quite unwell by this time, having breathing issues and a headache.

By 10 am, I set out for a leisurely stroll.

Just below our campsite were these beautiful meadows filled with flowers, and the odd village path.  It was hearteningly clear of
plastic, and I meandered along with the path, enjoying the clean air, birdsong, and the distant tingling mule bells.

The helipad(!!!) in the distance

There were rose finches all over the place.  But they were busy little birds, harldy sitting still.  Here is the female.....

...and the male.

Looking back up at the tents and the Valley.  i was so tempted to go back in, but decided it was not wise to do it alone.

Eurasian blackbirds were as common as our crows, and very bold too.

Then, in the distance, echoing back from the hills was the unmistakable sound of the 'copter!  It was the first clear day in a while, and the copter was busy ferrying people back and forth.

As I birded and watched, it made about five trips back and forth, before the clouds descended.  By noon, visibility was poor and the copter ferry stopped.  The helipad then became a cricket field cum grrazing ground!

There is an army guest house here, and this is the view they enjoy!!

These Euphorbia sikkimesis bushes were in abundance.  Those large petal-like things are actually leaves, and the flower is only the central part.

These too...but I still have not identified them.

Another look at the mountains...

Through the fields of morinia longifolia..

...a close-up, The mist and clouds blew in and blew out.

wild jamun

Looking down on the campsite.  This was where I saw so many birds....whiskered yuhina, streaked laughing thrush...

...and the variegated laughing thrush.  What a beautiful call it had, as it sat on this rhododendron bush.  Another beauty was the white-collared blackbird, which sat eating the jamuns, but flew before I could take a picture.

The rain started up soon that afternoon.

I came down at around 1pm, and the Sarovar camp cook served me some khichidi and mushroom and peas curry.  Along with some roasted papads it was a rather yummy lunch!

The Hemkund lot soon returned, with wonderful accounts of the langar, the brahmakamal, their horses with names and the beautiful lake!

Hot bajjis!  (Picture taken by Damayantu)

The inside of the tents

It was definitely a good thing I did not try to walk - only two of the walkers managed it all they way.  You are basically adding something like 1,000 m in what 6 kms.  The path was treacherous from all accounts..but the Sikh pilgrims young and old climb, driven by faith. 

It was wonderful that Sonya climbed, had a great darshan and climbed down again.  She was both physically and emotionally drained by the day, and it was an emotional dinner we had that evening, by candlelight in our tent.

Sarovar camp is a great place to stay, and with minimal fuss, we were served our meals, which were amazingly varied, given that we were 3,000m up, and cut off from a road system.

And I would rather stay in this tent anyday than go into Ghangria town and stay in a poky lodge room!  But I guess we were not on a shoestring budget.

The Sarovar tents are the white ones.  the blue tents were part of another agency, and were more basic, but even those seemed preferable to the town.  All the tents are removed at the end of the season and the camping site is closed.

We had cots if you please, (so we stayed in luxury), along with blankets and a hot water bottle!!

The bathroom at the rear of the tent.  No flush system.

Of course the weird thing was that the ground beneath the bed sloped, so we all had this constant feeling that we were rolling off our beds.  We had heard that one of the tell-tale signs of altitude sickeness was that the floor would not appear even, and so the first day I anxiously asked Gapi whether she was also having this issue!!  We were most releived to hear that everyone was having this prob;em of tilting beds and tilting floors.

I had carried all the warm clothes that were in our house in Madras - belonging to various members of the family.

So the evenings would be spent in thermals, jacket, gloves, woolen socks and a woolen cap!!  Ofcourse each part of my attire did not match with anything else, but I was warm!!

And I did not have to hide under the sheets in the late evenings, and I could enjoy the views, the starry night sky, while others had to go and huddle inside to stay warm!

So ended our sojourn at Ghangria, and we packed up our mule and sweat smelly clothes, for our walk back the next morning.

My complete bird list here

Returning back to the chaos

Valley of Flowers - Picasa Web Albums

Valley of Flowers - Flowergirl Madras - Picasa Web Albums

Close-ups with ids, please help with the unidentified!

The Hindu : Sci-Tech / Energy & Environment : Endangered vultures sighted in Raichur

Endangered vultures sighted in Raichur

The Hindu A group of long-billed vultures on a hill on the Bellary-Raichur border in Karnataka. Photo; Sunaina Martin.

A team of naturalists from Bellary, including Santosh Martin, honorary wildlife warden of Bellary district; K.S. Abdul Samad of the Society for Wildlife and Nature (SWaN); and Anand Kundargi, naturalist from Siruguppa, have discovered the long-billed vulture (Gyps indicus), a critically endangered species.

Sixteen of these vultures, along with four Egyptian vultures, were sighted in a remote village bordering Bellary and Raichur districts of Karnataka.

“Our umpteen expeditions to discover the vultures for the past several years have at last yielded fruit. Every time we get a report of sighting of the vulture by the locals, with whom we are in regular touch, we used to rush and scan the entire area, only to be disappointed. But on Sunday we were lucky. Based on the information given by the locals, that they had seen a group of vultures feeding on a sheep carcass in a field, we reached the spot and were awestruck to see as many as 16 vultures sitting on a hill, an ideal habitat,” Mr. Martin told The Hindu.

The long billed vulture, closely related to the Griffon Vulture (G. fulvus), breeds mainly on hilly crags in central and peninsular India. Like other vultures, it is a scavenger, feeding mostly on carcasses. It often moves in flocks.

Mr. Martin, while expecting a healthy population of around 25 vultures in the vicinity, did not wish to disclose the actual location, apprehending a threat to the birds at this stage.

The vulture population has been on the decline and the reason is said to be poisoning caused by Diclofenac, a veterinary drug. The non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug is given to animals to reduce joint pain and poses a threat to the lives vultures consuming the carcass of the animal administered with the drug.

“The discovery of a flourishing population of vultures in north Karnataka throws a ray of hope for the conservation of the critically endangered vultures. Now it is our responsibility to conserve the bird and its habitat,” Mr. Samad said, adding that SWaN and Wildlife SOS, New Delhi, were planning to take up a research project on the distribution and ecology of vultures in north Karnataka.

Budding naturalist Sunaina Martin and Sonia Martin, a nature lover, had accompanied the team.