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.
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.
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.
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.
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| Crossing the Lakshman jhula, the first time. The main temple can be seen. |
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| Abhimanyu took us to the Ganga River View restaurant, on the opposite bank, and we were suddenly ina peaceful coccoon! |
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| The views are just beautiful. This, as we recrossed the jhula |
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| The bridge itself |
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| More river views |
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| I think this was the Ram jhula |
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| 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! |
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.
