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.

The Amazing Valley

The trek described here.

I cannot believe almost a month has gone by since that day!

July 25th, Day 5 - From Ghangria into the Valley of Flowers.

Everyone says "only 3 kms", but some 3 kms it was!  The walk into the Valley of Flowers from Ghangaria, while not in the league of our previous day's walk, was definitely not a stroll in the park!

But every moment was beeeyoutiful!!  No mule dung, very few people, mist, rushing water, imposing stonefaces, a mind boggling collection of flowers, and of course the company of eleven wonderful people, actually twelve including Rajneesh our guide for the day.

Rajneesh knows the Japanese names for all the flowers, (the Jap tourists come in droves), and soon my head was reeling with Liguleria, Rhubarb, Selinum, Anemone, poisonous, medicinal, weed....

That was where we were headed

To reach the path to the Valley, one has to go through Ghangaria town, which let me tell you is no fun.

The path through town is completely uphill (at 60 degrees according to me!), replete with mules and their dung.  The rains had converted everything into a brown slush, and horse flies were having a field day!!

The path levels off through the town, which has a gurudwara, a few lodges, some restaurants and a few souvenir shops.

You cross through the town, then the cement path ascends steeply, and there's a culvert over a rushing river.  I think the Lakshman Ganga river is met by the Pushpavathi river here.  The Pushapavati river comes gushing down the valley of flowers.

There is a fork then, the left one on to the Valley and the straight one through to Hemkund.

Wild asters distracted me, even before we reached the park gates!

Not great English, but well said DFO!

We entered the gates of the Valley sanctuary and immediately the whole ambience changed for me.  No mules, so hurray! It just became cleaner, greener, quieter, and there were flowers everywhere!!

We were joined by our guide Rajneesh and another Indian family from somewhere or the other.  They had a little girl who was being carried by the porter in one those baskets they sling on their backs.  She was a chirpy little thing and walked and rode in her basket alternatively!

This was the path in the beginning, lush trees on either side and all sorts of exotic flowers.

  We dawdled, took photos and delayed our progress to the Valley!

This glacier could be crossed las month.  You can see the walking path pressed out on the ice.  The summer remperatures had caused the centre to melt and crack, and so we had to go further up in order to cross over to the other side.

So we crossed here.  Where the water was flowing, but the flow was slow enough so that we could cross it.  Abhimanyu can be seen on the other side waiting for us, as we crossed with the help of Prem.  When we returned, the water levels were much higher, and this was the reason that Abhimanyu did not want to delay our return from the Valley.

A toadstool garden!  The area is so moist and green and amazing!

Large conifers, mist, crisp air, good company.  I was in paradise on earth.

The famous blue poppies

We were not yet in the Valley proper, but it was already heaven on earth.  I can't describe the joy in my heart that day.

Wherever I looked, the sights were amazing.  I could not get enough of the flowers, the green leaves, the dew drops on petals, the calls of the laughing thrush and rose finches, the moss on tree trunks, the rushing river water, that huge and silent mountain face.

And yet lurking under this scenic peacefulness was the raw forces of nature.  One cloud burst was all it would have taken to make this absolutely idyllic day of mine very nasty.

It is this reality that keeps people like Abhimanyu respectful and cautious of nature, urging us to take care, not displaying bravado.

One false step in some of those places and any one of us could have been in trouble from a sprained ankle to much much worse.

But that day was ours, and despite the drizzle that came down once we reached the Valley, it was all that we could ask for.

The Pushpavati, as we crossed it.  This time, on a proper bridge!

All along until we reached the Valley we saw this rock face, in and out of the mist and clouds, on the other side of the river.

A view of the path.  Still not yet there!

At the base of the rock face was this beautiful meadow, with remnants of the frozen river.  The meadow had a hint of yellow, and probably would be a riot of yellow a fortnight later.

You can see the path on the left, winding into the distance.  The rocks in the foreground are part of a rockfall that seemed quite recent.

Around the bend and we reached this point, the last crossing over this asbestos sheet and into the Valley!! 

Blue Himalayan balsam everwhere! The stony path, on which you are expected to stay, is on the right.

The "rock" under which we had our aloo parathas for lunch.  This seems to be a standard resting point for visitors.  Met another group from Mumbai, and some assorted foreigners.  That's all the visitors to the valley there were.  Abhimanyu said that many visitors return from here, becaue by the time they reach here, it's time to head back.  We had a ittle more time to push on.

Selinum in the foreground, another common flower

Everyone went crazy with their cameras!  Thanks to digital technology!! And we discovered Rajneesh's phtography skills as well!

The mist rolled in and out!

How many varieties can you spot?  No close-ups in this post.  The flowers need another post!

We got as far as this, and then had to head back, after seeing the lady's slipper orchid, rhododendron bushes and the cobra lily.  Those pics next time.

We seriously considered holing out under the rock and spending the night there!!  

The drizzle started as we headed back, and this was my last picture as we headed back, and I put the camera away, resolutely.

On our return, the mist and drizzle reduced visibility, and some people who had still not made it into the valley, were turning back.  Can you imagine coming all the way, and not getting even a glimpse of the magical Valley?

See the complete set of flowers here


My day in Ghangaria