Hi Everyone, This is Pulkit after so long.
Today I'm gonna tell you about the most awaited part of my 2 years-long traveling and how the plan got canceled and we took another way to reach the Destination. So fasten your seat belt for this roller coaster ride.
Last Nov with 7 more friends decided to complete our Panch Kedar Yatra which is a Hindu Pilgrimage journey to 5 different temples belonging to One All Mighty Lord Shiva.
We have completed 4 in two years.
That was the most beautiful and memorable time of my life and the beauty I saw there can't be expressed in words.
Some Memories
The last destination is called Shri Kedarnath Ji .Which is one of the Jyotirlinga amongst 12. We all waited for this very eagerly.
The journey started one evening from our home town at 3 p.m.The first Target was to cross a checkpoint At Rishikesh before entering Mountain City. After 7:30, no one is allowed to drive in the mountains. And we have to wait till 4 a.m.
The distance we needed to cover was 280 km at peak hours of traffic.
We made our cars like a rocket where we got less congestion and crossed the checkpoint at 7:28 p.m.
We were very relaxed and driving at our speed. At 10:30 we had dinner and then resumed our journey but we got a new shock that the gas tank of our car was about to be emptied and there was no Pump nearby. The closest was 60 km so we took the hell out of the vehicle and reached the point but that was also closed so we waited there till 4 in the morning
Camping Outside Gas Pump
and drove around 10 more km to another gas pump and filled our tank.
Our first destination was Badrinath Temple which is a holy shrine of Lord Vishnu.
The last 90 km was a rough patch from the earthquake-prone zone parallel to the Glacial River Alaknanda.
Reached at around 8 in the morning. Temperature was 4°C.
We took a dip in the holy spring of Hot water called Tapt Kund.
The water was boiling and next to it was the cold chilling Alaknanda River flowing from glaciers.
The Circled Part is Tapt Kund
There was a line of around one kilometer to enter the temple.
We didn't have that much time coz we had to move for our main destination.
So some of us took the back gate to enter the temple and some broke the line to enter the temple.
we took the blessing of all Mighty took some photographs and left at noon.
We need to reach the place called Chaumasi which is the base camp of the trek to Kedarnath via the dense forest of the Himalayas.
But to our good luck(sarcastically), we didn't make it because one of our friends started vomiting badly so we needed to slow down. And the night started falling at 6 in the evening. And it started raining and we still had 100 km left. So we decided to find a place to stay for the night and it took us another 4 hours to find that place in the mountains because we were in the middle of the forest.. we stayed there for the night and had our dinner, decided to move further into the morning.
The next morning the view from our hotel was mesmerizing.
We had our breakfast and left. The last 30 km was again the rough patch through the most offbeat yet the most beautiful valleys of India or I say the world.
We were very excited and thrilled but all that vanished in a few seconds as we reached the destination. Coz the forest officials informed us that we needed permission from the District Magistrate to trek through the Forest and for camping and thanks to our good luck the magistrate was on leave and the local guides didn't renew their permission to take the tourist. That broke our 2 years dream in a jiffy.
Stay tuned to know how we reached the temple and took the blessing of God.
NOTE:
ALL THE CONTENT IS MINE UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE
Some of the Pics were taken by my friend and used after his permission.