Fwd: Valley of Flowers - My recent Trekking Destination

[Ravindra Apte]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ravindra Apte <ravind...@gmail.com>
Date: 16 August 2016 at 15:16
Subject: Valley of Flowers - My recent Trekking Destination
To: Surendra Thakurdesai <suren...@gmail.com>, Vinay Joshi <murd...@gmail.com>, Ravi Savdekar <ravisa...@gmail.com>, Kedar Kulkarni <kedarak...@gmail.com>, gogoi mousumi <mousu...@gmail.com>, anup sarmah <anups...@gmail.com>, Satya Ranjan Goswami <gosw...@gmail.com>, vijay swami <vijayar...@gmail.com>, Mohan HirabaiHiralal <moh...@gmail.com>, Prashant Mahamuni <mapr...@gmail.com>, Ninad Raote <nin...@gmail.com>, Vandana Jogalekar <jogaleka...@gmail.com>, Gajanan Vaidya <rvai...@gmail.com>, Kalyani Katariya <kalyani.k...@gmail.com>, Vinayak Kolvankar <vkolv...@yahoo.com>, Hemant Kolhatkar <Hemant.k...@gmail.com>, Sudhir Jain <jain.s...@gmail.com>, Vivek Joglekar <vbjog...@gmail.com>, Bhushan Kulkarni <kbh...@gmail.com>, ravindra wadaskar <raviwa...@yahoo.co.in>, RAVI PARKASH <ravi...@yahoo.com>, Mukesh Maiseri <mukesh...@gmail.com>, Nitin Bodhale <bodhal...@gmail.com>, deb banerjee <deb_ba...@rediffmail.com>, nagshee <sree_...@yahoo.co.in>, Shirish Agarkar <sbag...@gmail.com>, Anand Ghare <abg...@yahoo.com>, Aditya Ponkshe <ponkshe...@gmail.com>, Madan Joshi <mad...@gmail.com>, Madhura Ranade <ranade...@yahoo.com>, k marballi <krmar...@yahoo.com>, pravin paigude <pravin....@gmail.com>, pravinprayag <prayag...@gmail.com>, Gauri Mahabal <dr.gaur...@gmail.com>

Hi,

July and August are the months for visiting the valley of flowers in full bloom. But these are the months of heavy rains in the region of Uttarakhand. This year the monsoon was severe in Uttarakhand and many regions were cut off due to land slides. But we took a chance and four of us trekked to Valley of Flowers.

This valley was considered as the garden of Gods and protected by gandharvs. It was a sacred place and hence rarely visited by locals. The valley came into lime light in 1931, when Frank Smythe, a British mountaineer entered this valley by crossing the Bhundar Khal or the Laxman Pass, on his way back from Kamet expedition. He wrote a monograph on the flowers in the valley. In 1939 a scientific expedition was undertaken by Miss Joan Margaret Legge. Today it is much visited place by nature lovers. We were lucky to have two sunny days in the valley. 

To reach the valley one has to trek from Ghangharia,  the base camp for the valley. After climbing through the narrow gorge and skirting the major landslide of the past, one enters the valley. Through out the climb one come across wild flowers, their abundance and variety increases as you enter the valley. The valley is wide open and gently slopping up for more than five kilometers. Compared to the climb of valley the trek to Hemkund is much steeper. The gurudwara at the glacier lake is of recent origin, from early twentieth century. It is said that the Sikh Guru Govindsingh meditated on the shores of lake in seventeenth century and had enlightenment. Earlier the lake was known as Lokpal or Laxman Lake. The stream flowing out of the lake is called Laxman Ganga and it joins the Alaknanda at Govind Ghat, which was earlier known as Laxman Prayag.  

The Laxman Temple at the lake shore is unique. It has the statue of Laxman and is flanked by statues of Urmila and Shesh. I don't know any other temple dedicated to Laxman. In Himachal you come across temples dedicated to Duryodhana and Hidimba. There is a Ravana temple in UP. As per the legend, in the Lanka war when Laxman fell unconscious he was flown to the lake side and treated with sanjeevani. 

After the valley trek, we visited Chopta. The forest of Chopta is called magpie forest. Magpies are found here in large numbers. The forest is alive with birds. It has rolling meadows on the other side of the range. Tungnath is the highest Kedar (Shiva Temple) out of the Panch Kedars. We climbed through the rains. 

On the way back we spent two days in Haridwar. The upper Ganges canal takes of form Haridwar. It is a work dating from Mughal era. The canal flows between the Ganges and Yamuna rivers. The head work was improved in 1853 by British Raj. Haridwar was over flowing of Shiva devotees on their kavad yatra. It was an experience to observe people from all walks of life, but mostly from rural areas to gather on the yatra. 

On the whole we had an interesting trekking experience!

Here is a link to the video on the trek.

Call of Valley of Flowers

Ravindra Apte