The trek to Kedartal

Amidst the hustle and tussle of daily life, and especially students’ life, seldom does one get a chance to take some time off, forget everything that is supposed to be important and get carried away in wilderness. I was lucky enough to get one such chance in the form of the trek to Kedartal. The phantasmagoric journey was an experience that was remarkable in most of the ways a trip could be and brought us in close encounter with the only absolute, perfect and pure thing in the universe – ‘nature’.

Kedartal is a lake situated at an altitude of 4900 metres above MSL, surrounded by snow covered peaks from three sides, which is what makes it a revered destiny for trekkers from India and abroad. It takes a 4 day trek from Gangotri to Kedartal and back. The trek was planned by Himalayan Explorers’ Club, IIT Roorkee, in the mid-sem break of Autumn Semester 2009. 

After packing our bags with the essentials, we – a group of five guys - set forth for our destination. We left Roorkee by 3 am on 26th September and reached Gangotri by 8 pm. We had dinner, talked to local people about the trek, registered with the forest department and booked a guide cum porter. Next morning was the start of our trek. 

On the first day of a standard trek to Kedartal, one is supposed to cover a 9 km stretch to reach the first base camp – Bhojkhadak. A major part of this stretch is very steep with the inclination being more than 45 degrees at times. While climbing these steep slopes, it appeared to me as if God’s idea behind creating mountains was to test man’s strength – both physical and mental, and man keeps on proving his mettle by thrusting back the limits. Anyway, after walking for nearly 5 hours across woods, we reached Bhojkhadak. We set up our tents, had maggi for dinner and tucked inside our sleeping bags.

Camping at Bhojkhadak

A view from Bhojkhadak

Next day, we woke up early, had breakfast and set afoot for the 2^nd day’s trek which was a 7 km long stretch mainly through grasslands. It was a pleasant experience to walk through the red and green grass with the only audible sound being that of our footsteps and of the river Kedarganga, roaring and gushing down the hills. On the way, we witnessed numerous waterfalls which brought down the melted snow from the top of hills. We also saw herds of deers grazing innocently and fearlessly. 

A herd of deers we came across

At places we simply sat down for a while to enjoy and take hold of the spectacular wilderness around us. It was almost mid way when we came across the hardest part of the trek.  Everyone who goes to Kedartal is horrified by that 1.5 km long stretch of loose soil and gravel with a sideward slope of almost 70 degrees. On the upper side of the slope lie rocks of all sizes that keep on rolling down every now and then and take with them everything coming on the way, ultimately plunging into the Kedarganga. Slowly and steadily we moved across the stretch and managed to end up safely to the other side. After that, it took us nearly one more hour to reach to the 2^nd base camp – Kedarkhadak.

Camping at Kedarkhadak

Kedarkhadak is a large plain terrain amidst mountains and witnesses strong winds and very low temperatures running to the left side of zero. Our arrival at Kedarkhadak was marked by a strong snowstorm which was enjoyable for a while but eventually turned out to be too strong for us to stay outside our camps. With passing time, the weather worsened and as our original plan was too tight to accommodate an extra day in case of bad weather, we had to make changes to it, keeping in mind the ration we had. However, the next day started with a bright sunlight and a nice weather.

Sunrise at Kedarkhadak

On the 3^rd day of the trek, we had to go till Kedartal and return to Kedarkharak. The passage is mostly through rocks and snow covered hills with no signs of greenery, not even shrubs. The snow was fresh from last evening’s snowfall and shined brightly under the glare of the strong sunlight of high altitudes. The blue sky and the cool breeze made the environment absolutely refreshing. Nature was prevalent in its purest and most unadulterated form. As we were approaching our destination, the images of Kedartal as I saw on google kept coming to my mind and the thought of going to be present there was overwhelming.

Finally we climbed over the last hill to reach Kedartal – a lake as green and shiny as emerald, stretched across the base of white, glaring, snow covered peaks. The first words that came to my mind, while being held spellbound by the divinity of Kedartal, were the immortal words of Akbar – “If anywhere on earth, there is heaven - it’s here, it’s here, it’s here.” The simple, pure, perfect, serene and divine beauty of Kedartal is too perfect to describe. That beauty can only be felt. And the feeling is remarkably spiritual. It’s the feeling that made Lord Byron write – “I love man no less but nature more…”. And it’s the feeling that made Tolstoy write – “All that is evil in man should disappear on contact with nature, the most direct expression of beauty and goodness.” And hence, for a few moments, I found the world to be a much better place than I had conceived.

And finally - Kedartal

The next day we retreated to Gangotri and later on to Roorkee. I must admit that after the trek, I was not the same person I used to be. Something had changed within me and it changed for good...

Down the memory lane - Rishikesh, the first one

_________
*Cellphone vibrating* ... "Hello"
"Hello Arun, kahaan hai jaldi aa."
"I am with Ashish Sir discussing something."
"Arey come fast to bus stop, we are leaving for Rishikesh."
"KYA!! hum to kal jaane wale they, by the way i don't hear the noise of buses."
"Sale dimag mat lagaa jyada aur aa yahaan jaldi otherwise we are leaving."
_________

That was my conversation with Ravi on one fine evening of Febraury '08 probably 15th or 16th. I knew, they were not at the bus stop, still i left for my room and when i reached there, as expected (and as always), the four of them (they deserve a special mention in my blog) were there, doing what they, rather we, always did - nothing. Well they are Ravi, Shubham, Lalit, and ... wait for it... Arkapol (yes thats a name), my best mates at IIT. An arguement broke out, about Rishikesh being only 60 km away and there being no point in having a night stay over there (with me favouring the arguement and everyone against it), which concluded (expectantly) with the decision that we were leaving.

We reached there by 8 pm, went to Chotiwala, a quite famous restaurant of Rishikesh, had our dinner over there and as suggested by Ravi, we ordered the famous 'thali' of Chotiwala for dinner. The delicious dinner said it all about the restaurant being so famous. We went to a Dharmshala to book our rooms for night stay and then went to the banks of the Ganges.

__________

"So Arun, our idea of night stay sucked na? (sarcastically)"
"Hehe, I didn't know what Rishikesh looked like during night otherwise, you know..."
"So what do you think now?"
"I don't know, like I cant explain. Sitting on a rock at the banks of the unadulterated Ganges at 11 pm, with feet in its icy cold water and body in an air which is as fresh as it can be, with no noise to bother you, with nothing to engage your brain into, witnessing nature so closely, its an experience I have never had before. It can't be described in words. All I can say is thanks for not following my plan, and making me have one of the best nights of my life."
"Yeah even I have never had this kind of experience."
"Lets go back to our room man, that guy said he'll close after 11."
"Arey wait na, he is not going to close it anyway. In fact we should not have booked rooms. We could have stayed on the banks only."
"Yep that would have been nice but we cant stay here the whole night, its cold."
"Whatever, and yes, everyone should wake up by 5:30, we are not going to miss the sunrise. No arguments regarding this point."
...
___________

We woke up by 5:30 in the morning, got fresh, had tea, checked out and went to Ram Jhula to witness the sunrise. Now Ram Jhula is a suspension bridge across the Ganges and there is another one too with the name Laxman Jhula which is more famous but smaller in size. The winds were quite strong and fresh and the view of the sun trying to push its rays beyond the mountains, but the mountains being reluctant to let them go unless the sun reached a particular height was kinda inspiring enough for a poem. All in all, the view of a river flowing between mountains with sun about to rise didn't need beholders eyes' consent to be called as beauty.

the Ram Jhula

the sunrise

After standing there for a while and taking pics, we started to look for a place to have breakfast. There was a restaurant with the name 'Ganges View'. We entered there and to our surprise, we were the only Indians in that restaurant. Probably it was the beautiful view which it provided that made foreigners prefer it. So we settled down there, had some breakfast and were about to leave when a lady asked if she could join us to which we nodded. Her name was Amari, some 40-45 years old, American, and a teacher at American Embassy School of Delhi. We had a nice time chatting with her, discussing plenty of things like places to visit in India, interests, teaching patterns, Bollywood, the (according to her) advance communication system of India over US and other random things. The conversation lasted for nearly two hours after which we parted our ways.

As we were looking for a place to start a random trek, Ravi suddenly saw a quite thin stream of water coming down from a hill. He asked us to go upstream for our trek to which we agreed. Thus we kept on climbing and the stream kept on getting thicker. At places it got difficult for us to climb and at places we almost ran. After a while, no human signs were visible and we were the only ones going up following a stream. We saw an accident hit car lying in the bushes with blood stains on it. We also witnessed miniature landslides at places and that was kinda scary, but still we kept on climbing. The natural beauty was getting better and better and climbing was getting tougher.

After climbing for nearly an hour, we reached a point where we had vertical hills in three directions and the fourth direction being behind us. The few inches wide stream had by now turned into a wide waterfall. The place was so beautiful, so secluded and so natural that it kinda left us all spell bounded. We were yelling like anything at our achievement. Well thats the thing with trekking, what you do is just walk a little bit but once you are at the top, you feel like having conquered the world. You feel a rush of adrenaline, you feel free, you feel fresh and yes, you do feel as if you are high. And if its a random trek, like you dont know anyone else having done it, you feel like you are the only one who have reached there.
Well we stayed there for a while, grabbed some stones and tried to carve our names on rocks, took a bath under the waterfall and clicked some pics. As usual, we regarded ourselves to be the only ones to reach that point and thought man, why don't we give a name to this place. That was when Shubham came up with the acronym SARAL (Shubham, Arkapol, Ravi, Arun, Lalit) and we were like, whoaa thats the word. So we carved SARAL here and there. After sometime, though none of us felt like leaving, we grabbed our stuff and started walking downhill.

the SARAL point

We had some lunch and then left for the R land.

Thats pretty much it about the Rishikesh visit i made 2 years back with its memories still being fresh as dewdrops in my mind but of course, it made me realize a few things. One, the world seems so beautiful when you are high, a statement from which i can draw at least three meanings. Two, the world is just awesome, as in the Discovery ad campaign. Three, it always ends up the way Frost ended - but i had promises to keep and miles to go before i sleep...and miles to go before i sleep...

Intro

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods
There is a rapture on the lonely shore
There is a society where no one intrudes
By the deep sea & music in its roar
I love not man less but nature more.
- Lord Byron

Thus with these (borrowed) words , yours truly too jumps in the blogosphere with his, maybe not very important for you but really very important for him (in fact closest to his heart), accounts of traveling. I have always dreamt of wandering through the suspiciously silent woods, climbing the magnanimously mighty mountains which have always been used in literature to symbolise challenges, taking a dip in the unadulterated Ganges and feeling the tender touch of snowfall on my hands. Well joining IIT Roorkee has been quite fruitful for me in this regard because of its close proximity to some of the most beautiful and natural places in the world. I have had (and am expecting to have) some of the most singular trips after coming to Roorkee. Moreover, I always thought of holding the endless sequence of thoughts, that kept leaking in and jumpimg out of my mind during these ventures, and giving them words but call it my ignorance or vellance or whatever you wish, I never did it. But now I can't stand my own pressure and its this pressure that makes some words leak out of my mind, get scattered on my screen and later on, enter the eyes of the beholders. Regarding the title of the blog, factually its the last track of the legendary Pink Floyd Rock Opera 'The Wall', symbolically it represents what you might have already guessed. Moreover the pic behind the title is of Mansarovar, which is kinda the most important place i wish to visit. Expecting myself to keep the pressure high so that the words keep on leaking, I end up the introductory blog with another set of borrowed words which i like from the core of my heart...

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

- Robert Frost