Valley Of Flowers & Hemkund Trek

The Valley Of Flowers (VOF)

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon when I suddenly got this WhatsApp ping from my desk mate at work. “Do you wanna go for the Valley of Flowers trek?’  O boy, did I! Now, I’m not exactly one of those people who keep a religious bucket list at the top of their drawer but this particular UNESCO heritage site has been on my mind ever since my college days. Who can resist the beckon of lush green undulating meadows adorned with pretty flowers and low hanging misty cloud?

Outside the Jolly Grant Airport, Dehradun

My friend, MD and I booked the trek with Indiahikes. My previous trek experience with Indiahikes was so great, that I did not look anywhere else. Now if you are going with Indiahikes, they ask you to run 5Km along with some exercises to build up your fitness. With my 9hours at work and a freakish 5 hours of commute, I was not getting much sleep and with no proper rest, I was not being regular in the exercise department. I managed to do a few runs as needed for the fitness proof. However, to add a cherry on top, I got fever just 5days before the trek. MD was amazing trying to be positive all the time and in 5 days’ time, we found ourselves sharing a nervous laugh at the airport. 

Prep & Indulgence before the trek

It was MD’s first trek and probably the first week of her life without any non-veg food and no drinks. Therefore, she made it a point to fill her tummy with chicken noodles and a cocktail before we flew to Rishikesh for the adventure ahead.

Pretty decor at Zostel, Rishikesh

In Rishikesh, we stayed the night at Zostel (https://www.zostel.com/) where we happened to meet few others from our trek group. The ambience at the rooftop was very casual and relaxed. There was a local guy who played his guitar and sang songs to make the evening even more chilled out.

On the way up from Govindghat to Ghangria

The next day was a long drive to Govindghat. After crossing the five Prayags of Uttarakhand – Devaprayag, Rudraprayag, KarnaPrayag, NandaPrayag and VishnuPrayag, we passed by Chamoli and arrived at Govindghat. It was hot and we were covered in layers of dust from the roadwork on the way up. We were staying in a lodge here. After freshening up quickly and deciding to ignore the dusty buns of hair at the top of our head, we went for some tea and fodder. 

Chunk of ice at distance, just before reaching Ghangria

By this time, we came to know more or less everyone in our group who came for the trek and got introduced to our trek leader, Ashish and our trek guides, Deepraj Bhaiya and Sohan Bhai. Things were starting to roll.

Buck up !

The next morning we started our ‘walk’. I remember this was how one of our earlier trek guides would refer to the treks, ‘Let’s go for some morning walk, Jawaano!’ The walk from Govindghat to Ghangria was through a deep green forest with laid out path made of wide steps with stones. 

Soak it all in..

There were a lot of people in this path and also a hellish lot of mules. The amount of horseshit we saw in this climb can count for a lifetime! It was a long climb with a gradual ascent and a perfect green canopy. It was drizzling most of the time and we had our rain gear on. I was wearing a poncho and I don’t know about others but I think I looked a bit like Darth Vader from Star Wars! 

The Darth Vader poncho

As we continued to climb up, strangers became friends. There were people in our trek group from different backgrounds with different interest, all strung together by the common love for mountains.

The Valley

One of our friends was a writer by hobby and did a little bit of photography. His favorite line was ‘There are two types of photographers in the world..’ and then he would establish how he is the second type (Don’t worry, I’m not going to give it all out! :D ). Two of our friends (they were cousins) were mad about photography with all their gear and angles. Some tourist on the way apparently mistook one of them as a South African explorer. There were people from a military background with loads of army stories to tell, entrepreneurs with their own business setups, old school friends re-united on the trek and last but not the least, the mad hatters with whom I shared the room for the next 5days. A big shout out to Room No. 204!

Oh so pretty!

We were five girls in that room. There was one girl who was originally from North Kolkata but has travelled all the way from Singapore to visit Hemkund Saheb. She’s a big believer in God but has her own funny ways. There were two other girls from Mumbai, one of whom had the loudest laugh I have ever heard in my life! The other one was an artist by her side profession. Me and my friend joined them. And I should mention, my friend, MD is no less funny than the rest of the bunch. One night, we had this flickering bulb that kept glowing even after we had switched it off, probably due to some short circuit. MD got so spooked out that she gave a big jump to get in right between me and the other girl and didn't move all night. Every night, we would talk some and then laugh a lot for weird, silly reasons and every next morning, we would hear remarks from our neighboring rooms, like, ‘Guys do you ever sleep? What the hell you guys do? What’s so funny?’ Well, just us together, I guess.

Amazing climb in an amazing weather

The first day’s climb took us to Ghangria, at about 9000ft. On the way, we stopped for some hot lunch and man! Rice & Daal had never tasted better! We were a bit cold because of the rain and also sweaty because of all the gear. By the time we arrived at Ghangria, everything was soaking wet with the rain and the sweat. It was a long day and as always, we were greeted with a fun cool-down exercise and some yummy snacks by the Indiahikes team.

Lost soul

The food had been delicious per usual Indiahikes standard. And the variety was also worth noting! We had rice, daal, lauki, gobhi, pasta, noodles, popcorn, jalebi, gulab jamun, paratha and what not! Gulab Jamun was my personal favorite and I loved the exchange of pranks we would have at the food counters, especially with Deepraj Bhai. 

The next morning, we were up and ready to move by 6:30am. We had very early starts every day of the week. The weather could turn at any time and the trek guides wanted us to make the most of the daylight. It was a rush rush routine every morning. Freshen up, have your tea, gobble down your breakfast, fill up water bottles, get your backpack, do a quick warm up and then Go!

Getting foggy in the late afternoon, VOF

We were all very excited for the Valley of Flowers day. I know I was! VOF was at about 11,000ft and the climb here was narrow, steep, and very rocky. We were climbing up by a waterfall, through a canopy of cosy green forest and suddenly it opened up to this view of lush green valleys in front. What a view! The heart leaped up and wanted to run to the valley. We crossed streams of water, saw a frozen glacier, admired the many pretty flowers and finally had a rest under a big boulder. 

Pretty flowers all around.

The weather was perfect! It wasn’t raining as expected. We had a little sunny luck by our side with occasional drizzles. Sohan Bhai said, this smell of flowers in the air could get you very hungry and you may even get a headache if you’re not used to it. And boy, was I hungry.

Pic courtesy : Venu

We had packed lunch that day. Even after having my lunch, I had to have mouthful of dry fruits and nuts to keep me going. Towards the end of the day, I even got a tingling headache. I was worried if it was AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness) but after getting back and having hot tea and water, the headache was gone. In the valley, I couldn't count the number of variety of flowers we saw. 

Frame too small to capture them all!

My favorite was the blue poppy and a yellow flower (I forgot the name now) that looked like a bunch of entangled curly hair or Maggie strings. We couldn’t see any flower carpet as such but the greenness of the valley and scattered flowers make up for it anyday. I love green. It has such a zing about it.

The Green Zing ! Pic courtesy : Vinay

We went into the valley by a stream and sat there, mesmerized by the beauty around. Around 2'o clock in the afternoon, we started to head back. The mist and the fog had started to set in. It was uncanny to see the big drops and peaks disappear before us behind the white thick fog. The entire valley started to hide its green zest behind the mystic magical clouds. 

Sometimes the Sun, sometimes the Fog..

The descent from the valley was not easy. The steep descent, loose rocks and slippery surfaces threw quite a challenge to my already damaged knees. My knees are still not completely back even after a year now (I doubt if it ever will) but I’m just so grateful that I wore kneecaps, especially for this descent. Wear kneecaps - Top tip if you have weak knees and going for a rocky climb & descent. 

We were back with sore calves and quads. A local ‘massage wala Bhaiyya’ came in handy for many when they relieved themselves with a deep foot massage. We indulged ourselves more with some hot gulab jamuns from the local shop.

On the way up to Hemkund Sahib

The next day, when we started for Hemkund Sahid at the weeny hours in the morning, my calf muscles cried out loud. Oh man! Today’s gonna be difficult.

During the descent from Hemkund

The climb up to Hemkund was steeper compared to VOF but the path wasn’t as rocky. It was a well laid out path. However, with those tired legs, nothing felt any easier. The weather and view was even brighter today. Blue sky, green mountains, white fluffy cloud, shinning glacier, and sparkling streams of water – well, that sums it up! 

Steep climb up to Hemkund

It was a longer climb today and we weren’t allowed as many pit stops. We stopped to take photos and then kept going. The last bit of the ascent was the toughest.

The final push!

We could see a never-ending series of stairs in front. We stopped right at the foot of where the steps started, had some food, took a deep breath and started to climb. Ashish told us there were around 900 steps. But, all we could see was literally ‘stairway to heaven’. 

'Stairway to Heaven' - Pic courtesy : Venu

We could see few steps in front and then it would go out of sight, as if we were climbing up to the sky. MD and I started climbing the steps together but probably a tad selfishly, I kept going per my rhythm. It just felt 100 folds difficult to break the pace. I did check and saw she way okay. We both found people at our sides who kept cheering us and lo behold! There it was! - The gateway to Hemkund Saheb. 

Hemkund, at the top.

We made it! Or rather, my poor calf muscles made it. The lake at the top beside the Gurudwara was heavenly. It was surrounded by snowy peaks all around with their clear reflections on the water in the lake. We took off our shoes and dipped our feet in the cold water. It felt like pure bliss. We went into the gurudrawa and a Lakshmi temple beside it and then walked around the place barefoot. It was such a relief to let the toes breathe some fresh air. We had ‘Daal Khichdi’ and tea at the langar. I have to admit, that was the best Daal Khichdi ever in my life. After spending couple of hours at the top, we started the long climb down.

Tea at the Langar

After doing both VOF and Hemkund, it was all descent for us. Easy, lighthearted climbs down gave us ample opportunities to stop, chat, have paratha (makkhan laga ke), laugh and make fun of each other. Quite evidently, we 5 girls from Room no.204 were the last to get down to our base at Govindghat.

Mana Village

Our trek came to an end but our trip wasn’t over yet. Since we had enough time to ourselves, we drove to Badrinath temple and the Mana village, which is the last village in India on the Indo-Chinese border. The Mana Village was a damn pretty sight. It was a cutesy little mountain village with a beautiful landscape to behold. The paths inside the village were steep and it took us to the top inside an ancient cave. Mythology goes that this is where Mahabharata was written. It is a picture of serenity from the top.

Mana again.

From Mana, we drove to Badrinath and timed it perfectly for the evening prayer. There was not much crowd (Thank God for that!), given the time of the year. Whilst my friends went inside the temple to watch ‘Aarti’, I hunched from the outside balcony, took a sneak-peak into the temple and a good look at the place they do ‘Havan’ & ‘Homa’. We bought some ‘laddu’ and got back to our cars, pleasantly happy with ourselves.

On the way back from Badrinath

It was some 4KM from our lodge that our car stopped in the middle of nowhere. After a brief stop for about 15mins, we came to know there had been a landslide just in front of us. We were just lucky by few seconds that we weren’t caught in the direct landslide. We were told we would have to cross this zone on foot. This was now the real trek. It was late in the afternoon and light was already fading out. I luckily had my head light with me. I put that on. The locals guided us through a narrow path that climbed down from the road to the river. The loose soil had no grip and we were on our fours climbing down. Once down by the river, there were big boulders and rocks to cross. It was a 30mins of silent maneuver. After we crossed the landslide area, we got in the cars that were waiting for us at the other end and drove back. Phew! That was close! The Indiahikes team were amazing in arranging the people and cars promptly and guiding us, holding our hands and helping us cross the red zone.

Cheers at the end!

All is well that ends well. And this was swell! The exhilarating trek ending with a drive to the serene village and temple and lastly, a lifesaving adventure topped with some fun-crazy friends - memories of a lifetime. Last but not the least, when I came back in Rishikesh and finally washed my dirt-full of hair after a week, I think I just learnt to appreciate the little things in life a bit more!

Beautiful ferns in the valley

Some people have been asking me which trek I liked better between Kedarkantha and Valley of Flowers. Well, I felt Kedarkantha was a bit easier (but it could be because I was more prepared that time) and a lot more serene (because there was no crowd at all). Having said that, they are very different and there is absolutely no comparison between the two in terms of beauty. Whilst Kedarkantha was a Snowy Bliss, VOF had its Green Zing! I love them both.

Can't take enough of the Green!

I haven’t given the details of the routes and the itinerary of VOF & Hemkund as they are very well documented in the Indiahikes website here (if you want to refer) - https://indiahikes.com/valley-of-flowers/.

Till next time..

Well, that's that for now! Hopefully, will be back with more stories of revelling up with Mother Nature soon!