Valley of Flowers
- 22th of August
- Joshimath - Govindghat - Ghangria
- 40km
The road from Joshimath to Govindghat is one way, and changes direction every three hours or so. It first opens at 6:30 AM, and closes shortly after that. So on the dot, 6:30 AM, we hit the road. We had already checked out, and taken a minimum of luggage, no spares and no gear (well, except our helmets).
I guess we really were early birds, cause the road was practically empty… if it can be called a road at all. Bad is not the word. It was barely more than a dirt track, as frequent landslides had removed all semblance of tarmac. We actually had to ride through a stretch where a landslide was… well… land was sliding. We had to swerve to avoid becoming road kill. Rolling Stones don’t gather moss, but can easily gather bikers, as we learnt the hard way.
Prashi slides on land. Unfortunate choice of words ? I don’t think so.
26km from Joshimath is Govindghat. From Govindghat is a 14km trek to Ghangria. At Ghangria is a fork in the road, the left going to the Valley of Flowers and the right to a place called Hemkund Sahib. Hemkund is a very holy Gurdwara which is open for 4 months in a year - July to October. During these months, huge numbers of Sikhs do a pilgrimage to this place. Ever heard of the madding crowd ? We got to see it. It seemed like half of Punjab was there, turbans, sarson-da-saag and all. All sign boards are written in Gurmukhi, and everybody sported a kirpan.
We found a parking place for the bikes and got onto the route to Ghangria. There are 2 ways to do the 14km trek from Govindghat to Ghangria - Foot and Horseback. I chose the former, but Prashi and Sandy decided to play "Cowboys and Indians".
This town ain’t big enough for the two of us… yaw dirrrty dawg
We are in Garhwal now, and the guest houses are called GMVN (Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam) as opposed to KMVN. We continued our patronage of them to Ghangria. 4 and a half hours later, I trudge into Ghangria, well near the other tip of India from Udupi, I find Prashi and Sandy stuffing their faces with… Masala Dosas. Though not great, they were a very welcome break from our usual Aloo Parathas.
All of us were completely tired from the trip up, including our intrepid horsemen. To quote Sandy, "The horse took my ass". The rest of the day, we just slept, or walked around among the crowds of Sikhs and foreigners who populated Ghangria almost exclusively.
Michael Schumacher rides a horse!!!!!!!!! - Courtesy Prashi
At 300+ kmph, Ghangria is a blur. - Courtesy Prashi