Description: It was a adventure come religious trip. I with for 3 of my other friends left from mohali on 9 sep. It was raining all the way right upto Joshimath. It was a long drive some 13 hrs from mohali upto joshimath. We just took two short tea breaks and just had the Allu paranthas which one of our bhabhi had packed for us.
The rooms at Joshimath were reasonable both in price and comfort. The second day we started early for Govind ghat some 30 km from here and we had our breakfast and started our 13 km trek to mid point called govind dham or ghangaria. It was a average trek and it was raining all the way up. We bought some rain suits from local tea stalls(Rs 20/each). It took us some 6-7 hr to reach ghangria. The scenery along the trek has spectacular and since it was raining for the last 7 days already there were many waterfall all along the route. After reaching ghargria we checked into rooms of a govt guest house (GVMN), these rooms were good and cozy. On the third day we started for the final leg that was 6 km trek to Hemkunt. This was a very steep trek and again the rain was pouring like anything and the temperature was some 10 degree Celsius. I reached the top by 2 only which was the time for last ARDASS, after which the gurudwara is locked and all visitors are sent back to ghangria. It was very cold at the top but the hot parshad and Kichri, the only two thing which you get to eat here.
I was back by the evening and was still raining, we could have managed to ride down to Govind ghat on horse backs but one of our team members fell ill, so we stayed back. The next day we started back for govind ghat and reached the base by 2pm , that was a 5 hr trek. After reaching base we took some rest and startedour journey back home, we cae some 150 km down to srinagar, which was our night halt. And the following day we drove back to chandigarh.
The trip was great a one time experience. It was a tough trek for me and all my friends as we all were not in a very fit condition to trek this big distance but we did it. Our leg and shoulders were paining all the way and they will take another week may be to normalize.