Nandikund Trek : Quest through the Garhwal Himalaya ( Bansinarayan to Joshimath )

BansiNarayan to Urugam to Joshimath

64.          Today the was last day of the trek, as we would descend and reach Urugam Village from where we would take a local transport to Joshimath. I woke up by 530 am and witnessed a splendid sunrise and spent the next hour clicking pics, the first rays of the oncoming sun directly falls into the inner sanctum of Bansinarayan temple and is a wondrous sight to see.

65.          By eight we were on the move and the descent is quite rapid and brutal as the mountain soil is soft and the decent steep hence it takes a toll on the knees. By eleven we were at Urugam village, from where Umeid and myself went to visit Kalpeswar Ji which is one of the five Paanch Kedars and around 3 kms walking distance.

66.          By late afternoon after a sumptuous lunch we booked a jeep which deposited us in Joshimath by evening. Dinner was done in a small dhaba where I had eaten on my previous visit hence we went to the same place. The team was quite relaxed and they went for shopping with the hard earned money of the trek. I wandered on the streets of Joshimath suddenly surrounded by crowds of people and vehicular taxis and the pending messages and notifications on the mobile, something was definitely amiss. The mountains were calling me back ….

67.          The quest was finally over and I had done my first major and serious trek of my life and that too I had chosen one of the more challenging ones, but then as said by my head porter, it had nothing to do with me .. I was called by the Himalaya and because the call had come ... I was able to do it ... it was as simple as that. I for one believe what he said and I wait for my next call to once again go back into the land where Gods chose to stay.

68.          Few lines came to me as I sat in the evening looking at the sun going down and the lights in the valley lighting up … it said, “The mountain does not care whether we are here or not, it does not compete with us and is not burdened with hopes and dreams. Everything it means to us is what we bring to it ... it is only what the mountain reveals to us that has any lasting value.”

 

The A Team