Future plans 1st-8th July

Bang on time the rains have started! We are planning on going to nainital (lake) today with trushas dad and brother, stay there for 2days and then go to Corbett Safari Park and hopefully see some tigers. Probably unlikely to update blog until I fly home on 8th.

28th-30th Gaumukh - Uttarakashi

So the next day we woke up early freezing and in pain from our trek. Millys hip was hurting her we think from the rafting as we had to to put our legs in funny positions to stop us falling out, plus we'd walked a long way...

The reason we'd come to Bhojbassa was to see Gaumukh which is a glacier and the start of the Ganga. It was an extra 3 hour trek from Bhojbassa camp. Milly decided that it would be best to rest her hip because at this point we were going to trek the 7 hour journey back to Gangotri as we only had a 2 day pass. As she read on a rock by the ganga I trekked up to Gaumukh with a South African and an old man from the hostel. It was a beautiful day with clear blue skies and spectacular views of the Himalayas. I felt like I didn't want to go back to reality. I reached the top, and scrambled over lots of rocks to get as close to the glacier as I could. From here I filled up a bottle with water from the Ganga which many people believe that if you drink this water you'll live till over 100. What was interesting was whilst speaking to the americans who were studying this water, apparently it has a lot more nitrate and sulpher in it than is safe to drink.

Whilst I was up in the clouds, Milly was making friends with the local policeman, inquiring why they would actually need policemen in a place so desolate.

I got back to camp and met milly and we tried to come up with a plan for getting back. Her hip was still hurting her so whatever happened we were going to take a porter back to carry our bags. The South Africans told us they were going to get horses back so we decided to wait with them and see if any came.

None came after an hour so just as we were about to start our trek back horses came over the hill! It was perfect timing. We waited and arranged a price with them to take us back to Gangotri. It was a completely different experience to the walk there. With more time to enjoy the view, we sat back, tried not to look down and enjoyed the ride. Millys horse was naughty and galloped at innapropriate times, taking the horse man with him and almost sending him flying down the cliff at times. It also decided that instead of taking the bridges it would walk through the fast flowing river and as a result milly got soaked.

By the end of the day we both had pink noses and burnt arms but it was truly worth it. An experience of a lifetime.

That evening we found a place to eat and while we were drinking our chai four Sikh men came in all speaking Panjabi very loudly and staring at milly like she was some strange creature from another planet. She took this opportunity to take one of her 'people' photos. She tried to do it subtley but it didn't work and they all wanted their picture taken.

Uttarakashi

We had a well deserved lie in and woke up at about 8.30. We found our taxi driver and began our descent to Uttarakashi. To my suprise Milly kept her eyes open and out the window! She figured that it would be best to appreciate the view rather than thinking about what could happen....
We stopped at some temples along the way and at one there was a huge Shiva statue which we have no idea how they got it there.

We spent the night in Uttarakashi back to semi reality, watching Spain beat Portugal and Federer getting knocked out of Wimbledon!

The next day we began our journey back to Haridwar. We stopped off at Nachiketa Tal Lake. We had to pay 100rps entry, we were sure the guy in the fake army clothes was making it up but we didnt want to argue. We seemed to be the only ones doing this walk which was understandable as it was up hill and we were in the clouds (literally). We got to the lake and it was pretty surreal. All there was, was a hut, a cow, a temple and a lake...and later we found out there was a hermit in the hut.

We walked around the lake and then just as we were leaving a man came out of the hut, he offered us chai and asked us to come and sit by his fire. Milly crazy kid went inside and i had no option but to follow. To our amazement he started talking to us in English, telling about his life..how he was put in an ashram when he was 7 and since then he has been living in various holy places. Gaumukh (the place we had just been) being one of them. He had been living in this hut for the past 6 years, alone, trying to find out the secrets of birth and death. Milly asked him how old he was and he didn't seem offended. He told us he was 91! Milly told him that she didn't pray and he seemd amazed. He said life without God is no life. He told her to 'pray god'. He also told her to bring her family and that he'd make them chai, breakfast, dinner and blankets, and that it was 'no problem'.

He kept on insisting that we take chai but we had to get back. He took us to a hidden lake and took us round it chanting '[nachiketatal namaho'. We walked back, thanked him and began our journey back down thinking that our day couldn't get any more surreal. On the way down we met some villagers with goats and cows and milly took her standard pictures. We reached the bottom, sad that our adventure was ending and began our journey back home.

26th-27th Gangotri

We decided that whilst we were in North India we had to go to the himalayas somehow so we arranged a 5 day trip up to Gangotri (source of the Ganga).

We started the hellish 7 hour journey, up, down, around the mountains with millys eyes closed the whole way. Crazy local busses were coming at us at all angles, overtaking on blind corners and going at hellish speeds. My head was constantly out the window, as our road followed the Ganga right up into the mountains, it was a beautiful drive. We stopped off at a restaurant and stood for about 5 minutes trying to wake the waiter who was sleeping with a fly on his nose.
We then carried on with the journey and finally (much to millys relief) reached Gangotri at about 5pm, just in time for the evening arti. Again this was very different from Rishikesh and Haridwar aarti. There were fewer people and everyone was wrapped up in colourful blankets. It was mainly the locals who were there as well so there was a lot fewer people. Milly still has her fan base with everyone still wanting to take her pictures. We were walking through Gangotri after our dinner and we happened to see some football on the TV. We had a look and It was England v Germany. We went inside and ordered some chai and watched the match. There were 2 other Germans in there feeling very happy with themselves. We got kicked out with 10 minutes to go so we stood outside watching throug the window with a 'high' guy kissing everyones feet and shouting at the top of his voice in the street behind us. Was an interesting experience.

The next morning we woke up at 6am and started our trek to Bhojbassa. We decided not to take a guide or a porter as we'd heard there was only one way up and you couldn't miss it. So after shaking off all the people who wanted to guide us up we finally reached what we thought was the starting path, only to be told by the guide that we were going the wrong way. We finally got onto the right path and began our ascent. About 100m up we questioned our decision of not needing a porter as the higher we got the harder it was.But we battled through and kept going. The old lady behind us put us to shame as she overtook us and kept going without any breaks.

We almost didn't get through the checkpoint because there was a problem with our permission form, it said I was indian when my passport is British but we paid 100rps extra and got through quickly. The old lady didn't have permission and tried to come in with us but they didn't let her. (only 150 people are allowed up to Gaumukh each day) and only 20 horses.

We then started the 16km trek to our base Bhojbassa. It was a beautiful walk. With steep cliffs each side and the Ganga flowing below. We ran out of water but there were plenty of streams to fill up from. We reached the half way checkpoint and by this point we were shattered. It was hot and our bags seemed to weigh more than when we started and our morale was low as we knew we still had another 8km to go. Each person that we met we asked how long there was to go and the responses didn't help our morale as it always seemed to be 2 hours or 2km away no matter how far we walked. Finally after the last person we'd asked had said 2 hours left we reached our camp in 20 minutes! Indians really don't have any sense of time...

As soon as we reached camp it began to rain so we were glad we'd reached as we'd heard that mud slides could happen. The camp was pretty basic, It was dorm type rooms and no hot or running water. A lady in our room suggested we buy some hot water and it was probably the best 50 rupees i've ever spent. We were glad that we had the thermals, hats and gloves that Sushma aunty gave us as it was freezing. We were at about 4000m in the valley with mountains towering over us. It was a beautiful place.

Whilst we were exploring the camp we saw a man (who we thought must be crazy) as he was dunking his head in the freezing cold river. He came and said hello and introduced himself as the proffessor of a university group from Charlston (US) who researching the Ganga and the way the state uses it to produce electricity. He said to come and join his camp later on for some tea. We took this literally and went along (with 2 other friends that we made at the hostel) and had dinner and tea with the students. Their guide happened to be the person that Millys friend (Emily Parker) told her to look out for! It was pretty surreal, as there was only 40 people in the whole of this camp and we were at the top of a mountain in the middle of literally no where.

23rd-26th Haridwar

Sorry for not updating this for a long time we've had a crazy week. We've been to the aarti in Rishikesh and Haridwar (prayer time by the river). There were thousands of people in Haridwar we could barely see. We had to hold hands so we wouldn't get lost! Rishikesh was beautiful and we sat on the steps by the ganga listening to the music. Rishikesh is like a different world to Delhi. The place is filled with Sadhus, Gurus, Ashrams, Priests and people trying to get closer to God. Haridwar being one of the 7th most holiest places in India is very similar but more crowded and a different atmosphere to Rishikesh.

The day after we went white water rafting on the Ganga. We had to squash about 14 people in a jeep with two on the roof holding on to the raft!! It was a long and winding journey up to the 18km starting point. We had about 5 minutes of safety instructions all in hindi but with actions so we just copied what everyone else was doing and hoped for the best....

It was a beautiful 4 hours, we had towering mountains either side and in between the rapids we jumped out and swam with the current along with the raft. We stopped half way where there was a point where you can buy food and jump off a rock we allowed at least 20 people to do it first before we decided it was safe enough for us to give it a go. We were sad when we reached the finishing point and we wished we could do it every day after that. But the day after we had an adventure planned...