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.