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.
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