Miracle or Happenstance: An unforgettable trip to char dham(part 1)

It was the peak season for char dham Yatra. I was traveling with my parents. After the pleasant visit to Yamunotri and Gangotri, we were headed towards Kedarnath. My parents denied to trek towards Gangotri glacier, which was 13 kms from Gangotri temple????. So we started from Gangotri at 3 p.m by the private taxi that we hired from Rishikesh. The roads of char dham Yatra are particularly dangerous; one because the roads are very narrow, and two because of frequent landslides.As it was the month of june, the rain fall was also added difficulty. The distance of Kedarnath from Gangotri was around 335 kms. Fortunately, there wasn't much traffic on the way, but there was heavy rainfall. The scenic beauty during journey was mind blowing. The ghat road journey is accompanied by many mountains around and river Ganga following you throughout the way????. There are chances of getting travel sickness due to altitude and sharp turns, but you will be distracted by the natural beauty of Himalayas. This journey will add up to your life times experience. Due to rain there were many waterfalls running out through the mountains.

We reached Sonprayag at around 9:30 p.m. Sonprayag is 5km below the Gaurikund (Gaurikund is like the base camp for reaching Kedarnath, it is 14 km below Kedarnath temple). At Sonprayag it is ensured that traffic goes in one direction only. There's a fatak(gate) to ensure that.

There was so much traffic at Sonprayag that it took 2 hours to reach Gaurikund. So, we reached Gaurikund at 11:30 p.m. and we all were tired as hell due to travelling and rain.

There was a surprise waiting for us at Gaurikund. Actually, we didn't booked hotel online as we thought we would get accomodation on the spot.

Oops! Wrong decision????.

There were no rooms available in Gaurikund. Every hotels, homestays and guesthouses were full(the reason of the rush was the strike of mule owners few days back). The temperature was freezing us, it was around 2°Celsius; and I was sitting on roadside with my family. The taxi driver also left us on our own because he had to find the parking place for taxi.

My brother went in search of rooms once again, to try out luck. Many people were sleeping on footpaths. My mother started chanting prayers in the hope that prayers will help us in getting a room.

Viola! My brotha found a safe place to stay. We stayed in the corridor of a guesthouse. The owner provided us with blankets and mattresses(a blanket and a mattress on rent for worth rupees 500). In all this chaotics the clock ran at 1 a.m..

#TripotoTakeMeToHampta