A Road trip to Heaven - Kedarnath & Tungnath

The much awaited trip began on Wednesday when we started early at 5:30 am with our journey partners the Royal Enfield Bullets.

We started from our home in Ghaziabad and aimed to reach Haridwar, one of the 7 holiest places to Hindus by 9:30 am. We took a short break for breakfast near muzaffarnagar at shiva tourist dhaba,one of the best one out there. Wind and light rain always turns out to be an awesome combination for outings. With that we managed to reach Haridwar by our estimated time.

After taking a dip in holy ganga we resumed our trip towards Devprayag. The roads are smooth from here, thanks to the Char Dham Project, which made us reach Devprayag by 1 pm. After having lunch we moved towards Guptakashi. It is known for its ancient Vishwanath Temple dedicated to the god Shiva, which is similar to the one in Varanasi.

Roads were not that comfortable after srinagar due to the construction of char dham highway however the views are damn awesome which is one of the plus points when it comes to road trips, you get to see the real beauty. So at last after many hiccups we managed to reach Guptakashi by 7:30 pm. as it was dark so we opted to stay in a place 25 km drive towards Sonprayag from Guptakashi.

When it comes to road trips that on your 2-wheels, proper rest is always a must thing to do to enjoy the journey at fullest. We did the same.

After having a cold night we woke up early in the morning to proceed with our trip. Had a cup of tea and fired up our Bullets and left Guptakashi to move ahead towards Sonprayag. Had a great experience riding on muddy roads after rain.

After around 1.5 hrs of ride we reached Sonprayag, parked our bullets and had breakfast. Then we registered ourselves at the Kedarnath registration counter which is by the way must thing to do. We then hired a shared taxi to Gaurikund that is around 5 km from Sonprayag. From there our 16 km trek towards kedarnath started around 11:30 by then.

Never thought it was going to be a magical trek with beautiful views of waterfalls, clouds, mountains and river, all at the same time. One of the best example of incredible India. The weather was nice with light rain showers quite a few times during the journey. So its always a nice idea to carry raincoat in your trekking kit.

After a long and tiring trek we reached Kedarnath dham around 7:00 pm and it is really hard to describe the feeling as it was more than a magical view. You can see yourself surrounded by clouds and mountains and peaceful positive energy.

The time we reached there evening aarti was taking place. So, after freshening up in the guest house near by we rushed for it. It was cold and aarti chants were everywhere, the feel and aura was awesome.

After completion of evening aarti, we roamed around the main temple for sometime and had our dinner as there are only two dhabas dealing huge no. of hungry customers. The temperature came down to 1 degree Celsius, so we headed back to our guest house to take a good long sleep.

A chilled out morning started with the lovely sound of temple bells, we woke up early and after getting ready rushed for the morning prayer in the Kedarnath main temple. The morning was equally beautiful and peacefull like the previous evening. We could see the clouds wandering around us and sneak peek of the mountain tops. The aura was unexplainable which everyone must feel it once in their lifetime.

After the morning prayer we clicked multiple shots and purchased some momentos. Then we started our trek towards Gaurikund. It was a long tiring trek like the previous one but we were equally thrilled as we had to reach Chopta by evening. So it took another 7 hours for us to reach Gaurikund. We took the same shared taxi to Sonprayag and after having our lunch we resumed our trip again towards chopta at 4:30 pm.

Due to the bad road conditions it was almost dark when we reached Ukhimath but chopta was still 29 km short. We chose to continue the journey on our Bullets and after one hour ride in dark and on curvy roads we managed to reach Chopta around 8 pm.

We checked in to the camps and had our tasty dinner at the camp site. After that we chilled around the bonfire till midnight with interesting conversations and slow songs and then rushed to bed as we had to trek towards Tungnath and chadrashila peak in the morning.

It was a cold morning when we woke up and thought to explore the area, so we started walking towards the woods where the views were spectacular. We could see the frozen ice capped peaks all around us.

After that small walk got ready for the Tungnath/Chandrashila trek. After having breakfast we fired our bullet towards the Tungnath trek starting point and again we just lost in the view we were getting from there. We clicked tons of pics and then resumed the trek.

Though it was just a 4 km trek towards Tungnath, it was slightly difficult for us as our feets were still sore due to the Kedarnath trek. The trek route was good it passes through the wildlife reserve with greenery all around.

After 2 hours of treking we reached the Tungnath temple which is at the highest and one of the oldest lord shiva temple. After visiting the temple we continued our terk towards the top i.e. Chandrashila peak. And it took another 45 minutes to reach there and really the all this pain was worth taking. We were at the highest peak of that region and got panoramic view of the great Himalayas. The clouds were beneath us and were playing hide and seek with the mountains.

After spending an hour on the top we rushed back towards chopta as we needed to reach Srinagar by the end of the day. We rided all along the mountains and somehow managed to reach Srinagar by 8pm. After having an exhausting journey, we had dinner and crashed on our beds to sleep.

This was the final day of our trip. We woke up, got ready and started our return journey towards Rishikesh. It was raining a lot that day, but we still continued our journey and reached Rishikesh at 1 pm where we crashed one of our friend's pre-wedding shoot.

After relaxing and having our lunch near the bank of Ganga river, we resumed our journey back to Ghaziabad. It took another 5 hours to reach home by around 7:30 in the evening.

The trip was amazing with lots of new experiences and the most important thing at the end of the day is we fed our souls with adventure and thrill which is all we want. So now lets plan another one😊