Naveen’s Travel Blog

Valley of Flowers

Thursday, August 28, 2008 – 9:30 pm

August 05, 2008

We are here in Gangaria for the next 2 days. Its our base from which we will trek each day to the Valley of Flowers and Hemkund.

Today, again we were early birds and after the usual dose of Aloo Parathas, all are set to move by 7AM. There was a lot of difference between yesterday and today’s trek. No rucksacks, they were laid to rest in the lodge. We were carrying only our daypack with essentials for trekking. The mood was upbeat as its not going to be any tough and everyone was looking forward to this mystic land: Valley of Flowers.

Uphill from Gangaria, the path diverges into two, the one leading to the left halts in a checkpost to the Valley of Flowers. The main valley is reached by a 3km ascending trek along a jungle path, which follows the course of Pushpawati river. At Gangaria, the Pushpawati river merges with Lakshman Ganga river which comes from Hemkund.

The Valley of Flowers is nestled in the high altitudes of West Himalayas and famous for its rich and diverse alphine flora. Sprawled with meadows of beautiful flowers, rare medicinal plants, endangered animals and birds, it was protected as a National Park of India since 1982 and inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1988. The pathway through the main valley stretches to about 5km but the park itself is spread around 87.5 sq km. Throughout most of the year, the valley is covered under deep snow and is inaccessible. Only from June to October its open when the snow had melted and the valley awakes with the monsoon rains to a wonderful mass flowering of the landscape.

Gathering at the checkpost leading to the National park, we get a briefing from Sunand on our responsibility to be sensitive to this protected zone and environment. We take a good look at the maps and take snaps of our leading team….

Trekking organizers of IQUEST India, (from left): Sunand, Deepak, Jagadish and Tarzan.

I was snapping a lot of photos with people that i was barely covering any distance. And timely, Deepak reminded me that we got still 3kms to climb and i got to keep moving. The atmosphere was cool, humid and our trail was shaded with a lush forest.

We crossed the bridge across the Pushpawati river which was flowing fiercely wild. Thankfully no mules were permitted into the park, so the paths were clean, uncontaminated and smells refreshingly good. If someone wants to be carried the only way was to use porters who carry people in a wooden basket strapped to their backs.

As we progress further, the path gets narrow and the slopes of Pushpawati gets deeper. With more steeper climbs, i ran out of breath quite quickly and sweat profusely. But unlike yesterday there was no pains, no strains, no cramps. The only unease was i’m mostly alone and my pace of walk doesn’t match with anyone. I was slow for the faster ones and fast for the slower ones. And also i take innumerable breaks which was not the case with many. However, i was too happy to be able to make this trekking and left all other botherings away.

At about 1.6km we get a distant glimpse of the valley. My goodness, what can i say:

who laid this green carpet between the folds of mountains

who puffed away these smoky clouds making them drift halfway

who dribbled the crystal streams from cracks of slopes

who light the whole canvas revealing Sun’s rays in transparent shades

who did it,…

Possibly to highlight us the perils that come with beauty, we came across a landslide. We had to literally crawl across this rocky mess to continue.

Shortly afterwards, i saw for the first time with my eyes, a glacier! But its too far down to be reached and almost in thinner form melting away with the river.

The trail turned with folds of mountains, at about 2.2 km, i came into view of my another first, the snow-capped peaks of Himalayas, possibly: Mt.Rataban (6126m). The highest point of the valley was Mt.Gauri Parbat (6590m).

Finally we reach a stream whose bridge is still being built and we crossed it using a make-shift bridge made of metal sheets and wooden planks.

Voila! Here we are at the entrance of the main valley at an altitude of 3660m..!

Well before this valley is known to the outside world, the locals know it as the Bhyundar Valley, the playground of fairies and nymphs. Several legends was associated with it, the popular one being from the historic epic - Ramayana, that Hanuman collected the Sanjeevani herb from this place. In 1931 Frank Smyth, a English man accidentally discovered the place when returning from a mountaineering expedition to Mt.Kamet. He wrote a book naming it as “The Valley of Flowers”, which exposed the place internationally and brought its popular fame.

A big rock sits near the entrance to the main valley. And that was Vijay and Subash on top of it. The path snakes across almost a flat terrain with cobbled stones and shrubs sometimes as high as a man were flanking on both sides with colorful flowers. Mind it, its not a plantation but see how well it seems to be landscaped across the vast plains.

The flowers were mostly tiny, paper thin and without much fragrance. Obviously many were disappointed, coming from Bangalore, the Flower shows of the city or even their rooftop gardens or balcony flowerpots would have had more voluminous and fragrant flowers.

I had known that it will be like this in nature and in the high alpine zone. So it wasn’t any disappointment, infact i was looking forward to it very much. I think most of the women, all photo enthusiasts and nature minded people liked it. But the hardy trekkers dismissed them and some of them didn’t even pause to look closely. They declared that all are same wild papers and fervently finished they trekking to the end and returned quickly to spread a disappointing news to all the slow trekkers who had just reached the valley.

Unmindful of the hanging rumour, i walked across cheerfully and what a paradise it is for macro photography. If one explores closely, they can find several unseen tiny flowers and insects. Its beauty is only for the eyes of someone who can appreciate it. I was told that the color of the valley would change frequently in a matter of few days depending on the bloom of certain species of plants. So some signs erected near the plants made no sense because their season had finished already.

Only a careful eye, could find a unique flower hidden somewhere distant. Mostly a closeup was difficult and i didn’t step out of the path for fear of damaging the plants.

At farther end of the plains, there was a memorial for Miss Joan Margaret Legge, a botanist who had visited the valley in 1939 after reading Frank’s book. She worked to collect specimens of plant species but unfortunately slipped and fell to her death. A memorial had been erected in her memory at the site of her burial by her sister who came to India later.

Eventhough i was not tired, due to mounting confusion of our group timings to return, i had to retreat without visiting the memorial and going any further. Its a pity that i spend only 3 hrs in the main valley but atleast it was in a very good clear weather. By the time that we returned to the big rock at the entrance and finished our packed lunch of pooris, the drizzling had started for the day. Wrapping in rain suits, i started the climb down. Bye bye Valley of Flowers!

This is the first time during our trekking, that we were climbing down and surprisingly i found that to be quite easy. So easy, that i couldn’t do anything except a rapid roll down along the trail. Except to slow and restrain during the turns and when crossing people, i couldn’t decrease the momentum at all. I had become a Rolling Stone!

Later i found that it wasn’t easy for many others who have did their climbs easily. And the credit goes entirely to my trekking shoes which had thick rubber soles cushioning the effect of landing hard on the stones and protecting my knees from strain. Well, that was atleast one preparation that i did for the trekking and the investment worked!

When the drizzles emptied, i took several macro photos of the flowers on the lower valley. Considering that there were several of them, i will make a separate post for the flowers.

Crossing the checkpost, i tumbled down to Gangaria, to the dormitory and there the dutiful massager was just waiting for me. After the foot massage and a bit of rest, we went around the little village and had some hot Gulabjamuns and Onion pakoras. The day couldn’t be any better than it was…