The heat and humidity of the worst bit of summer have started getting to us, making all of us here eagerly await the onset of monsoon. Even a little downpour would alleviate the scorching days and nights. In another 3 or 4 weeks, the hills of the Western Ghats would get its annual ablution and followed by a new clothing of green.
Then will emerge my
Joshimath to Govindghat & Ghangaria – Day 4
You can go through journeys of earlier days in sequence.
Train journey to Haridwar
Haridwar to Rishikesh and
Rishikesh to Joshimath.
After that grueling, bone breaking bus journey sleep would not come early and when it came, it was difficult to get up early in the morning.
We were told at Joshimath that share-taxis start as early as 6 AM for Govindghat and Badrinath and they are frequent.
We got up as planned, packed and had tea at the only roadside tea cart. It helped us to recover from over groggy state somewhat. We walked to the shared taxi stand that would take us further north and further up.
A view from the taxi stand at Joshimath. I hate those electric wires.
On reaching the place we found that
Have you ever bathed in front of 100s of people with full clothes on? No, I am not talking about taking a dip in any pilgrimage site or any sacred river, but in a dangerous rock falling zone aka Himalayan danger zone where every single person present there prayed for safe journey!
It happened to us during our recent Trip to Uttarakhand. We had completed our Treks to Valley of Flowers and Hemkunt and now wanted to visit Badrinath.
Do you see one wheel of the bus hanging? It was that dangerous to drive.
This was a Monsoon period
It was last weekend of July, rainy season in Maharashtra and we, a group of 11 people (extended family) went to three days trip to Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani. You can read in details about that visit here, here and here. It was my second visit to these small hill stations amidst the heights of the Sahyadris mountains.
Only eighteen kms from Mahabaleshwar, the hill station of Panchgani is no lesser known to tourists. It is a frequented hill resort and is an ideal base for some good trekking, hiking, biking and parasailing (seasonal).
The parasailing takes place at a vast plateau, the second highest in Asia (and 4.5 km long) after the Tibetian plateau and locally known as “Tableland”. More on tableland in another post.
Parasailing consists of a
Venna Lake, Mahabaleshwar While coming back from Panchgani, we stopped at Venna Lake for some boating. It has changed its…
Mahabaleshwar – II The first points we saw were Panchaganga Mandir and Shri Shankar Mandir. Panchaganga Mandir As per the…
All Green in Mahabaleshwar Last weekend of July, people around me were planning a visit to Mahabaleshwar and Panchgani, small…
Last week I happen to visit Rishi Valley School near Madnapalle on a short notice. Madanapalle is in Andhra Pradesh,…
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