Panch Kedar Trek

Today we pick you up in the morning after breakfast and take on the beautiful drive to Ukhimath and then to Sari. On reaching, we check-in to the hotel and then rest for the remainder of the day. Sari is a peaceful little village. You must take time out to explore it.

Today early morning we start our 1-hour trek to Deoria Tal from Sari to make sure we reach there at the time of sunrise to enjoy the dawn view. After spending enough time captivating the views and taking photos, we trek back to Sari. After that, we drive to Chopta which takes about 2 hours. On reaching Chopta, we firstly check-in to our hotel and then set out to walk around the village. We can do the Chandrashila Summit today itself, but we would rather keep it for sunrise time.

Today, we start our day a little before dawn to enable us to enjoy the dawn from the ridge top. It takes about 2.5 hours to reach the temple of Tungnath and then to the top of the Chandrashila Peak. The summit of Chandrashila peak offers a wide array of some of the popular peaks of the Garhwal Himalayas including the likes of Nanda Devi. After spending enough time to satiate ourselves with the views of the panorama of peaks and surrounding valleys, we head back to Chopta and drive to Ransi. Its a 3 hour drive to Ransi from Chopta.

Today is the starting day of our Nandi Kund - Ghiya Vinayak Pass Trek. We head towards Bantoli from Ransi and its a very scenic trek. The village and religious life of the high altitude villages of Uttrakhand is on display throughout the trek route. Being a popular pilgrimage route, the route is chirpy as well with full of vivid colours and life.

The trek is more or less easier getting steeper at times. We get enough option to have our lunch and little snacks enroute Bantoli. Gaundhar is a point we come across on the route very near to Bantoli on the Nandi Kund - Ghiya Vinayak Pass Trek. It is here where the Madhyamaheshwar Ganga and Markanda Ganga meets, with a lovely looking small bridge over it. Little more on the route and we reach Bantoli, our halt for the night.

We have quite a few options to settle in one of the homestays on offer. If not, we pitch our small tents somewhere. Hot dinner awaits us and with this, the first day of our trek to Nandi Kund and Ghiya Vinayak Pass ends.

We are into the second day into our trek to Nandi Kund and Ghiya Vinayak Pass. Madhyamaheshwar is one of the panch kedars and is one of the popular and highly rated pilgrimage route for the Hindus. The trek route crosses Nanu Chatti just after some time into the trek. It the passes by Maikhamba and Kun Chatti, from where its a good walk for some 3 hours to bring us to the shrine of Madhyamaheshwar.

Post lunch, we go on for a acclimatization walk to Buda Madhyamaheshwar. If lucky, we might catch a glimpse of Chowkhambha in a small water body near Buda Madhyamaheshwar.

Our route for tomorrow to Kachni Khal is visible and inspires enough motivation in us to take the challenge. Post dinner, we wish good night to  each other and get into our cozy sleeping bags.

Today our trek to Nandi Kund takes a drastic change, both in the form of difficulties of the climb, and the solitude of the trail.

After waking up to a lovely morning in the blessed site of Madhyamaheshwar, we get ready to tackle the day's trek. It involves a steep continuous climb to the Kachni Khal marked typically by 2 huge rocks forming a gateway.

An arduous climb of some 4 - 5 hours gets us to the top of Kachni Khal. From here, the trail forks and one goes left towards Kedarnath, other to Panpatia and the route on the right goes towards Nandi Kund. Our campsite is a rocky patch today with great views of Chowkhamba.

Evening, we take a light acclimatization walk to Kachni Khal and return to our campsite

The trek for today leaves behind all signs of civilization and follows an unmarked shepherd's trail to reach Pandavsera. A very efficient local guide is much required here. We trek through bushes and cross the Madhyamaheshwar nala multiple times and pass by few small waterfalls to reach a flat meadow. This is marked as Pandavsera and we camp here for the night, by the stream.

The trail to Nandi Kund from Pandavsera follows the small stream of Madhyamaheshwar Nala emerging out from Nandi Kund. It's a gradual climb that gets steeper at times. The rough terrain presents its own challenges. We cross the Madhyamaheshwar Nala multiple times and then climb up steep for another hour to reach the serene Nandi Kund. The peaceful lake and its tranquil waves take our hearts right away and lower down our energy injecting immense peace in us and give us divine happiness and satisfaction. This is why we travel to the difficult parts of the Himalayas for!The entire view of the surrounding is so beautiful that simpler words which I know fail to do justice to the actual beauty of the place. The peaks of Chowkhamba hovers over the lake. The name of the Lake is derived from Nandi - The name of the Bull which was actually Lord Shiva in disguised avatar hiding away from the Pandavas, who were seeking mercy and moksha (liberation from the cycle of life and death as per the Hindu belief) from Lord Shiva after the war of Kurukshetra. We spend the remaining part of the day relinquishing the beautiful place that we are in with no one around to disturb. No noise, no disturbances from unwanted people around, no mobile, no internet. Just us and Mother Nature in its heavenly best.

Today is the highlight day of our trek as we cross the mighty Ghiya Vinayak Pass to topple over to the other side of the valley. It will be a long tiring day today. We can cut out the chances of bad weather hitting us on this hard terrain by starting the day as early as we can. A steep continuous climb for about 3 hours from Nandi Kund will take us to the top of the mighty Ghiya Vinayak Pass. The views from the top of the Ghiya Vinayak pass is just breathtaking. The coveted peaks of Chowkhamba, Neelkantha and Nanda Devi are visible on a clear day. The glacier table of the Panpatia too is visible from here.Weather permitting, we will spend a good time enjoying the views from the top of the Ghiya Vinayak Pass. After that, we will soon find ourselves negotiating the very steep descend to the lush green valley on the other side of the Ghiya Vinayak pass. It's the beautiful meadow of the Barmna Bugiyal on the other side of the pass. We lose altitude rapidly and in about an hour and a half we reach our designated campsite for the night. It will be a long rewarding day today and we will complete the 2 important missions of this trek - The Serene and Pious Lake Of Nandi Kund and Crossing the Mighty Pass Of Ghiya Vinayak. This being done, the remaining days of the trek are just about taking ourselves back to civilization. The remaining part of the trek still remains very beautiful though, as it passes through some untouched meadows and beautiful villages of the Garhwal Himalayas.

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Drive to Rishikesh