Uttarakhand Chardham Tour (Part 3)

Uttarkashi to  Sonprayag    ( Day 5)
Travel day

Early morning, amidst light drizzle, we left for Sonaprayag ,a distance of  240Kms to be covered in  8-9 hours. Had  breakfast  of Aloo- parota  at  Lumbgaon, purchased  woolen  shawls ,by then we got the news that Honourable President of India Pranob Mukherjee would be visiting Kedarnath that day.

Throughout the journey ,we had  view of  Garhwal Himalayan peaks and bugyals located on the mountain tops. A Bugyal is high altitude grassland that makes for an excellent grazing ground. These Bugyals remain covered with snow in the winter months but come to life with colors at the advent of summer season. Terraced fields on the mountain slopes occasionally traversed by moving clouds  offered a  picture postcard view.

Scenic splendour on the route towards Sonprayag 

We stopped at Tilwada Road, Rudraprayag for lunch, the hotel owner allowed us to prepare boiled rice ,although it was time consuming. Hotel owner's wife -a sweet lady  freely chatted with us,she recalled her days at Trivandrum when her husband was working there.

Terraced paddy fields on the way to Sonprayag

 After passing through the towns of August Muni and  Chandrapuri  we reached  Guptkashi .This small town at an elevation of 1319 meters, is famous for ancient Shiva temple. Mythology states that Shiva proposed to Parvati at Guptakashi before they got married in the small Triyuginarayan village  (nearby Sonprayag).The 200 steps leading to temple  from Main road  had high risers ,rendering  it a steep  climb , sportively we took it  as a prelude to next day’s  Kedar trek. We also got our   Bio-metric/Photo metric  registration and verification  done at  GMVN office Guptakashi,

Lord Vishwanath temple (Ardhanareeshwar Temple on left) at Guptakashi

Finally at 5.00 p.m,we reached a transit point  known as Sonprayag in Rudraprayag District where we halted in anticipation of visiting Kedarnath the next morning which would take the entire day . Our efforts to book Helicopter tickets were in vain ,as there were many backlogs of booked pilgrims due to suspension of  flying services in light of  bad weather .  TV channels were carrying the news that Honorable President of India Pranob Mukherjee  could not visit Kedarnath that day for the same reason. Taking inputs of  internet weather forecasts at Kedarnath  from Dilip (our son) over phone we spent night  speculating about next day’s weather conditions.Again food served at the hotel was refreshing, spot -prepared  phulka, bhaji, rice, dal and milk.