Ghangaria - the camp and my day of solitude

The Amazing Valley described here

July 26th 2012.  Day 6

This was the day for Hemkund.  Abhimanyu strongly discouraged us from walking (very wise after the fact) up, and I did not want to go any other way.

So I decided that rather than subject a mule to lugging me up those slopes, I would stay at Ghangaria, walk around and do some desultory birding.

The fittest fab four of our group attempted to walk, while the rest went on mules/horses.  Vayysala stayed behind as she was quite unwell by this time, having breathing issues and a headache.

By 10 am, I set out for a leisurely stroll.

Just below our campsite were these beautiful meadows filled with flowers, and the odd village path.  It was hearteningly clear of
plastic, and I meandered along with the path, enjoying the clean air, birdsong, and the distant tingling mule bells.

The helipad(!!!) in the distance

There were rose finches all over the place.  But they were busy little birds, harldy sitting still.  Here is the female.....

...and the male.

Looking back up at the tents and the Valley.  i was so tempted to go back in, but decided it was not wise to do it alone.

Eurasian blackbirds were as common as our crows, and very bold too.

Then, in the distance, echoing back from the hills was the unmistakable sound of the 'copter!  It was the first clear day in a while, and the copter was busy ferrying people back and forth.

As I birded and watched, it made about five trips back and forth, before the clouds descended.  By noon, visibility was poor and the copter ferry stopped.  The helipad then became a cricket field cum grrazing ground!

There is an army guest house here, and this is the view they enjoy!!

These Euphorbia sikkimesis bushes were in abundance.  Those large petal-like things are actually leaves, and the flower is only the central part.

These too...but I still have not identified them.

Another look at the mountains...

Through the fields of morinia longifolia..

...a close-up, The mist and clouds blew in and blew out.

wild jamun

Looking down on the campsite.  This was where I saw so many birds....whiskered yuhina, streaked laughing thrush...

...and the variegated laughing thrush.  What a beautiful call it had, as it sat on this rhododendron bush.  Another beauty was the white-collared blackbird, which sat eating the jamuns, but flew before I could take a picture.

The rain started up soon that afternoon.

I came down at around 1pm, and the Sarovar camp cook served me some khichidi and mushroom and peas curry.  Along with some roasted papads it was a rather yummy lunch!

The Hemkund lot soon returned, with wonderful accounts of the langar, the brahmakamal, their horses with names and the beautiful lake!

Hot bajjis!  (Picture taken by Damayantu)

The inside of the tents

It was definitely a good thing I did not try to walk - only two of the walkers managed it all they way.  You are basically adding something like 1,000 m in what 6 kms.  The path was treacherous from all accounts..but the Sikh pilgrims young and old climb, driven by faith. 

It was wonderful that Sonya climbed, had a great darshan and climbed down again.  She was both physically and emotionally drained by the day, and it was an emotional dinner we had that evening, by candlelight in our tent.

Sarovar camp is a great place to stay, and with minimal fuss, we were served our meals, which were amazingly varied, given that we were 3,000m up, and cut off from a road system.

And I would rather stay in this tent anyday than go into Ghangria town and stay in a poky lodge room!  But I guess we were not on a shoestring budget.

The Sarovar tents are the white ones.  the blue tents were part of another agency, and were more basic, but even those seemed preferable to the town.  All the tents are removed at the end of the season and the camping site is closed.

We had cots if you please, (so we stayed in luxury), along with blankets and a hot water bottle!!

The bathroom at the rear of the tent.  No flush system.

Of course the weird thing was that the ground beneath the bed sloped, so we all had this constant feeling that we were rolling off our beds.  We had heard that one of the tell-tale signs of altitude sickeness was that the floor would not appear even, and so the first day I anxiously asked Gapi whether she was also having this issue!!  We were most releived to hear that everyone was having this prob;em of tilting beds and tilting floors.

I had carried all the warm clothes that were in our house in Madras - belonging to various members of the family.

So the evenings would be spent in thermals, jacket, gloves, woolen socks and a woolen cap!!  Ofcourse each part of my attire did not match with anything else, but I was warm!!

And I did not have to hide under the sheets in the late evenings, and I could enjoy the views, the starry night sky, while others had to go and huddle inside to stay warm!

So ended our sojourn at Ghangria, and we packed up our mule and sweat smelly clothes, for our walk back the next morning.

My complete bird list here

Returning back to the chaos