DELHI -> HARIDWAR -> RISHIKESH -> DEVPRAYAG -> SONPRAYAG -> GAURIKUND -> KEDARNATH
TRIP FOR KEDARNATH : A DREAM PLACE TO VISIT.
Day 1: June, 11th, 2021
Today, I wanted to share with you my experience of traveling to Kedarnath through this blog. I was in my second year of a bachelor’s degree when my friend and I planned our trip. After much deliberation, we decided that we would travel there by two wheels, and the only two-wheeler we owned was a “Activa” scooter, so we chose to travel there on that scooter.
Yes, I realize that was a foolish choice, but we want to savor every second of our journey because it is our goal to visit Kedarath at least once in our lifetimes. Once we arrived, Bholenath summoned us both to his temple, which is called Kedarnath and is situated close to Heaven.
On June 11th, 2021, at 6:00 a.m., my companion and I began our journey to Kedarnath. We loaded up our scooters with our belongings and departed from Noida, where I managed to take a stunning photo of the sunrise.
Then, following a tiresome ride from Noida to Haridwar, we decided to spend the night in Haridwar in order to rest and have some delicious food. We had lunch at a restaurant, checked into our hotel, and rested for a few hours before waking up and visiting Har-ki-pauri.
At that point, we learned that the day we were celebrating the auspicious day “dussera” was special for us since it was Ganaga Aarti. After taking a bath (स्नान), we particularly enjoyed the view of Ganaga Aarti. At around 8:00 p.m., we ate dinner and went to bed.
Day 2: 12TH JUNE 2021,
Following a wonderful day, we both get up at 6:00 am, pack our bags once more, and head to Sonparayag. That day, I fasted in observance of EIKADSHI (एकादशी), making it yet another wonderful day in accordance with our Hindu Tithi (हिंदू तिथि).
Thus, we set out on our journey, and after numerous pauses and exhaustion from riding nonstop for 12 hours, we eventually arrived at our next destination, where we spent the following 4–5 hours. We arrived in Sonparayag around 6:00 p.m. and spent the night at a public hall there, putting our extra luggage in a locker.
Day 3: June,13th, 2021
This morning began at 2:00 am because we were informed that we would need to wait in line for a taxi to get to Gaurikund. I took it upon myself to stay awake, and at precisely 2:00 am, people began to gather in line. I hurried to get in line so that we wouldn’t fall behind others today—people have to wait for hours—but we were fortunate that the line for a taxi started at 4:00 am, and we took one ourselves to Gaurikund at 4:30 am. And so we set out on our “kedarnath” pilgrimage to heaven.
Since it was our first time trekking, we initially thought the path to Kedarath was 16 km, so we planned accordingly. However, when we got to the 22 km mark, a local told us that the trek was actually longer than 16 km.
Despite this, we didn’t give up because we were getting close to seeing our dream location, so we continued our trek slowly and steadily, stopping periodically to eat and drink water to avoid becoming dehydrated. After the 22 km, which took us 10 to 12 hours to complete, we arrived at our previously reserved GMVN tents and rested because it was our first trek and our legs weren’t used to all that much walking. After attending the aarti, we went to have dinner and relax.
Day 4: 13th June 2021
We had asked a local again, and he informed us that the line would start to form at 12:00am. So, we left our tents and returned to the mandir, where we made some videos and spent some time near the temple and Mahadev. At 1:00am, we both stood in line because it had already started to form, and we spent a pleasant time there discussing temples and hearing about other people’s experiences. One of them even shared his experience from 2013, which left us even more amazed.
I was so engrossed in listening to all those stories that I failed to notice the time approaching five o’clock, when it was finally time to see the temple inside. After much effort, we managed to see the temple from the inside, and once inside, we offered our puja to Mahadev and took his blessing with us.
Next, we left the temple to discover that there was another temple located one kilometer away, which is called Bhairav temple. We both trekked the one kilometer there, receiving blessings from Bhairav Baba and taking pictures of the breathtaking view of mountains surrounding us.
We then returned to our tents, ate breakfast, and, although we didn’t want to leave Kedarnth, we both set out for Sonprayag. It took us eight hours to get there, and on the way there, I developed blisters on my feet and it started to rain.
Once we arrived, we went back to our lockers to retrieve our additional luggage, put it on our scooter, and then we both headed to the Tungnath temple.