Trek to Kedartal

It has been about two weeks since we returned from our annual Himalayan trek. After having done most of our earlier treks in the Dhauladhar mountains, this was our first foray into Uttarakhand (UK). How different was it compared to the treks in Himachal Pradesh (HP)? 

On a map the trail to Kedartal looks quite straightforward, and benign. It is a glacial lake located about 17km west of Gangotri glacier from which the Ganges river originates. Here the holy river is called the Bhairathi and it rages past Gangotri town, squeezing through rocky cliffs and misty cataracts, towards Uttarkashi.

It is only when you look at the near vertical mountains around Gangotri that you realise that the neat lines marking the path to Kedartal is anything but that. Running eastwards from the town, the trails takes you along steep forested slopes past Kedar Ganga to the first camping site at Bhoj Kharak (8km, 12436ft/3790m). 

The trail goes through a complete transformation the next day when you climb past the pine and birch forests, past the tree-line into grassy slopes of Kedar Kharak (5km, 14050ft/4282m) where the second camp-site is located. From here on it is all moraines - moonscape of broken rocks and boulders  - that leads you the lovely lake at base of three snow-peaks - Bhrigupanth, Thalay Sagar and Jogin I. 

Given the height of the surrounding peaks not much sunlight reaches these deep valleys. Even on the clearest of days the sunset happens around 2:30 pm. For the rest of the afternoon the campsites are enveloped first by the racing shadows, and then by pitch darkness and cold winds.

In the Dhauladhar mountains of HP, each trail has a character of its own. On some treks (eg., Kugti / Indrahar Pass) you need to carry water until you reach the glaciers, while other valleys (eg., Baleni, Minkiani Pass) there is no shortage of springs and streams to fill your bottles but snow-cover can be very unpredictable. One thing common in most Himachal treks is that you are almost always on routes taken by the shepherds. 

The treks in Uttarakhand, especially on the char-dham routes (Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath), there are no meadows or pastures across the mountain passes all the way to Tibet plateau. So there are no shepherds to be seen on these routes. What you do see are herds of Bharals or Blue Sheep with their magnificent, curved horns. These animals keep their distance from trekking groups but watching them without precautions can turn out to be dangerous. In a group that we met on our way back, a porter got badly injured from a rock-fall triggered by Bharals.

The trekking scene in UK seemed better structured and regulated compared to HP.  You are not permitted to venture into protected forest areas without a permit or trained guides. These guides, in turn, ensure that those venturing into the mountains are carrying suitable protective-wear and camping gear. These guides can be exacting too - many of our personal sleeping bags were rejected because they were deemed unsuitable for temperatures below -20C. 

All these checks clearly shows on quality of the trails - the pathways are clean and litter-free. No chips packers blowing in the wind or alcohol bottles littering the streams. Camping groups are expected to have toilet tents and pits for safely disposing food waste.

Thanks to the Char-Dham initiative of the central government the road infrastructure in this area is seeing rapid improvement. This also means that the newly widened roads are more prone to landslides and rock-falls. 

So, if you're planning a trek in Uttaranchal, around the char-dham area better be prepared long traffic jams!

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REFERENCES & LINKS

Char Dham - https://www.namasteindiatrip.com/history-of-chardham.html

https://trekthehimalayas.com/kedar-tal-trek

Kolkata Diary

I am now in a South Kolkata state-of-mind. 

It took me a couple of days to get used this, and it is so, so different from the mental framework you need elsewhere in North India. For starters, you don't wake up to smoggy, cold mornings, wondering whether it is safe to take in a deep breath. The air is relatively cleaner, the sun rises earlier, and ebb and flow of social interactions is lot more relaxed, friendlier and jovial.

Thanks to the Covid lockdowns, I had not been in this city for more than two years, and I wondered how things had changed in the interim.

As has been my habit for more than a decade now, I started my day around 05:45am with a walk to the lake, aka Rabindra Sarobar. The streets were slowly coming to life in the twilight - flower sellers stringing up garlands, milk-vans doing rounds of the kirana shops, and sweepers cleaning up the roads, oblivious of protests from crows and sparrows. Further down from Dhakuria, on both sides of the narrow roads of Jodhpur Park, people filled up water from roadside taps, sipped chai at tiny dhabas, or bargained with the fish-vendors.  

Everything seemed just the way it was before, until i crossed the railway lines I found my usual entrance to the Lake Park barred by a locked gate. This was new - why had they closed this particular entrance to the park? I went across to a group of men sitting under a tree and asked them if there was another open gate nearby. A portly, bearded old man just laughed and said, "Andar jana he? - bas tapki maaro!" (want to get in? just hop across!) :)

Turns out that the gate was designed for doing a tapki, with easy, well-worn footholds for climbing across the 10ft gate. Welcome back to Kolkata, I said to myself, a place where unreasonable rules are meant to be broken.

Another unreasonable rule that is always broken in Kolkata is about footpaths. They are not exclusively for pedestrians. Here footpaths are an egalitarian public space meant for anybody who seeks a livelihood, and pedestrians get just enough space to file past the shops. On the busiest streets it is quite normal to see more than half the footpath width taken up by an endless row of tiny shops, and eateries. This has been going on for so long that even trees adapt themselves to the shape of these little shops, as is the case with this teashop enveloped by a banyan tree near the Jadavpur University crossing.

The hustle and bustle at these shops is a bit misleading though. People are still recovering from the Covid lockdowns. "People mostly come to just look at the wares", said one shopkeeper at Gariahat market, "It is a lucky day when we manage to sell half of what we used to sell before covid!". The same sentiment was repeated at Bedwin Rolls, an eatery famous for its mutton rolls but there is nothing remotely mutton on the menu now. "At INR 800+ a kilo, we just cannot afford it...usually a kilo works out to be enough for 10-12 rolls, but each would have to be priced at INR 150 for us to make a profit...and nobody wants a mutton roll at that price."

Unlike in NCR Delhi, few shops have had to close down entirely. Most of the small shopkeepers here seem to have adapted by changing the menu or product mix. There are more boards that display availability of oxygen and medicines, and, as expected, home-delivery services seem to be thriving now. For some reason jewellery shops are thriving too.  It seem the arrival of the big boys like JoyAlukkas, has had no impact on the numerous, tiny jewellery shops that dot the lanes of Dhakuria. Ditto for beauty saloons. The one nearest to us is "Rita's Parlour - Your Beauty is Our Duty"! :)

Yet, one big surprise is that hardly any shops accept digital payments. Again unlike in NCR, Tamil Nadu or Kerala, where just about every street vendor offers you the option of paying by PayTM, PhonePe or GooglePay, each and every shop I visited here insisted on a cash payment. 

Why is Kolkata / West Bengal bucking the national trend?