Trekking-Day 1

This is Punjabi territory. We walked around town.  Coordinated with a local to transport our luggage the 14 km hike tomorrow to Ganghria, 3049 meters where we will stay for three nights at hotel Nanda Lokpal Palace.

 

Hike to Ghangria
How wonderful to be hiking, serenaded by the roar of the beautiful green crystal clear Alakund River and being surrounded by mountains. The walk today was only 14 km but it was all uphill. We climbed from Govindghat, 1828m to Ghangria, 3049.

 

We were accompanied by lots of ponies carrying luggage or people. At the beginning of the trek many ponies wait to be hired. 1 km into the hike, more horses for hire and they were only charging 500, good opportunity for the people who realize that they couldn't or didn't want to walk the entire trek. Interesting the prices didn't go up as we continued to climb. Sue has not been doing much exercise and she paid the price, she made it though. I would walk ahead and then wait. Towards the end I would not have been surprised to see her on a horse, but nope she got here on her own two feet. The trail was all laid with stone making the walk a bit more difficult but maybe adds safety. Most of the people were Punjabi on a pilgrimage to Hemkund Sahib, a holy site that people go to find courage and strength to face challenges ahead. People along the way have been wonderful and very informative about India, it was a wonderful day.

There were a lot of people walking, many more than I would have thought, children, parents, grandparents and an occassional 70-80 year old.  It was amazing to see some of them.
Our hotel, well... No hot water but if you ask you can get a bucket of hot water, basic, very basic. It's cold, borrowed my friend Priya's warm winter jacket. Thank you Priya.

 

Had dinner with 4 other non-native folks, 3 from Israel and one from Chile. .  It was nice to have dinner with others who speak English well.  Haven't been eating much as I am tired of Indian food and sauces. For lunch I had a bag of chocolate cookies and they were yummy, not my usual diet.

All is good. This town is a dive, I think we are staying at the nicest place. Narrow streets with pony poop and water everywhere. No views as the town is just one long street.

 We did pass a nice hotel restaurant about half way between Govinghat and Ganghria with nice views along the river and mountains, I would recommend staying there but then it adds miles to the future hikes.