Off beaten track

A sign at the Entrance to the Valley of Flowers (VoF) says it all The passionate forest guard at the gate told me that he had been scolded by a senior officer that the VoF had no flowers, and that he, the forest guard, should put up a sign warning everyone so.   The experience I had was entirely different, I saw a myriad flowers blooming and a tranquil Valley.  And I thought to myself that:  they are really blind those who  will   not see.  These flowers were very different to to those I had seen on my earlier trip in August 2015, view my photographs of the earlier trip at the link here  and my blog of that trip  over here Flowing water everywhere A kilometer after buying a ticket at the forest check post, I cross the steel bridge across the Pushpawati River and begin the ascent into the VoF. The ticket is valid for three days of which I will visit on two.  The mountainsides are striated with waterfalls fed by t he melting snow, whi...

The Spectacular beauty of the mountains Every muscle is straining after six hours of ascent, at 3700 metres my oxygen deprived lungs are gasping, adjusting the seemingly heavy load on my aching back (where did all that extra weight come from?), in a final burst of energy I climb the final slope and in a sudden breath-taking moment a spectacular panorama unfolds, verdant mountains, veiled in clouds surround an icy lake with flowers in profusion.  Suddenly months of preparation and the cost of the trip become worth it. After I have absorbed the beauty of what I see, I reach for my camera to record for posterity what the eye and mind sees. This is exactly what I experienced when I trekked to the Valley of Flowers in Northern India earlier this year.  See  my earlier blog on the Valley of Flowers on this site and my site on Flickr for photographs for this slice of Gods own corner. Links below:  http://xerxespa.blogspot.in/2015/08/valley-of-flowers-and-hemkund-trek-to_30....

Valley of Flowers and Hemkund -a Trek to Paradise The Valley of Flowers     Climbing the last kilometer is strenuous, I sweat despite the mild cold, the thin drizzle permeates my clothing with dampness and the wet mud is slippery.  As I round a bend in the mountain side rapt in my misery, almost theatrically a wide vista unfolds showing a wide lush green valley with patches of colour and Mount Rataban proudly at its head.  It is magical, the tiredness of the climb falls away and the spellbinding view makes the arduous climb of two hours so very worthwhile.  Angelica with cloud veiled mountains in the background My trek to the Valley of Flowers (VoF) has been a dream for many years, a dream that I was determined to turn to reality for a week in August 2015.  There are many travelogues of �how to and where to� on a trek to VoF so it is not my intention to replicate these. I will put together a kaleidoscope of thoughts and suggestions giving more of a flavor t...