It's been an year since i visited The Amarnath Shrine last year. Many things changed during the year but the excitement to visit the place remains the same. Another thing which was changed in the planning was to do the pilgrimage via Pehalgam route instead of Baltal. Devotees were also same with an addition of Bittu (Babbu's Cousin). We four planned to leave for the yatra on 8th night since we had our registrations done for 10th july. But on 8th, Lovely's relative expired and whole scenario changed, plan went in limbo.
As lovely was the lead and we could not even think of leaving him alone. After digesting the news, he called up, we met and worked out the things & planned to leave on 10th morning instead. Taxi driver also agreed to it. 10th July came and we all left for the pilgrimage (Bum Bum Bhole!!). As the journey to Amarnath shrine is too extensive to be framed in words hence i would describe the main events day wise as below:
Day 1: Driver was named DSP (Deputy Superindent of Police) though he did not even look like a constable (Just to add humor). He was too intelligent to drive that he did not even once cross the mark of 80 on his speedometer. We decided to stay at Patnitop hill station in night.
Day2: Next morning we continued our journey and reached Pehalgaam by 5'o clock in evening. We booked a hotel and went out for a walk on the hill station. Since we were tired, hence after clicking some pictures and having dinner at Langar, we went to sleep.
Day3: Next day in morning, we started our pilgrimage to the Shrine. Pehalgaam to Chandanwari, we hired a cab. From chandwari onwards, no vehicles are allowed, one needs to walk throughout the 30km trek to reach the holy cave unless one opts for Pithoo, Horse etc. After crossing chandanwari, we reached the first point called Pissu Top. The trekking was too steep to reach. Then after walking around 8 km, me and lovely reached Sheshnaag at around 12 noon. We waited for babbu and bittu there to continue journey together from there onwards. They reached the point at around 2 pm and the check post was to close on 2.30pm. It means after, 2.30pm nobody was allowed to travel further and needed to stay back at sheshnaag only for night. They both denied to travel further and cross the barrier which became a point of discussion. We, four, were divided into two groups of two each out of which one wanted to stay back, another wanted to travel ahead. Without lingering on, we decided to part our ways and one group including myself and lovely went on to reach the next stoppage.
We continued with the same speed and reached the next stop called Ganesh Top at 4 pm. After having some refreshments, we left the place to reach Panchtarni, the last stop of the day. We reached there around 6 pm after covering around 25km from Pehalgaam. The time to cross the checkpost at Panchtarni was 4.00pm. Had we not wasted our 2 hours at Sheshnaag, we could have crossed the Panchtarni barrier to reach the holy cave on the same day, which in itself is a achievement. Neverthless, we spent our night in tents and had sound sleep.
Day4: Early in morning, we started for the cave and reached there about 9am. After paying obeisance at the holy cave, spent some time at the cave itself. What a divine and pure feeling it was! All the pain and hard work seemed worth it. We both made our way back to Baltal base camp. We reached Baltal around 2 pm. As mobiles were not working, so we could not contact the other team. We had no choice but to wait for them at Baltal only. We decided to stay in a Budhlada Langar as the town has a old history regarding Lord Shiva Devotees plus it is my home town. There were three Langars from the town. We spent the night in Shiv Shakti Sewa Mandal tent. The organizer there, recognized me as he is one of our neighbors. Another neighbor rahul met us and he was in charge of another langar. Rahul Chapter: not to be disclosed :(
Day5: We were roaming in the market at Baltal only that Babbu called me up around 12 noon to tell that they are waiting in the parking near our taxi. We headed towards taxi stand and met the another team. They were annoyed and we tried to make them at peace. We left from Baltal base camp to reach Gulmarg. We reached Gulmarg at 10pm considering the 4 hour long traffic jam in sonamarg. We already had booked army guest house via lovely 's brother Ravi's friend Major Rao.
Day6: We went on to take a ride on Gondola which took us to the Peer of Panjal peaks. After having fun in clouds amidst snow, we left Gulmarg at 4 pm to reach Sri Nagar at around 6 pm. Did some shopping , sightseeing, booked a hotel and went to beds.
Day 7: In morning, we left for Katra as we planned to visit The Shiv Khori cave also. We reached Katra by 6pm. The road from Katra to Shiv Khori was in bad condition and took us 4 hours to cover 80km of stretch. We reached the base of The Shiv Khori cave around 10pm, booked a guest house and another day ended.
Day8: After trekking 2.5km, we reached the cave at 9am. We made our prayers and chose our way back to our taxi. We left the holy place by 11 am. Then via Jammu, pathankot, amritsar, we reached Bathinda back by 11pm. Thus the pilgrimage came to an end.
I have only briefed about the logistics of the journey. I have not gone into details of the landscapes, beauty of the Srinagar, Snow covered peaks of Gulmarg, small mountain cut made treks of Yatra, excitement and fun involved etc etc. It can only be experienced rather than description.
Bum Bum Bhole
Parul Goyal
