Kailash Manasarovar darshan(yatra) - 9

Fifth day of the yatra

On the second day of the yatra proper after three days stay at Delhi as per plan we should have reached Darchula but because of landslide at DiDihat we landed at Pithoragarh.

This day we travelled from Ranikhet to Pithoragarh through clouds and beautiful rivers and rich paddy fields.

DSP of Ranikhet and GM of KMVN facilitating the yatris

Next day morning we started our journey to Darchula after offering prayers to t he three eyed Lord Maheshwara, we were seen off by the General Manager of KMVN and Superidendent of Police Ranikhet. We travelled in buses via Kalika, Kasuni and Okla and reached Baijyanath.

The author along with Shri Mudgal

( who had the good fortune of visiting Kailash four times,in the background the buses in which we travelled)

At Baijyaanth there is an ancient temple dedicated to Lord Shiva on the banks of the river Sarayu. We worshipped the Lord and Mother in this ancient temple which is under the control of Archeological survey of India. The legend associated with this temple is that the Pandavas have worshipped the Lord here.

Baijnath temple and the beautiful garden on the shores of Sarayu River

Then we reached Chakori for lunch as per the itinerary and had a sumptuous lunch prepared by the KMVN cooks. There is a watch tower at Chakori from where we can have the splendid view of the Himalayas we clicked some photographs from this tower. Till this the travel went as per plan but from here problems started. As good and bad coexist development is always linked with some bad effects. Road network was established in the mountains which made transportation easier but because of this always there are land slides especially during monsoon season.

We encountered the first land slide on our route to Darchula the base camp for Kailash Manasarovar yatra at a place called Didihat, we were informed of this development by district administration and our route was diverted to Pithroragarh. We reached Pithoragarh traveling through Berinag, Kangolihat, Rameshwar late in the evening at around 9 P.M though normally buses does not ply after dusk in these hilly terrains our driver and KMVN officials took utmost care to reach us safely at Pithoragarah.

The route from Chakori to Pithoragarh reminded me of our life, one time the bus will be traveling upwards the next moment it will travel down and when we cross the river the river which was on our right would have come to our left. Life is also like this no like a spinning wheel our fortunes also spin. But the scenario we encountered enroute was breath taking we captured those beautiful memories in out digital cameras and video cameras. On the second day we traveled about 100 Kms by bus. The second day was the day of travel through clouds and beautiful rivers and rich paddy fields.