Kailash Manasarovar yatra (darshan) - 14

In 2005 on this August 15 only the 14th batch members assembled at Delhi with the prayer in our hearts that He should give His darshan to us. You are enjoying that divine experience through these postings.

Seventh day of yatra trek of 9 Km from Gunji to Kalapani

The next phase of the journey started on the seventh day as the altitude increases human population comes down , the vegetation also changes and it becomes difficult for us to trek in the rarified atmosphere as oxygen in the atmosphere and air pressure becomes less. After three days of trek and one day of rest we continued our yatra on the seventh day by trek upto Kalapani.

As usual we started early morning from Gunji towards Kalapani the vegetation has changed and now we witnessed more wood roses and pine trees the scenario on the Nepal side was wonderful. It looked like a picture card the thick canopy conical pine trees presented a collage of nature . Lot of wood roses bearing orange fruits were seen on the way the fruits are rich in C vitamin and the locals consume this fruit This day also the trek was on the banks of Kali river as we were nearing the source of the river no longer the river was fierce as we had seen earlier . The pony which was let for grazing the earlier day had wandered away so the pony keeper made some alternate arrangement. In between ITBP personnel were waiting with snacks and tea and we also bathed in Kali river at one place and proceeded further . Nearing Kalapani we saw the Vyasa’s cave in the mountains. Sage Vyasa considered to be an incarnation of Lord Vishnu wrote the great epic Mahabharata and codified all the 18 Puranas( holy scriptures). It is believed that Vyasa wrote Mahabharata in this cave. The cave is situated on the top of a steep rock and is not possible to climb to the cave. But a party of ITBP soldiers has attempted from the top and has entered into the cave. The cave is 18 ft in length and they found some ash and some utensils used by Vyasa inside the cave.

Kalapani camp

As we neared Kalapani we could hear the clinging noise of the bells. We crossed the Kail river and entered into Kalapani we could see the twin towers of Shiva and Kali temples the path leading to the temple from the river was lined with bells of all sizes. . In front of the shrines is the Kali Kund ( Kali’s pond) supposed to be origin of Kali river. Water from the mountains enter the Shiva pond then it flows down another stream which comes all the way from Nabidang joins called as Lipu Nala joins this stream and flow as Kali river many rivers add their water to this stream and then the mighty fierce Kali river we saw on the first day is formed. We could really feel that we are in a high altitude when we tried to recite some hymns in the temple we started gasping. The ITBP camp and our camp site is located adjacent to the temple and we went and took rest in the camp. From there we saw the Nag and Nagini peaks the peaks were resembling snakes with raised hoods and were named so.

NAG PARVAT PEAK

There is a hot spring in Kalapani but we didn’t visit that due to lack of time.

Kali Mata of Kalapani

ITBP has built a mini hydel power generation unit across Kali river and we can visit that place. There is an emigration counter at Kalapani and we completed the emigration formalities there, our passports were affixed with emigration seal. In the night we all gathered in the Shiv Kali temple and sang bhajans with the ITBP jawans. As this temple is situated at a high altitude pooja articles have to be carried only ITBP jawans as Joshi knew about this he carried five litres of oil for this temple which he carried all by himself and at no part of the journey did he allow anybody to carry it, already I had mentioned that he didn’t wear chappels throughout the journey walking with bare foot even in snow, we had such great devotees among our group. He reminded me of Karaikkalammmaiyar who walked on head on the Holy Kailash.

The seventh day was day of pine and woodroses, snow covered peaks and Kalapani temple.