Kailash Manasarovar Yatra -2012 - 32

First Day's Parikrama

Grand Darshan of Akor(South) face of Lord from Yamdwar

The flag post near south face

( This flag post is replaced during  Saga Dawa festval)

Yamadwar

We were late due  to our visit to Asthapad so as suggested by our  Sherpas we proceeded directly skipping yamdwar. These are some of the snaps taken near yamdwar during my last yatra.

Start of Parikrama

( Mukherjee, Suthar, Mahajan, Himansu, Sherpa  Ranjith, Gupta)

Babu,  Porter, Murugan

 Rashmi, Pankaj Gupta

Yagyang Pandey

The weather was  clear when we commenced  the parikrama

 Goyal couple on parikrama route

Frozen water fall

 Parikrama route

 Rest in between

 Waiting for others 

La Chu River (Indus)

After a satisfying darshan at Asthapad, we returned to Darchen, made our shoulder bag ready with snacks, glucose, hot water flask, rain coat, and pooja items and took  our walking stick and left for circumambulation of Holy Kailash. By His grace all the impediments like whether permission will be given and  dilemma whether to undertake the parikrama or not  were  removed and we were ready for parikrama.   As it was already noon  and that day's parikrama  has to be complete we skipped Yamdwar and directly reached   Tarboche from where the Parikrama starts. There ponies and porters were available no body opted for pony that day, some us only hired porter and praying to Shivasakthi we commenced our much awaited parikrama. For lunch we were provided with samosa, apple, frooti juice and kitkat. So it is always better to carry our own snacks during kora.

Darchen is at an altitude of 4575 m and Deraphuk which is our destination is 5150 m and the distance of the trek is about 13 Km, the ascent is gentle almost plain. So we proceeded slowly and steadily enjoying the mountains and the frozen La Chu River. As it was the beginning of the season there were many pilgrims from all parts of the world and one never felt lonely as it was last time.

We noticed many improvements this time, there are signs that tha  kora path is being developed into a good   road so that vehicles can ply upto Deraphuk, earlier it was a foot path now it has been  widened to double path. Also there are many name boards at important places but now it is in Chinese only, they  have built their own style toilets at vantage points. Slowly one day it may be possible for one to complete the parikrama by a vehicle,  but they will miss the thrill of trekking in the beautiful conditions. 

When we commenced our Holy circumambulation of the Mount Kailash the weather was clear  after about one hour of trekking suddenly it started snowing.  At first it was just a drizzle but it intensified and it became a fall. Normally in the higher reached because of colder climate rain becomes snow. undeterred we proceeded further praying to the Lord  to take care of us. 

Please wait for the next post to know about what happened later.