19th I got up early morning at 4.45 am washed my face and gargled within 5 minutes I got ready took my camera buckled my waist pouch and rush toward the market and stood near the taxi stand from where I was having a clear view of the Neelkanth. I was taking photograph of scene every 2 to 3 minutes interval time from 4.50 am to 5.25 am it was great feeling because till now I was seeing and watching the photographs shooted by others and from today I own the photographs taken by myself.

This was a spectacular view of the Neelkanth, let me remind you that seeing Neelkanth with very clear sky is the rarest thing and I think I was lucky enough to watch the Neelkanth continues for last 24 hours and more. After capturing the golden moment I was back to the hotel to get ready for the true part of the journey way to Satopanth Tal. As our guide was suppose to come and pick us at 8.30 am we were having little time to give a short visit to the market and had our morning milk and breakfast there.

Today we are suppose to moved to our Satopanth Tal Trek so we came back and gathered our luggage and checkout the hotel waiting for Mannu Rawat to take us, the thing were going in perfect and in time, our guide came 15 minutes before and we took taxi to reach Mana village, within 10 minutes we were there.

As we remember this place due to our last visit 2 years back we planned to take blessing from the god and the good spirits in the village temples. By the time Mannu Rawat gets ready with the equipment and arrangement also making adjustment of our luggage we asked Mannu Rawat to meet at Bhim pool.

We moved towards first mandir of Ghantakaranji we bow and took blessing at the door because the mandir was closed,

This Ghantakaran Mandir one can also see main temple premises of Badrinath Mandir to the right side of the main gate, actually Ghantakaranji was a rakshash but the very Great Spirit and because of this spirit god Nar and Narayan had to take birth on the earth.

At Vyas Gufa we met Panditji who was also kulpurohit of our guide Mannu Rawat, when we ask for blessing and well wishes for us while we trek to Satopanth Tal and Come back he was so happy to hear and he himself pronounced that you are going with Mannu and we said yes. Photographs are not allowed in the mandir but after our request Purohitji silently allows us to take one photo of the Rishi Vyasji’s idol and we thanked and moved from there.

From here at 10 am we had to start trekking for our journey leaving behind the human community way towards no man land.

we have to cross the wooden bridge at Keshav Prayag to begin our trekking towards Satopanth Tal still we were looking behind because our guide and potters were not came but here the way was having clear paath further so we walked by our own about 15 to 20 minutes. We reached at Mata Murti Mandir at 10.40 am this temple belongs to the mother of God Nar and Narayan here we got together with our guide and potters. My wife performed the puja of Mata Murti and also paid respect by doing Tika to our Guide Mannu Rawat and three potters Pravin, Hansraj, and Narendra this was because she believes this brings good luck while on journey.

Just before starting from here we met 4 trekkers who were returning from Satopanth Tal were also suppose to be client of Mannu Rawat. These people had covered the distance with in 4 ½ days, we had some words with them about the route and the climate over there and split apart.

This was real time for trekking leaving the Mana Village behind the slope and moving towards remote area, from here we two our guide and our three potters are our own to trek on mercy of nature.

At this spot the paath was getting narrow as well as sliding towards the steep slope one can see in photo. As we also see far bright shiny beam of light like thing is the majestic 300 feet water fall called Vasudhara, this was the first sight of it as we walked through slope and the little part of the glacier which is seen is the Dhano glacier part which is almost melted. When this Dhano glacier is in it full form the trekkers takes the route from Bhim pool to Vasudhara and the they cross the Alakhnanda river over the Dhano glacier here and reach Chamtoli. But in our case the glacier was melted and the remaining part was become weak so our guide decided to take route from the opposite side of the Vasudhara route, it is not only we people but from now every trekker would have to walk through this route.

Now we can see the clear picture of the remaining of the Dhano glacier giving the way to the river which is supposed to be covered with thick layer of snow turning in to glacier form over the whole barren area that is seen in the picture. It is supposed to be somewhere here the trekker cross the Alakhnanda River over the Dhano glacier when they take the trekking route from opposite side through Vasudhara between May and mid June. One can also see the Vasudhara water fall top corner. The bottom left we see the rough part is suppose to be walked by us to reach upper side of the slope. There was some 200 meters stretch which was suppose to be extremely hard to cross one can say that if one miss to keep step in right way and place will be washed away by raging river which is flowing about 100 feet down below. I would like to mention here that this type of situation only makes us realize that above god and nature there is nothing and we are always on mercy of it and forces us to bow down in front of it.

Here while crossing the part of the risky terrain we were in pressure thinking about all our past and the future as our feet was just sliding again and again towards down running river, it may be because we had never been to such situation before. It was our guide duty to make pass the area safely without any harm he did made way for us with ice axe so that we can walk easily but then also we would like to thanks for making way for us and guiding how to keep the step after step, believe it or not every people who walk down through like this terrain might have some fearsome experience but nobody expresses they just forget after coming out of the situation and pronounce very cool like it was hard but we made it. But in our case we sincerely agree that we really experience that some other power was driving us for the moment, as we were chanting our guru mantra and remembering our Kuldev Chhota Bapa all the way. Any way we did cross the loose and slippery part of trek with the help of our guide and we sat for while to get rid with the remembrance of tuff times to pass the rough area.

Still walking through rough terrain for little more than 10 minutes we were now suppose to clime the slope and to reach Chamtoli, it took nearly 2 hour to us to be there. Here on the way nearby Chamtoli we saw couple of people with their herd of sheep along with their dogs as this area was with lush green grass it good grazing ground for the sheep. We reached at Chamtoli at 5.10 pm this place was having wide open ground having nice green view everywhere and just opposite side we can see Vasudhara water fall, here we saw herd of sheep grazing grass we stopped here for half an hour took photographs of the scene and had some refreshment.

As the day was closing in we started our trekking further, generally trekker breaks here but we were scheduled to reach at Lakshmi Van according to our program. To cover the distance of approximate 1 km from here we took 11/2 hour and we were right here at Lakshmi Van and the time was almost 7 pm our first night halt of the journey. By the time our potter get set with the tent and prepare them self for the kitchen we moved towards the Lakshmi Van near small jungle of Bhojpatra trees to perform puja of Lakshmi Van and the Bhojpatra tree. It is said that this is miraculous and very holistic place as Bhojpatra tree itself is the symbol of the Lakshmi we prayed here and did arti of this tree, here we also took some pieces of the Bhojpatra as a Prasad to carry home and this we did as mentioned in the Vedas first pray and then request the tree by saying that we are taking some part of yours as Prasad in the presences of the good spirit over there. After performing the small puja we came to our camp where our tent were ready, it was dark and night was closing in so we get into our tent and had some rest, then after an hour the food was ready and we had our dinner, as it was first time we stayed night halt in tent and in sleeping bag in remote area it was great experience. The day was very hard walking through unusual and unknown path with uncertain ground and rough terrain we were tired but then also it was great feeling after reaching at Lakshmi Van as planned and that was more important for us. Before Sleeping we did our prayer and paath for 40 minutes and then zipped into the sleeping bag to sleep.

20th morning we got up at 6.45 am the day was perfect sunny and cool with clear sky, as there was no chance of taking bath out there in cold atmosphere we just wash our face and brushed and cleaned ourself with hot water provided by our guide and changed our cloths. Then we had our breakfast, Bread butter jam, Khakhara, and biscuits with hot coffee, now it was prayer time we were very much glad to do our prayer at here in this holy place. Let me mention that as our camp was above the Lakshmi Van which is symbol of money and in front of Alkapuri which belongs to Lord Kuber who is the king of wealth and we are sitting right here on great place praying for health wealth and prosperity for us, for our family and for our friends and this was more important for us. Draupadi the wife of Pandavas was the first to leave her soul in their last journey way to heaven and it was this place at Lakshmi Van chosen by Draupadi to aboard her soul to heaven.

Before our potter pack the things and get ready with the stuff, we decided to take last Darshan of the Lakshmi Van where we performed puja last evening. Right in this photo we can see in morning light Lakshmi Van down below and the Alkapuri in front in one line, it was left side Bhojpatra tree between two rocks of Lakshmi Van of which we had offer our prayer on previous day evening. From here we can see these trees like bushes but it is not so the jungle is still further down the slope which is about 125 feet till Alakhnanda River and the front side is Alkapuri we can see the down coming stream which water comes from Balakund Glacier from right above the mountain passage. Three year back the Balakund glacier was fractured and busted, all of a sudden huge amount of water was poured in to the Alakhnanda River flooding all the lower part of the Lakshmi Van and down further till Badrinath town, the spreaded marking of water flow shows the signature of the disaster. In this incident some part of Lakshmi Van was washed away and destroyed.

Right behind me the place and the Bhojpatra tree of which we had done puja last evening, there is still down way slope more than 100 feet continuing from where I stood in this photo, we came back to the camp site where our guide was ready to move for second day trekking and we started from here at 8.25 am. Before starting we had estimate the time that it could take approximately 9 hours to reach our second day camping site at Chakratirtha we were able to calculate this based on the way we were trekking on previous day. Any way the early day time was cool clear and shiny when we started, this was good sign for us for further trekking  it was great view in front splitting two ways by a mountain left way goes to the Satopanth Tal and Swargarohini mountain and other way goes to Chaukhamba mountain side and Bhagirathi Parvat. Then we looked back to Lakshmi Van and this too was also excellent view from half an hour walking distance we can see Lakshmi van and it’s upper ground and down below Alakhnanda River as well as Vasudhara hidden behind the hazy climate over there, it is now one can judge the landscape of the Lakshmi Van how much wide and slipping down wards till the river bank.

From this spot we were ought to start walking over the patch of boulders, as our guide was making way for us by fixing the gaps where it requires it was not hard and we managed to get pass the area by trekking safely.

From here we again started climbing gradually upward with rocky terrain which makes little exhausting so every 20 to 25 meters we were taking rest so as our guide taking care of us and advising how to walk over such area.

With this 150 feet water fall spot after couple of hundred meters we can say that Sahastradhara area is suppose to begin, but still we have to move on climbing for some time till the ridge to get in to the Sahastradhara area. As we reached over the ridge we had some great views, we saw clear view of Parvati parvat and Satopanth parvat, north side of the Neelkanth parvat peeping from the clouds just above our heads, the fantastic view of Swargarohini parvat in front and on right down below ridge there was the snout of the Alakhnanda River. There is nothing new in the photograph of Alakhnanda snout it was just same view as other people had done before, here I request to the site visitor to scroll down to the second last day of the trekking page one can see the over and the other side of the Alakhnanda rivers view which I am very much sure that it is the rarest scene.

The muddy open area we see is full glacier area covered with the boulders and rubbles and take notice that pick up small object of the picture assuming it is small pebble and here we go wrong under estimating the things and that small pebble like thing is a big boulder which we four people together can’t be able to move a inch that much big it is. Here I again say such things of nature reminds us that we are nothing in front of it and this forces us to bow down and certainly we have to respect the nature. At some distance after walking through ups and down way  we were suppose to walk down through the  plain towards the Sahastradhara area.

Let me tell that these small streams falls from the wall of the mountain is water draining from the ice melted of Neelkanth parvat and when rain falls over the area these streams get increase in numbers and begin to flow form maximum cracks and passages of the mountain wall thus it is called as Sahastradhara meaning thousand streams, it is believed that two of the younger brothers of Pandavas in Mahabharat named Nakul and Sahadev had aboarded their soul leaving their body right here at Sahastradhara.

We were here at 12.45 pm and proceeded further through the plain of Sahastradhara area with easy walking ground we kept on moving, to clear this patch it took almost 2 hours. We continued further to climb and pass the last ridge of the day to reach our today’s destination Chakratirtha.

The area is so big like a play ground that when we moves over the terrain and see through the distance we human literally looks like ant crawling over the land as we can see in above picture, my wife is waving hand and far there our guide and potter moving forward.

This photo I had taken with timer to get us both together in one frame over the Sahastradhara plain and remember this place is the base camp site for the people who are climbing to Neelkanth parvat, the water stream which is coming down from the left little far behind us is the trekking route to Neelkanth parvat. Behind us our potter is making way for us over the streams by placing big stones so that we can cross the stream easily, like we see in next frame our guide is guiding my wife where to keep step and move as we also see that it was not bigger span but then also it was about over twelve feet which is probably little bigger for we to jump with one hop. Believe it the water running through the streams was very cold as it was draining all the way from melting ice from above the mountain top.

The slope was very gradual and it didn’t tortured us and as we covered most of the slope and looked behind we saw the whole route of the day which we had travelled, as we can see in the above snap complete sequence route of ridge and passage of Sahastradhara and the white line far below the mountain we see is Alkapuri. The distance is just 11 kms but it took whole day to cover it by the time we were on the top of ridge it was 5 pm and still 20 minutes walk more to reach the campsite at Chakratirtha, and remember this we had estimated before starting our trekking of the day. This evening here when we were ought to reach our campsite the clouds began to gather and it started drizzling but we were lucky to get in our tent before rain takes it course as the tents were arranged by our potter little before we reach and as we get in to the tents within few minutes started falling rain. It continued and last for more than 2 hours by the time it was ought to be dark, we had our dinner starting with hot soup and then Khichadi Aloopalak papad pickle, then we spends about an hour by doing our paath before goes to bed.

21st  this day and date both were very special to us as on this date 21st of June is the longest day of the year, and today luckily it was our marriage anniversary. We got up at 6.30 am and looked out from the tent a nice shiny morning as if Sun rays was knocking our door and welcoming to us for new day. As we got out of the tent there was the open ground called Chakratirtha, let me tell you that this is also one of the important place where great things were happened like it was this place where Arjun one of the brother of the pandavas had meditated in other words did his Tapasya of lord Shiva to get super weapon like Pashupastra from Shiva and before getting it Arjun had battled with lord Shiva as Shiva put Arjun to test by changing himself into one tribal and asking Arjun to fight and Arjun accepted the challenge thinking that he himself was a supper warrior no one can beat him than what this ordinary tribal would do to him and this was Arjun’s big mistake. He underestimated the opponent and started battling with high ground and what Arjun was uncautious and fell on the ground latter he regain his sense he saw the tribal was still standing in front of him ready to continue battle, but Arjun realized that the tribal was not an ordinary Soul so he requested him to revile his true Spirit and Shiva turn himself and gave Darshan and explaining him that in war one should never under estimate the opponent by his status or appearance and also gave Pashupastra a super weapon to Arjun . It was here at Chakratirtha Arjun had aboard his soul to heaven while on the way to journey of heaven.

Many people had visited this place before us and I heard that some says that we didn’t see god, I think that we very much under estimate the god and starts over judging certifying by ourself visiting such holy places saying that place was nice but we didn’t saw god anywhere on this holy land. The reason I think for this is we people are suppose to be a material people so we need the things to be seen with our own eyes or things could be grabbed within our limit to believe it, I think this is not the way to see god but god is great we always pronounce its true because we don’t know him but he very well know we material people so he always shows his presence by fulfilling our demands and request providing us when we need it. Remember every time material is not important by any reason sometime when unknowingly jeopardize our self in some critical situation and we start thinking there is no way out and suddenly our soul cries and begs with folding hands saying Oh God help me and miracle happens to come out of the bad situation by doing efforts guided by the invisible power and that invisible power is God and this is the way god stays above us creating faith and goes on bonding between spirit and soul. Remember one can count the value of the god and spirits only when a person is moving almost alone where nobody knows him or her, the situation is totally different when we walk in group where we have support of each other hoping best and getting help in detoriot situation. Here I think god say when you have many facility to look out yourself with things and others then why should I look after you so enjoy the journey with all your surrounding instead of me getting me.

Last evening when we reached at Chakratirtha we were having one more group camping at some distance and they were back towards Mana one can see in the above frame at left side with single tent. Since last evening there was rain and cloudy atmosphere there was no chance that we could take any photographs but there was nothing missing and we had great time this morning. There was one den which was used as the resting place for our potters and for kitchen purpose, this place was very nice and nature god was allowing us to spend good time here. 

We were working cool since we got up at 6.30 am, first we got fresh and then we had done our morning puja and paath after that we had our breakfast it was nice to sit on rock with open sky with bright sun light in morning. Today we had Alooparatha pickle and coffee and it was great here I would like to mention about our guide Mannu Rawat’s hospitality it was great and beyond imaginable the way he serve us the food and taking care about our requirement was brilliant there was no room for complain. Then we went to meet the group exchanged some words about the holistic place took couple of photographs and came back to our campsite.

Now it was almost 9 am by the time we got ready and ought to move towards our final destination Satopanth Tal as I would like to confirm the route from here is one can see in 3665 photograph and that is right behind us straight up till the top of the ridge and further down.  Since it was now remaining about 5 kms distance so as usual we estimated that we could reach by 2 pm at Satopanth Tal. As we were having plenty of time today and half the distance to cover compare to last two day we started little late and walked coolly, at some distance we found butterfly and other insect it was certainly where there is little vegetation we always find insects and other creature like birds and rats. Here I saw some butterfly one beautiful insect with shiny dark color tone which was crawling on the grass I picked it up onto my hand and tried to take photo and as I focused the insect right on my palm one butterfly came and sat on my finger and excellent shot I got which was absolute natural.

The distance left behind us as we see in above photo to reach till the ridge seems not very far but fact is it took us to cover the distance till top almost 11/2 hour. From this spot if we look back we see Chakratirtha down below something like this.

Creepy crawly we reached at top of the ridge and it took 21/4 hour, as we reached and looked at other side we were stunned looking absolute rough and boulder zone and we were also amazed by looking so much difference between both side of landscape of same hill one side smooth and grassy and other side absolute rough terrain, one shouldn’t forget that this is the beauty of the mountain which is carved by nature. I say that this way nature gives us great opportunity and allow us to experience to be with it. As other side of the ridge was rough so our guide Mannu Rawat once again took his ice axe and started scratching the slope to make way for us one can see in the photo.

Looking from the top of the ridge as in the photo we can see the boulder zone which we have to cross and it is all the way till behind of the front ridge, out front we can see the Swarg ki seedi with Swargarohini and Chaukhamba.

Seeing the back the rough terrain over boulder zone the ridge we had crossed and from here we can also see the west side of the Neelkanth parvat it was great view. Still we have to continue with same surface of ground we have to cross one more ridge to reach our final destination which is in front of us as we can see in the photo.

Yes we were there at Satopanth Tal it was awesome and great view of magnificent triangular holy lake called Satopanth Tal. We just bow down to the Satopanth Tal and prayed to god and good spirits and thanks to bring us here safely. The scene was so nice that we stood there for some minutes from where we got the clear view of the Satopanth Tal, then we got down till the dwelling which we can see down below and behind that there was our tent.

Here we were suppose to perform small puja ceremony and we took the things for puja and offerings which we had carried from our home within 20 minutes we came down to the bank of Satopanth Tal and sat there and performed puja offered our request letter wrote over Silver sheet and over Bhojpatra which we had collected from the Lakshmi Van and letter written over plane piece of paper all tied with in one bundle. Then we did arti of the holy Satopanth Tal in the name of Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh, by the time we complete our puja it started drizzling and it seems to be rain within few minutes time and we set back to the campsite and get in to the tent had some rest.

The rain continued for 2 hours and then again Sun begin to shine over the area on top of Swargarohini and Chaukhamba, we came out of the tent and had nice time watching the beauty of the Satopanth Tal, Satopanth Parvat, Swargarohini, Chaukhamba, Balakund and at east to our tent Neelkanth parvat was playing hide and seek in the cloud. At one glance if we see at the Satopanth Tal it looks like a big Emerald stone kept in the very big bowl like jewel, and when evening Sun rays fall on it and reflect back is really excellent sight here too even the best expression words were fall short and little.

While enjoying the beauty of nature about 5 pm a group of eight people arrive here in this group there was one 14 year old boy and we were surprised to see him it was great and good daring of the boy to trek till here with all big men. We capture some memories and had some religious words exchanging the knowledge and experience of route, as they were travelling with limited sources of food and absolute without any protecting gears. It was just something like daring playing with the life because in this open ground at above 14000 ft the climate can turn violent without warning and anything worst can happen. But they were lucky enough to get complete the journey as fast they came to Satopanth Tal with same rhythm they went back.

Seeing this condition of those people we felt pity and showed some sympathy by offering them some hot soup and we ask to our guide to make arrangement for them, no doubt Mannu Rawat did arranged and served them but then he was upset and little angry. He said sir why to provide to them like this even I could also do so without asking you as he had carried enough ration with him for we people that it could last still more one week. Latter I came to know why Mannu Rawat said this and the reason was if something happens to them who would take responsibility of it, but it was that kid in the group that drove us to sympathy

22nd on this day we got up very early morning at 3.45 am still it was dark out there and we had planned to go down near Satopanth Tal and sit beside it chanting the guru mantra and pronounce our puja for this we had to wake up Mannu Rawat to help us and take down there and make arrangement for sitting over the rocky surface as it was still dark Mannu Rawat took his torch and mattress for us to sit. After making sitting arrangement he went back to the dwelling. This we were doing as today it was Ekadashi and on this day all three god Brahma, Vishnu, Mahesh suppose to come to have bath here in the Satopanth Tal in Brahma mohurat so we sat beside there and started chanting our guru mantra and prayed to all three gods and also other spiritual power which exist in the universe we sat there about more than one hour and set back to our camp site. We don’t know why but we really feeling great to be here on this auspicious day and in respect of great soul Bhim here on Ekadashi which is named after him we had decided keep fast whole day. Remember it was this place at Satopanth Tal where Bhim one of the brother of pandavas had aboard his soul to heaven.

The way which we had presented in front of Satopanth Tal early morning one may had arise question in the mind likewise did we saw god here I would like to share my experience and very happy to explain this. As I had mentioned earlier that we people are material people living in material world so we always wait and expect something miraculous thing to be happened but it is not true it is not that way that we think happening miracles likewise god appearing and granting some wishes and say Tathastu. Let me explain my experience what we felt here on this day here at Satopanth Tal, as we sat besides the Satopanth Tal and we bow with join hands we saw the water of the Tal was very calm and still, the atmosphere over the Tal was also quite no wind no sound we can hear our breathing sound we pronounced our prayer and chanted our Guru mantra we took half an hour and still the atmosphere was quite and cool and absolute no wind and now we can see the reflection of the front mountain in the water of the Tal as if we see the reflection in the mirror with very clear image. Than we started chanting in the name of three great god Brahma Vishnu and Mahesh looking to the surrounding and to the Satopanth Tal here as we were very much involved in the prayer we did saw happening something unusual and felt something is there responsible for happening. In this zero condition atmosphere with no wind and nothing moving the surface of the water started rippling gently and the rippling was appearing in that area where we were sitting and when we looked towards the wide open side over the Tal the water was still and we can see the reflection of the mountain was absolute like a still image and this scene was continuous for more than 5 minutes and gradually again stopped and became a single still water body. We were spending more and more time as we were felling great with the gratitude of the god, nature or good spirit whatever we say. Now it was about to Sun to shine and it was nearly one hour we spent time sitting beside the Satopanth Tal, as light becomes brighter and wind started moving gently over the water, now we can feel this wind over our face and this started creating the ripples over the Tal’s surface and this time the scene of rippling over water surface was all over the Tal and with a common pattern. Here we bow to the God and the good spirit very gratefully by making experience us the presences of the God, this is fact this is not an illusination and remember one thing anything what is seen by someone is for himself or herself of which it can be share the experience by explaining but cannot make him see.

When we return back to the campsite it was about 5.20 am and still our guide and potters were in their sleeping bags so we stepped in to our tents and took rest for some time. Today there was nothing to do and nowhere to go so we got up at 8.15 am again this morning and got fresh and saw surrounding it was bright sunlight and weather was clear. At this morning Mannu Rawat was doing cleanup work here, he and his men were gathering the thrash and garbage from all over area thrown by the tourists and visitors and set them afire. Seeing the cleaning work of the area by Mannu Rawat I was very much pleased, here I say he is the true guide having true spirit and respect for the nature which is also his Karmabhumi.

As I told earlier here that we had saw some crawling creature like bugs, beetles, ants, different types of flies, butterflies, bumble bees, bees, wasp type insects, centipedes here we had also found sparrow, crow like bird cause its look like crow but it’s beak was yellow, vultures. After finishing the cleanup work Mannu Rawat asked me if there is nothing to do or nowhere to go should he and two of his men can go for adventure to climb the lower level of the mount Satopanth over the Satopanth Tal which he will return within 2 to 3 hours, I said no problomo go ahead and around 9 am they started from the campsite.

So now we decided to take bath and we ask one of Mannu Rawat man named Pravin who didn’t go, and ask him to get prepare hot water for my wife and she took bath and got ready, then I was suppose to take dip in the Satopanth Tal so I took my cloths and asked to Pravin to take one bucket along with him because if the dip is not possible then I can have bath with the bucket filling water. But things were right and to take dip was possible and then I got ready to take spiritual dip in the spiritual Satopanth Tal the water was too cold but when I stepped in water I found it was comfortable I submerge myself till my upper waist and plunged to take three dips in respect of three god Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesh and then came out it was feeling great and I bow and thanks to god and good spirit to allow me to take dips into this holy and pure spiritual Satopanth Tal. Within one hour we finished our bathing program and then we sat beside the Satopanth Tal and offered morning pray we cracked coconut and recite arti of the secrete Tal and we also did our paath and we return back to the campsite.

We had completed our morning routine and by now it were 11.15 am and after few minutes Mannu Rawat and his men arrived from the hiking through Satopanth Parvat glaciers. Here there was one Sadhu called Muni Baba he was with his mounvrat in which he is not supposed to talk but he can express himself either by action or by writing on paper. We met him while he was coming back from the Satopanth Tal filling his cane of water and going towards his dwelling which was situated in front side of the slope little above, we offered him our prayer and bow for blessing and he did excepted our prayer and then we offered some Dakshina but he refused to accept it we don’t know why we ask to Mannu Rawat he explain us that this Sadhu don’t take money rather he accepts some kind of food stuff, as Muni Baba said I need no money so what I will do with money then Sadhu asked to visit us at his dwelling after some time.

Later we discussed about the adventure that Mannu Rawat had been for and he showed the photographs it was just awesome beyond comparable I can only say for the work of Mannu Rawat that I had been watching for last 3 years all the information related to the Satopanth Tal and it’s trek and photographs taken by so many people in different time but nobody ever had done such excellent job. There are no words for appreciating the work done by Mannu Rawat as we see casually Satopanth Tal from the ridge edge and from some different angle at lower level and some down near the Satopanth Tal, but who could imagine going to the Satopanth Parvat trekking further from Satopanth Tal climbing more height about 1000 feet and taking view and photographs from that height and it was done by our guide Mannu Rawat and it was most excellent photographs opening our mind to think broader view of picture of the area. Here are some of the shots taken by Mannu Rawat from far above the Satopanth Tal read the description below every photograph.

My wife today also decided to cook by herself since today it was Bhim Ekadashi so she had to cook the thing that we can eat on fasting day and she prepared plain aloo’s suki subzi with some peanut powder and some flavor. We had our light food and then the weather changes the cloud began to club and it started raining round about 2.30 pm same as daily course rain continued for more than 2 hours and we sat and took nap in our tent. At 5 pm we set outside the tent when rain stopped and decided to go to Muni Baba’s dwelling as it was just 10 minutes walk along the ridge slope we picked up our camera and a small book and pen as Baba directed us.

Here we had satsang with Muni Baba for nearly half an hour as Baba was not talking he wrote every massage on the piece of paper and advised us not to forget the name of god and to always do good thing for mankind, for Baba we had got some Chiky and Prasad of puja which we had performed this morning and he happily accepted. There Muni Baba offered us something to eat as we were fasting we couldn’t have so we took as a Prasad some of the peanuts and bow for blessing and took permission from Baba and step down from the Muni Baba’s place walking down towards our campsite. On the way from here we can see the beautiful view of the Satopanth Tal and its back side mountain slope, on left side of the view we could see our campsite.

After returning from Muni Baba we had some snaps with Mannu Rawat and its hospitality and then it was almost 7.30 pm then we had spent our time gossiping with our guide and then we stepped in to our tent and sat for sometime revising the moments of the day that we had spent and then we did our evening prayer and paath, thus we ended the day very nicely here at Satopanth Tal on Bhim Ekadashi day.

23rd we got up at 6.20 am and as we looked out of the tent we saw the weather was very cloudy and dull we couldn’t see anything little far then our surrounding but luckily there was no rain that was good thing for us to begin our today’s journey. We stepped out of the tent and got ready within 15 minutes, we had our breakfast and soon we packed our luggage and we were ready by 7.25 am to make move for the day journey till Sahastradhara. We started our journey from Satopanth Tal at 7.35 am, as we knew the route we were less bother about walking over the boulder zone, here my wife had good judge to walk with our guide by holding his hand which could probably make easier to walk on the boulder and rough terrain.

As we crossed the half way to the boulder zone the sky began to get cleared and appears as a shiny day the same area started giving clear view of Swargarohini, Chaukhamba and the boulder zone from where we trek down. Here in front we see the ridge which we had to climb and cross, over the ridge we can also see Neelkanth Parvat.

Walking slowly with our pace we crossed the ridge and we were now at Chakratirtha, it took us to reach here almost 3 hour and we crossed the Chakratirtha plain and at the other end of the Chakratirtha we took hault having something to eat and took rest for some time. We had our break here for about an hour and then again we started towards Sahastradhara we crossed one more ridge and sliding down the slope to the plain of the Sahastradhara but before that after walking for 5 minutes we saw another spectacular view of the Neelkanth Parvat in very clear weather.

We reached at Sahastradhara plain by 12.35 pm and it took more 2 hours from here to reach our decided campsite and we made it at 2.10 pm at our campsite on the top of the ridge from here one side we can see all glacier and Alakhnanda river snout far down below and other side we see the Sahastradhara mountain wall and below its plain with water streams. Since today we all were together walking so our potter was suppose to arrange our tent and while our tent gets ready we had couple of photographs and soon our tent was ready and we were in our tent . Mannu Rawat had told us that next day trip will be trekked down below there through the boulder area over the Alakhnanda River snout and further which one can see in the photo. After one hour we had our lunch served by our guide, this descending trekking was easy but catching our hips and toes and we felt tired so we took rest for couple of hour. In mean time we were taking rest our guide and one of his men supervised the paath down over boulder area for three kilometers distance to confirm the route is safe to trek on and he let us now the good news and we were glad to hear this building our confidence for the next day trekking.

On this day there was nothing to see much and do much we just covered the distance all the way from Satopanth Tal through Chakratirtha to Sahastradhara. We had rest for couple of hour and the weather takes it course and started raining as usual like daily happens and same way it rained for nearly 2 hours, By the time day close in our guide asked for the dinner and as we had our lunch late at 3 pm we told him to serve little later. Somewhere at 8.20 pm we had our dinner and sat doing our prayer and paath which took about 45 minutes and then we get into our sleeping bag and slept for the night.