wrong turns - Blogabond

Its a scary 12 hour bus ride to Joshimath on what the Indians call a "deluxe" bus. But everything from the narrow wooden seats to the bottomed out suspension to the boy that leans over me to vomit out the window tell a different story. Joshimath is situated on on 45 degree hillside that seems impossibly stable. Terraced rice fields litter the hills awaiting the oncoming monsoon.
The next day we hiked 7 hours uphill into a town called Gungaria. It is only reachable by this hike and is the access point to the Valley of the flowers as well as some crazy temple by a lake. We Split a hotel with some Isreali hippies that night to keep the costs low. The next morning, keen to see the Valley of the flowers we started off with a fast pace up the steep switchback path. Several hours past and still switchback after switchback we went. Finally about 5 hours into it we caught up to our Isreali friends, they said "what are you doing here?" It was at that point we realized that we took a wrong turn and we were 3/4 up the hill to the crazy temple by the lake! The Valley of the flowers was the next valley over. So it looks like crazy temple by the lake today and valley of the flowers tomorrow.

crazy temple by a lake pic

valley of flowers in the rain

valley of flowers

nice view

written by

Greg on June 18, 2007 from Joshimath, India

from the travel blog: Adventures in Curry

Send a Compliment

comment on this...