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| Bhagirathi Sisters' view from Tapovan. From front II, III and I |
9th October 2025
I did my third trek of the year 2025 recently. Over a 12-month calendar this is my fourth trek (ABC, Goechala, Rumtse to Tso Moriri and now this). This was a five-day trek from Gangotri to Tapovan via Gomukh and Bhojbasa. I went with Sumanta Jana's Wings of Mind group. My fellow trekkers were Aditi, a middle-aged couple Atindra and Madhumita (they are Aditi's friends), a young couple called Wasim and Monalisa - while Wasim is a Bengali living in Bangalore, his wife Monalisa is Oriya and works as a doctor in Cuttack. There was another Bengali guy named Shuvro. He lives in Barasat.
While Sumanta walked with us all along as the trek leader (in fact he went with us right from Howrah in the same train. Aditi's son was to go too but cancelled in the last moment), the main arrangements were done by a few guys based in Gangotri. Manish was the main guy who organised our porters, stay, cooking, tents and sleeping bags etc, Obviously I carried my own sleeping bag and tent.
We took the Rajdhani from Calcutta to Delhi and took the connecting train to Dehradun where we reached in the night. We checked into a cheap hotel nearby for the night and next morning set out for Gangotri in a Tempo Traveller. There were four other trekkers in the bus who were Manish's direct customer. Three of them were middle aged Bengalis from Bhadreswar. They would go as far as Basuki Taal. Subhasish Banerjee, Sumit Das and Tanmoy (can't remember his surname). There was another guy from Bangalore - Parth Jain. This was his first trek. He would do exactly the same trek that we would do. In Gangotri another Bengali guy joined us Madhu Bhakta from Kalyani.
So from Gangotri to Tapovan these 12 of us walked. The Bhadreswar trio had their own guide named Ganesh, who is from Nepal and they walked much faster than us. On day one Gangotri to Bhojbasa our local trek leader was one Chaavi Lal. After that one Ravi took charge for the rest of the journey. Sumanta was there all along with us.
I will briefly write down here our day by day schedule
26th September Day 1 - Howrah to Delhi in Rajdhani
27th September Day 2 - Dehradun hotel near station
28th September Day 3 - Dehradun to Gangotri by bus and night in Bharat Sevasram Dharamsala
29th September Day 4 - Gangotri to Bhojbasa on foot (overnight in tent)
30th September Day 5 - Bhojbasa to Tapovan (overnight in tent)
1st October Day 6 - Rest day in Tapovan (overnight in tent)
2nd October Day 7 - Tapovan to Bhojbasa via Gomukh (overnight in tent)
3rd October Day 8 - Bhojbasa to Gangotri (overnight in Bharat Sevasram)
4th October Day 9 - Gangotri to Dehradun and onwards to Delhi (overnight in Dadu's Noida house)
5th October Day 10 - Train to Sealdah
6th October Day 11 - Arrival in Calcutta
The tempo journey from Dehradun to Gangotri took the entire day. The road follows the river Bhagirathi on its almost entire journey. Frankly, I could not understand the route but we went via Musoorie where I had come with my parents in 1976. The bus journey took us something like 10 hours. On the way came Harshil which was in the center of news recently as an infamous cloud burst happened here a few weeks ago. We saw the devastation caused by the stream flowing through Harshil. The road here was closed for several weeks after the disaster in August. But now it is motorable, though restoration and repair work was still going on in places. This also caused some hold ups and delays.
Amid all the devastation there were many apple sellers selling garden fresh apples to the tuurist buses and cars. This region produces good quality apple and there were many orchards by the roadside with plants fully loaded with red juicy apples.
From Gangotri bus stand to the temple it is a straight walk of less than five minutes - there is only this one road in Gangotri which has shops on either side selling various puja materials and lots of eateries. We were put up in a Dharamsala (pilgrim's inn) right next to the temple. Kali Kamli Yatri Niwas. I was asked to share a room with the other seniors like Aditi, Madhumita and Atindra. There were two double bedded cots in a room which would mean me sharing the bed with Atindra perhaps. I politely declined and took a room of my own at my own cost. This room was in another Dharamsala run by Bharat Sevasram Sangha. But it is managed by a guy called Dipinder who runs a tea stall in front. It had a nice bathroom with a geyser. I felt very comfortable there and made endless cups of coffee for myself. Even on the return leg I took the same room. They charged Rs 1000 per night.
Later on the trail I realised that Atindra snores so loudly that I had to put ear plugs even when sleeping in a seperate tent at least 30/40 feet away from his. Aditi shared the tent with the two of them. I wonder how she or Madhumita could sleep amid that roar. Aditi's son is their daughter's class friend and that is how they know one another.
Gangotri temple does not look very ancient, though it actually is. Some businessman must have "restored" or modernised it, robbing it of its authenticity as a traditional temple. According to Google it was built sometime in the 18th Century by a Gurkha. It had very few pilgrims that night and I had a comfortable darshan of the goddess. This lack of pilgrims is possibly due to all the publicity to the cloud bursts of Harshil and the latest one in Dehradun a few days before our travel.
The river Bhagirathi flows right next to the temple complex and the roar of the river can be heard very loud and clear. It indeed flows very fiercely here. But in the evening the sound of devotional songs over the mike was terrible and completely drowned the river sound. The nuisance stopped when the temple gate closed at 8 pm.
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| The first snow capped peak from Gangotri. Possibly Mt Sudarshan |
From Gangotri you can see a beautiful snow peak very prominently in front. Opinion was divided about its name. But I guess it's Sudarshan peak. This peak is visible for a long distance as you walk towards Bhojbasa.
From Gomukh the river is named Bhagirathi upto Devaprayag where it meets Alokananda and becomes Ganga. The very large Tehri dam is on Bhagirathi actually.
Next morning we started a little late out of Gangotri. We were told we would start at 8.30 am but by the time we started from the Forest Check Post where one has to take the permits etc it was 10.30. After this checkpost one enters the Gangotri National Park.
We walked with the river flowing to our right. Our destination is Bhojbasa. I have heard this name so many times in the past from other trekkers and mountaineers. Many expeditions start from here and is the last stop before the real Himalayan wilderness starts. First came Chirbasa which used to be a camp site earlier. It is a wooded area with a small tea stall run by the forest guard posted there. Before Chirbasa there was a section where the trail just hangs by the mountainside. It is wide enough not to scare you off but the river flows right below this ledge of a trail. There is a railing here but it is broken and of no use.
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| The main trail was blocked in places where we had to cross such bridges |
We were told Chirbasa campsite has been destroyed by floods and landslides. I think it is a patent lie by the local tour leaders to keep the journey short. Our original plan was to spend the first night in Chirbasa and then at Bhojbasa. Since we skipped Chirbasa we decided to spend the extra day at Tapovan which was a great thing to do actually.
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| Porters and trekkers on the way to Bhojbasa |
The walk from Chirbasa to Bhojbasa is also featureless except a longish section that is declared a "rock falling zone". There are official boards on either side of this zone and it is there for a very long time. I was walking more or less alone and tried to cross the section as quickly as possible. Soon after crossing it (I think it took us 10 minutes), it started getting cloudy and a light drizzle started. I pulled out the poncho and walked with it. Otherwise the day was quite sunny and bright till then. After this section I realised we were beyond the tree line and the surroundings only had some short shrubs.
The three peaks of Bhagirathi were already visible on this side of the river. On the other side of the river there were other snowcapped peaks whose names I do not know.
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| Bhagirathi Sisters II and III as seen from trail to Bhojbasa |
The Bhojbasa campsite came in sight at around 5 pm. It was quite below the trail at a distance and visible from far. There is a small police station and a GMVN tourist bungalow here. It is not a traditional village with its own population.
Our tents were pitched next to the GMVN building. I realised my off loaded bag had still not come, which meant I would have to wait to pitch my tent. It was being carried by porters and not by mules. On this route mules are not used. I realised the next day why.
The Bhadreswar trio asked me to sit it out in their tent. Their bags had also not come in. It was getting dark and I was not happy that I would need to pitch the tent in the dark. The place was cramped with five six tents pitched in close proximity.
Soon I saw few men carrying a sick person on a stretcher and putting him down in front of our tent. A very fat young man sat up slowly. I was happy to see he was alive. They had brought him down from Tapovan - the stretcher belonged to India Hikes which has a permanent tent base at Bhojbasa. This guy is Bengali and is down with AMS. His body was shaking from time to time like he was having a seizure or convulsion. Apparently on the way up he did not feel well and was advised by his friends to go back from Bhojbasa but he insisted on going up. This was his first trek in life. He also had breathing problem.
An army doctor arrived from somewhere (they have a camp in the neighbourhood) and administered Diamox and some other medicines. Later he was given oxygen and by evening he was feeling better. Next morning he was taken down to Gangotri in the same stretcher and I am sure he survived. Very lucky. He could easily have died without his friends' and Indian Army's support. Funnily enough, on the return leg I learnt the Army doctor himself later got sick with AMS as they went exploring the surroundings :-)
The porters arrived pretty late with our bags (they started an hour after us) and I set out to pitch the tent in right earnest. It got dark pretty soon which was not the main problem as I had the very powerful Nitecore torch to help me. The main problem was dealing with various fellow trekkers, trek leaders and porters offering to help me. I had to be almost rude to refuse them explaining that this tent is totally different and one cannot pitch it unless one knows exactly how to do it. So the best help would be to keep off.
The Nepali porters have this helping attitude written in their genes. I have seen them offering to help with various camping chores quite voluntarily even after carrying very heavy loads for the whole day. But my tent is such that unless you know how to do it you cannot help pitch it.
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| My tent at Tapovan Campsite. Mt Meru behind |
The surface on which I had to pitch it was totally rocky. I could sleep more or less comfortably mainly because of the Sea to Summit air mattress that I had. It is very light and packs really small but offers a comfortable floor to sleep on unless the ground is very cold. But driving the pegs in on such a rocky surface was a real challenge. I managed somehow. The Bhadreswar trio's trek leader - one Ganesh from Nepal - helped me with driving some of the pegs in.
Bhojbasa was quite chilly but I had a good night's sleep despite the rocky surface and the chilly night. My tent is as good as weather proof if you close all the zips. I keep a few vents open though to avoid condenstion. Our team mate Monalisa was a little under the weather. She should have taken Diamox from Dehradun but many Indians have a reluctance to take Diamox as if it is some dangerous and banned medicine. It is just a regular preventive medicine.
Our day two trek was Bhojbasa to Tapovan. We would not go to Gomukh on the way up but cover it on the way back. Right outside the camping area of Bhojbasa one has to cross the river Bhagirathi and how? There is a trolley service that one has to use. It is one of the crudest means of transport I have ever seen. Let me explain it.
There is an iron rope across the river from which hangs a small iron trolley. It's like an open cage. After loading the people and goods, the trolley is released. Gravity takes it up to the midpoint over the river. The journey from here to the other side is possible only if a few men pull the trolley by the other rope. It is an extremely hard manual work if the trolley is fully loaded. Usually about eight men board a trolley per trip. Large sacks are hung from a carabiner below the trolley. Smaller sacks are kept on the floor.
There is no agency that operates this service. The entire operation survives on the various porters belonging to the different trekking groups. They help each other out. In the absence of a controlling agency there is utter confusion about queue or any order in boarding. But I noticed each trip had at least one porter who would climb down a knotted rope in case the rope's slack got caught in a boulder on the river bed. He would untangle that and pull etc. Almost every trip needed this maneuver and intervention. I have no idea how the first batch crosses the river, because you don't have any porter on the other side to pull you. No one could quite explain it to me.
I cannot imagine that on one of the most sacred piligrimage routes of India such a crude and disorganised manual system is operational. Apparently this trolley had to be installed after landslides washed out the old trail on this side of the river. Even in 2010 when my friend Dadu and Shraboni went to Gomukh there was no such trolley crossing. And pilgrims did not need to cross the river to go to Gomukh. Those going to Tapovan went to the other side over the glacier after Gomukh.
The trolley crossing is also the obvious reason why mules are not used on this route. Bhagirathi below is absolutely fierce.
It took us about an hour, if not more to cross the river and we started on the trail to Tapovan in right earnest. One has to follow the river very close till almost Gomukh, often walking on the river bed. The trail is almost entirely over boulders and not very well defined. Till Bhojbasa it is very well defined. Here you can see the three Bhagirathi peaks on the left and Mt Shivling on the right hand side.
Legend has it that when Ganga decided to come to earth she did not know where to land for wherever she landed it would be destroyed by her force. So lord Shiva told her to land on his dreadlock. That is where Shivling is. From Gomukh Bhagirath the king was tasked with showing her the way to the mainland. He led her blowing a conchshell upto Devaprayag where she meets Alokananda and from here the river is called Ganga.
From one point on the trail it gradually starts going up towards Tapovan and the trail often goes completely missing amid large boulders. I was quite alone on this stretch except for the odd porter or two. They were often asking me to share my water with them, which I happily did. These porters, easily carrying at least 20/25 kg, are almost all Nepali migrant workers and were happy to find I spoke their language. In fact one of them got very emotional when he found me on the way back, he was going in the opposite direction. He stopped with his heavy load and shook hand with me on the trail with a very broad smile and spoke for some time. I cannot remember who got so genuinely happy to see me after only three days - knowing fully well that we would perhaps never meet again.
The trail either had large boulders or smaller rocks or even dust on the slopes. My new boot did very well over dusty slopes and did not slip at all. Soon I came to a small stream coming down from the right. It is a narrow stream but one had to climb down to it over the boulders, cross it and then climb up again. For crossing the stream there was one large rock in the middle of the flowing water. You stepped on it and jumped to the other side. I have become quite bad at jumping, of late - possibly lack of strength in the legs. A porter who came down to drink some water held me by the hand and helped me cross.
I climbed up from the stream quite fine and after about 500 feet came to a level landing sort of place. Here for whatever reason I stumbled against a rock. I had the walking sticks held firmly in the hands and tried several times to balance myself but could not control the fall. I fell headlong like a drunken man. Only the three peaks of Bhagirathi were witness to this fall. I cried out a big "Maa" as the right corner of my forehead hit the ground. I was immensely lucky that my head did not hit any sharp rock.
The first thing I checked were my glasses. For the first time I had no back up with me in my sack and if this pair broke I would need to just sit by the side of the trail and wait for someone to rescue me. I cannot even see my face on the mirror without my glasses. Walking alone on this trail without glasses is an impossibility for me. But the glasses were intact. Only the right handle had a small crack near its hinge. This was a pair of Ray Ban. An ordinary frame would have broken easily.
I discovered there were a few bruises on the fingers. I had fallen on my fists. So the bruises were on the other side of the fingers. Nothing significant and they have almost healed now except one. I must mention that I had my cycling half gloves on. So all the bruises were above the middle knuckle. The corner of my eye was hurting a bit and I realised it was bleeding. Some blood soon collected on the glass which I wiped off. I gathered myself and got up (which was not easy) and resumed walking. Not even for a moment did I panic.
I am not a very courageous person but in such situations survival instincts kick in. I knew I had to keep walking and move out of this place. I could not afford to sit and cry. The thought did not even come to my mind. People thank God in such situations for all the bad things that did not happen. But my point, despite being God fearing, is that God himself brought me down. Might as well spare me, if he was so benevolent. Did he want to send me a message? May be. No idea.
I realised my most favourite green Endura jacket was totally in tatters around the belly. The GoPro in the pocket also had a big scratch on the screen, which I discovered later. The screen is not usable any more but it is recording videos fine.
A porter came along and asked for water from me. I asked him if I was injured on the face or if it was badly bloody. He almost ignored it saying "yeah a bit". After some time I met three more porters resting. They seemed to notice the injury and were very concerned. Their first question was who is your trek leader and where on earth is he. I said the main team is behind me. But the local leader has probably gone ahead. They seemed annoyed with the situation.
I knew the Bhadreswar trio was ahead of me. So was Parth. Madhu was relatively less ahead of me. I soon caught up with him who was also quite concerned to see my injury. He and I carefully negotiated the boulders to reach the Tapovan camp site.
I must clarify once again that I did not fall on any difficult section of the trail. I fell on a very flat surface. Either my toe got stuck or my heel hit a rock and I got disbalanced. I have noticed that of late I don't raise my leg too much while walking and almost drag them. This could be the reason for the disbalance. I have to walk more in Calcutta with a load. It is a very good upper body exercise, in any case.
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| A herd of Blue Sheep came calling at the Tapovan camp site |
At the Tapovan campsite I was greeted by the Bhadreswar Trio who were quite concerened about the injury. They offered T Bact ointment. But before that I set out to pitch my tent on the beautifully flat campsite below Mt Shiv Ling. I think it was around 3 pm when Madhu and I reached the site.
After pitching the tent Madhu helped me apply the T-bact and I went inside the tent to rest. After an hour or so Sumanta and party came along. Sumanta started jumping around, trying to be of help and being apologetic etc. I realised he was hopelessly inadequate in terms of first aid kit. Earlier I used to carry all my own first aid like cotton wool, bandage, ointment etc. Then I tought since I walk with agencies they all have these things. I am smarter now after the fall. I will not only carry these always in future but keep them in my personal rucksack.
In the evening as I lay in the tent I turned on my side and something slimy fell in my eye making my vision blurry. I rubbed it out with my fingers. But soon I realised I was bleeding profusely. It collected on my sleeping bag and the air mat. I guess I had rubbed over the injured spot and made it bleed. Sumanta came with some cotton wool and bandaged the corner of my eye with Borline. Luckily I had the tape for the bandage. The bandage was so thick that I could not even wear my glasses over it any more. He said he would send the dinner to my tent.
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| Wuthering heights of Mt Shivling |
Next day was supposed to be a rest day. I realised the bandage was no good as I needed to wear my glasses. So I removed it in the morning. But now I realised the eye lid and the surroundings were so swollen that I could only half open the eye. If the eye did not improve by tomorrow I will have to hold someone to climb down from Tapovan to Gomukh.
The others in the team went for a short walk away from the camp towards Nandanvan. There is a Mouni Baba Ashram nearby. I could see its flag but did not venture out. I was very happy in my tent.
The Bhadreswar trio left for their onward journey to Basuki Taal. Madhu went back to Bhojbasa alone as he had a train to catch after three days. He was not aware of this rest day plan and had his train ticket made without any buffer. I was later told that he made it to Dehradun on time to catch his train. T
The Tapovan campsite is a beautiful wide open and flat brown field. You have Mt Shivling right in front of you and Meru on the side. There is a very narrow stream that flows here marking the boundary of the campsite. They call it Akash Ganga. There are two Ashrams here - one is Mouni Baba's Ashram which is more famous than the other. Sadhus live here round the year. I have no idea how they get their supplies in winter. In fact right after our return the area experienced very heavy snowfall and trekkers are not being permitted to go beyond Bhojbasa.
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| The blue sheep herd didn't care about trekkers close by |
In the afternoon we saw some Bharals (blue sheep) come very close to the campsite. They are obviously used to trekkers and some of our trek mates went pretty close. I sat inside my tent and photographed them with my 70-200 lens. Sometime in the afternoon I realised that a very light snowfall was happening but it did not materialise into anything significant.
Next morning we saw a glorious sun rise on the peaks of Meru and Shivling. Meru I believe is a very difficult peak to climb and has been summitted for the first time only very recently. Apparently many famous mountaineers have failed to scale it, though it is not so high.
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| Sunrise at Tapovan |
The Bhagirathi peaks are at such an angle to the sun that they are not very photography friendly till well past mid day.
After the rest day we came down from Tapovan to Bhojbasa via Gomukh. There were many other trekkers from the more famous agencies like India Hikes and Trek the Himalaya. I found all of them were wearing mountaineering helmets because this zone from Tapovan down to Gomukh is a rock fall zone. Particularly if you have some Bharals moving above you they can dislodge loose rocks that start rock falls. When we were close to Gomukh we saw a rock fall with a lot of noise and dust. It is like a dry avalanche.
Gomukh looks like a metro rail tunnel from where the fierce Bhagirathi comes out. This mouth of the glacier is famously retreating every year. The snow here looks greyish and you will not know it is snow unless you are told. They look like grey rock. There were a few chunks of snow lying in the middle of the river that have fallen off the main glacier and are melting.
When I first saw the confluence of Bhagirathi and Alokananda at Devaprayag I wondered why Bhagirathi's source is seen as the source of Ganga and not Alokananda's source, which is more fierce of the two. I later realised two things - A. Bhagirathi is narrow at Devaprayag because of the huge Tehri Dam which tames it into a relative trickle a few kilometers before the confluence. Before the dam was built the river was probably much bigger. B. The Gomukh glacier is still the largest glacier in all of Himalayas and Asia too. Ancient Hindus probably knew this and have been revering it for a long time.
I also believe that such massive high altitude dams will soon have to be removed and the original force of the natural rivers will have to be restored sometime in future. This has started happening in the West. I hope good sense will prevail upon our governments soon.
From Gomukh I filled a small bottle with the purest possible Ganga water for taking back to my mother in law. I remembered that in Haridwar in 1976 my mother bought a milk container to collect Ganga water. She took a lot of pain to save this over the next leg of our journey through Delhi, Agra etc and brought it home. She used it for her pujas. If my mother was alive I would bring a big bottle of Gomukh water for her. In her absence I brought one small container for my mother in law. Subsequently I gave it away to Shrabani when she said how she had brought a bottle from Gomukh and it was used by her MIL in no time without regard to her sentiment. I had no idea that she was fond of Ganga water, otherwise I would bring more for her.
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| Gomukh Glacier |
The return journey from Gomukh to Bhojbasa and Gangotri was featureless. One notable thing about this trek is that we did not face any inclement weather during the trek. We boarded a Bolero from Gangotri to go to Dehradun where we reached almost at 7 pm. There were massive jams just before entering the city. Even the city itself was terribly polluted. From Dehradun station (where Wasim and Monalisa had a train to catch) we took a taxi to go to Delhi. I was dropped at Sarai Kale Khan at around quater to one in the middle of the night. I took an Uber from there to Dadu's house and reached in ten minutes.
Shraboni was awake and greeted me with a cup of coffee even at that wee hour of the morning. The next afternoon, after a hearty breakfast and lunch and a lot of long chats she dropped me off at the railway station from where we took the Rajdhani to Sealdah and reached home on Monday at around 11 pm.
Today is Sunday. I have in these seven days unpacked, got my clothes etc washed, boots cleaned, sleeping bags sun-bathed, sleeping bag and mat's blood stains cleaned. I am more or less sorted for the next trek :-) But I am not sure where.
My wish list for 2026 is Ladakh, Bari Nanda Yat, Annapurna Circuit and Kuwari Pass. Let me see what is in store for me. The Ladakh Hemis Festival can clash with the Bari Nanda Yat. Bari Nanda Yat happens only once in 12 years. So we shall see. In Ladakh my wish is to see the Hemis Festival, cycle from Leh to Tso Moriri and back and also hike in Markha Valley. If possible I want to rent a motorcycle and go to Phuktal too. Let me see how much of these I can do.
Now I will download the camera pictures and upload them.
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| He knew I was there albeit in the tent. Being the alpha male he kept guard |
