Went to India in August 2007 (I know I was crazy to go in August, but I just forget how hot it gets).
I went for two weeks. One week was spent going to Sri Hemkunt Sahib Ji. Here is a map of the journey (blue line)
View Larger MapIt was quite tough because of the tight schedule, which wasn't helped by the odd land slide along the way!!!
We set off during the night from Panjab and got to Hrishikesh at about 1.30am. We slept for a few hours at a huge gurdwara complex. We all got up for a bout 6.00am and set off for Gobind Ghat. This was as far as the car would go. From now on it was all going to be on foot.
We had a good nights rest (at a gurdwara complex again)and woke up at about 5.00am. The first part of the walk was to Gobind Dham. It was a 13 km trek along the river Ganga in some beautiful scenery. The path was mostly good and not too steep. It took a full day to do the walk to Gobind Dham.
The next day we woke up very early at about 4.00am because the plan was to get to Hemkunt Sahib Ji and then go all the way back down to Gobind Ghat. It would be very tight. The trek from Gobind Dham to Hemkunt Sahib Ji was very tough. It was 7km steep path with very few flat sections. The air was getting thin and we were noticeably more breathless. We finally reached Hemkunt Sahib Ji at about 10am. It was a clear crisp morning and we could see for miles. We did our dips in the lake and did Ardaas. It suddenly became overcast so we decided to make a move and set off back down.
We had to rush down and try to get to Gobind Ghat before it got dark. Unfortunately a group of us had to do the last 3km in darkness. There were about 20 of us walking, as fast as they could, down a broken path sharing the light from one persons torch. That was an experience I won't forget in a hurry.
Fortunately we all got down in one piece and the next day we set off for home.
Here are some photos of the journey
