।। कर्ता करे न कर सके, शिव करे सो होय ।।
For the chaos of the life I lead in Mumbai, a journey ‘inward’ was quite enchanting and mystical.
Sacred Mt. Kailash, abode of Lord Shiva lies in the southwest of Tibet surrounded by Karakoram range on one side and mighty Himalayas on other.
Your head bows as you hear this name.
Mt. Kailash is most holy place in Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Bon religion. It is also source of Asia’s longest rivers- Brahmaputra, Indus and Sutlej providing life to millions.
You can visit Mt. Kailash from April to November, rest of the months it is nearly impossible to visit.
Completing inner kora of Mt. Kailash and visiting holy Lake Mansarovar was always in my mind but lord shiva only heard my prayers in 2019.
We 5 friends planned a visit via Nepal and chose route via Nepalgunj a city in west south of Nepal. I took a flight to Kanpur from Mumbai and from there we reached Nepalgunj via road. We stayed overnight there.
Rakshas Tal
The Journey
We reached Nepalgunj around noon and stayed overnight and from there we took a flight to Simkot. Flight from Nepalgunj is completed on a small aircraft and you barely fit on the seat. Flights are dependent on weather in Simkot, our flight was also delayed for couple of hours.
Just for records, altitude of Lucknow is 2,000 ft and hilsa is at 12,000 ft.
We took a helicopter from Simkot for Hilsa. It is a small town on Nepal China Border. A river separates both countries, helicopter flies through narrow mountain terrains and takes about 20 minutes to reach Hilsa. You have power only for 2 hours here and weather is very unpredictable, we had to stay in Hilsa in a small guest house due to bad weather, which is little ahead of village on a small hillock.
Bridge at Hilsa Village
Next day we crossed border via a small hanging bridge over river on foot, in 10 minutes we were in china in a town called taklakot, it is a town of south west Tibet. Our passports were stamped, and screening of bags was done along with contents in cameras and mobiles.
Taklakot served as our base camp, town has small market and a decent hotel. It was quite windy and cold there, though sun used to set at 930 PM. We went to local market and bought few sticks for walking and dry fruits for trek.
Back side of Secluded Village ‘ Hilsa’
By night we had our first surprise, 2 out of we five friends had diarrhoea and vomiting due to thin air and high Altitude. Next day, they were hospitalized in local clinic. We postponed our further trek.
‘Yam Dwar’ just After Manas Lake
Next day, we started our journey to Manas lake, we also stopped at a beautiful lake called Rakshas Tal and headed to Yam Dwar.
Prayer Flags in the valley
As per mythology, we should not take dip in Rakshas lake whereas taking a dip in Lake manas in considered to rid you of all your sins.
Lake Manas
First day trek was 12 KMS which took us to a place called DeraPukh at an altitude of 16,500 ft. We stayed in a mud house, our body was not taking anything in except hot water and soup. No washrooms made situations worse.
Mud houses
Wildlife Enroute
Family of Marmots and Wild Yak
At DeraPukh, we were at Charan sparsh of mighty Kailash parvat in its full glory, we symbolically bent on hilly floor and paid our respect. It was a moment of complete surrender for all of us and having faith in all the mythological stories we have heard about this place.
I found few persons completing kora by crawling in entire trek. It was nothing but human belief in the Almighty.
The place where we surrender in Journey
It was best darshan we had in entire journey, it was north face of Kailash.
In midnight, 2 of my friends started having nose bleeding and felt unwell. due to very low level of oxygen, we could barely sleep almost entire night worrying about next day. We again had hot soup and water; body was resisting taking anything inside.
Gauri Kund
After a discussion in morning we decided to continue our trek to Zuzukpukh. This was our most difficult trek as it was 22 KMS and we need to go at an altitude of 18,700 ft.
My Friends of Journey- Stick and Horse
The ‘Darshan’- North face
To give an example of level of uphill we were going to trek was like this. We went up an elevation of 700 mts. in 5 KMS. It’s like reaching Khandala peak from Mumbai in 5 KMS in place of 60 KMS.
Midway, I developed severe stomach cramps and my other friend had very high fever, but we took medicines and continued our journey. It was not physical strength but inner will to complete Kora which kept us going.
Enroute we also visited Gauri Kund surrounded by deep valleys and beautiful east face of Kailash and our faith kept us moving.
Learnings
A plethora of human emotions stay with you throughout the trek- Presence of Almighty, Faith and Resilience, to name a few.
An Altitude of 5,600 Mts, temp of (-8) and complete silence everywhere tests your physical limits and mental strength.
Gorgeous landscapes and amazing wildlife which eyes witness, mind doesn’t believe, leaving oneself with bewildering experience.
On personal note, this journey made me realize that I am not even a particle in the grandeur of universe.
I was cut down to size… forever.
For first time, I experienced ‘Nothingness’.
‘Reflections‘
8 out of a group of 60 completed Kora including we friends.
I Bow!!
Summary
Nepal gunj
Simkot
Hilsa
Taklakot
Rakshas Tal
Mansarovar lake
Yama dwar- trek starts
Dera pukh- 12 kms- night stay
Gauri Kund- 9 Kms
Zuzul Pukh- 13 Kms
Taklakot – night stay
Lucknow elevation-117 M
Simikot-3225 mts
Taklakot-3890 mts/12800 ft
Lake-4600 mts/15500
1st day kora-4900/16500 ft-12 kms
2 nd day kora-5630/19000 ft-22 kms
3rd day kora-4730 mts-8/10 kms
Trekking Map
