This was my maiden trek and I am glad I chose Valley of Flowers and Hemkund Saheb. I carried home tonnes of great memories from the trip that I will cherish for my life. Serene Nature, Splendid weather, a great company of cousins, new friends we made and the team who lead the trek made a perfect mixture to cherish. While the chirpy young kept the team charged, the conviction of the others was inspirational to the rest. I am also glad that Thrillophillia conducts this trip which I came to know after reading thrillophilia reviews. The field team lead by Yogi and Sandeep was awesome. At some point or other everyone in the group were amazed with their knowledge, patience, perseverance, untiring efforts to make the trip a memorable and comfortable one for the entire team. Their daily briefing was quite interesting. Valley of flowers amazed us with the nuances it offered every minute. The continuous rain, the chill of the breeze, narrow steep path, rolling stones, changing landscape every minute, moving clouds around you, crossing the river over narrow bridges…. The list goes on and on Hemkund Saheb is another marvel. This place left most of the team members ecstatic. What a bliss. The only place I have seen made many people cry with joy. A place that one must visit atleast once in their lifetime. The trek(mule ride), the hospitality at the Gurudwara were breathtaking. It was a testimony to what faith can bring out of people. We could see people of all age groups from 3 to 70+ trek all the way from Govindghat to Hemkund Saheb, carrying children and luggage on shoulders and sometime on mules. Wow… We were exposed to a new world of Ghangaria which come alive in March and sleeps over from October. A town that has everything active only for 4 months.
The stay at kund was a very pleasant one. It had wonderfull golden views of Kedardome. Sound of mountain river just below the campsite was like a soothing lullaby. The fully blooming rhododendron gave the perfect reddish look of the season FALL. Now as we come to the part of the trek to deorital, the day started with a double puncture of one of our car which was to take us to SARI. But to our joy it provided us the perfect excuse to start our trek right from kund. The opportunity gave us time to photograph the kedar dome from a height and on the way we also came by a hilly waterfall which gave us plenty to take home some mesmerizing photographs. By the time our car was ready to take us to Sari. On reaching Sari we started our climb to Deorital Lake . On the way we filled up our water bottles from a mountain spring and wow the most refreshing drink i had in my life off cousre accompanied by chewing of rhododendron petals. On reaching deorital we were greeted with patches of snow and a mesmerizing view of snow clad-en peaks of Chaukhamba. We could even capture the reflection of the cliffs in the clear water of the lake. After having a packed lunch we descended down to sari by taking a visit to hilly temple. On the way back we went to Ukhimath, the winter home of BABA Kedarnath. The secondays climb was from Chopta. There was snow right from Chopta. We claded our shoes with the mandatory spikes and started our climb throw the snow laden valley and mountain sides of chopta taking occassional breaks. The temple of Tungnath was almost under snow. After taking a break at tungnath we further ascended to Chandrasila peak making new path through the fresh snows. And like we were on the top of the world with 360 degree view of Nanda Devi, Trishul and Chaukhamba. The weather had by then started getting little naughty with patches of black clouds hovering around. After taking a quick packed lunch we started our descend, which was packed with thrills and surprises courtesy our guide Monu Rana. We went back to our childhood days by sliding and rolling through the snows like 3 year old toddlers and just yelling in excitement. On reaching chopta we boarded our cars to be back to kund. A heavy downpour welcomed us to Kund and let us have a unique experience of heavy mountain lashes.
Next day we were back to Haridwar after having a tastefull lunch at Jayalgarh.
A wow experience of lifetime in my sixth trek.
All the arrangements, food, logistics, and support was superb. Both our trek guides especially Mr. Narendra supported and took very good care, continuously motivating and helping throughout the journey.
This trek requires good fitness and endurance, it would have been good if we were given a heads up about the steep trails and low oxygen. Other than that I loved and enjoyed the experience. Happy with Thrillophillia team. Devashish was also very patient and helpful.
"it was incredible experience. VOF is famous for its 80 and more rare flowers species. trek was 12000 ft above from the sea level. It was not easy but when I saw the colors of flowers it inspired me to go ahead and explored more.."
"This is one of the finest treks I have ever been to. The food was too good. Love the team and how they talk is a treat to watch. Overall, it was a relaxing and mind-blowing."
Dayara Bugyal is Out of the World!! We did a Winter Trek, so got to see a lot of Snow & also experienced Snowfall. However, the Trek is not easy & is definitely not for Beginners. We were 3 Ladies in the age group of 50-55, 2 of whom were 1st time trekkers & had a tough time making it to the top. One of them turned back from Gui as she developed severe leg cramps. Also there was only one guide from Raithal to Gui, who went off ahead with the Youngsters, leaving us to fend for ourselves. Ideally, there should have been 2 guides. Once at the Camp however, things were well taken care off. With limited resources, one cannot & should not expect much anyway.
The arrangement and beautiful places is something one need ro relax. Good job thrillophilia
This is significantly down to Team Thrillophilia who gave us the most amazing experience. Their professionalism was fantastic. They were friendly, punctual, reliable and so flexible to our needs. 100% recommended.
the street food of Haridwar will definitely bring me back to the city for sure... the trip was very well planned and we were right on time to enjoy the Ganga arti.. a must thing to experience in a life time. and a road trip to Mussoorie was a cherry on the cake.
