Chardham Yatra - Part 7 (Nayatala to Sitapur)

Day 6 (24th May, 2019) - We were woken up at 5 a.m. to have our morning coffee and then finish morning rituals which included packing our bags for the nth time. By 6 a.m. we were ready to proceed and by 6.30 a.m. we left Nayatala towards Sitapur, base camp of Kedarnath. It was a very long journey - about 250 kms.  Though the journey was very long, we didn't get much tired, as we were entertained to very good vintage songs being belted out by Rafi, Kishore, Lata, Asha, Mukesh and others through the music system (Caravan Saregama) brought by one of our group members.

On the way we stooped at an eatery which was situated next to a small temple and we had Upma & chutney for breakfast. The eatery was also serving Idli Sambhar which I tried and found it to be quite good – apparently the owner had spent some time in Tamil nadu where he learnt the art of making Idli & Sambhar. We also had tea there.

Driving on, we took a short cut which took us through small roads and scenic mountains with tiny villages on the way. This short cut saved us about a couple of hours of driving and brought us straight to Rudraprayag where we didn’t halt. After we crossed Rudraprayag, we noticed that a part of the highway was destroyed away by a landslide. It seems this happened during February 2019.  The Border Road Organisation (BRO), has built a temporary road on the riverbed.  The river Mandakini has been expertly diverted for this purpose but we could see that the pressure of the waterflow was slowly & steadily eating away the temporary road. Work on restoring the highway was on in full swing with many construction equipment being used. 

We then stopped at a very old Devi temple of Goddess Varahi.  As per tradition, the officiating priest of Kedarnath temple stays here for a night, alone, before proceeding to the holy temple at the beginning of the season. This practice has now been stopped. Some years ago, someone wanted to build a guest house in the temple premises. The local villagers told them not to do so.  Ignoring their objections, they went ahead and constructed it. Immediately thereafter the area experienced earthquake and the guesthouse was destroyed. Please find photos of the temple and destroyed guesthouse. We had tea at a small tea shop here. The owner of the shop is now taking care of the maintenance of this temple. The temple is so powerful that if one sits for a few minutes in meditation here, one can feel the vibrations in the body and mind. It is believed that whatever one prays for at this temple is granted by the Devi. Though I normally do not seek any favours at any temple, here I earnestly asked & prayed for Her grace & support of getting us all a good darshan at the abode of Her consort at Kedarnath. What happened to this prayer of mine will come in the next blog.

Finally, after a long drive during which we passed through GuptKashi, we reached our hotel at Sitapur at about 9.30 pm.  We lost more than an hour due to traffic jams on the way. Sitapur was once a sleepy little town. I was amazed to see its transformation now. There are many hotels – some of them star properties which have come up. To regulate & manage the traffic, the roads to the town & out from it are made “one way” and a huge parking lot has been built here. The parking lot can accommodate more than a few hundred vehicles at a time. Our rooms were very basic and not very comfortable. We had a dinner made by another cook that night. He was from another group of Srinivasan Tours which had arrived there the previous day. Dinner comprised of Chappatis, Kofta and Dal Kichadi. Dinner was nice & tasty but some of our group members didn’t eat as it was late and they were tired after a long ride. We decided to wake up late the next day – 6 a.m.

Thus ended Day 6 of our Yatra.