Day 8: Valley of Flowers with Rajneesh

This is a series of my two weeks of tryst with the Garhwal Himalayas:
Day 1&2 : Secunderabad to Delhi
Day 3: Delhi to Haridwar bus ride
Day 3: Meerut Road
Day 3: Har Ki pauri- Haridwar
Day 4: Impressions from Haridwar
Day 4: Through Rajaji national Park
Day 4: Devaprayag-Srinagar-Rudraprayag-Karnaprayag
Day 5: Pipalkoti-Joshimath-Badrinath
Day 6: Mana: The last Indian village
Day 6: Adventure in Badrinath-Govindghat Road
Day 7: The Boys from Rishikesh
Day 7: Trek to Ghangaria
Day 7: Meeting Rajneesh
Day 8: Valley of Flowers

Valley of Flowers National Park is an Indian national park, Nestled high in West Himalaya, is renowned for its meadows of endemic alpine flowers and outstanding natural beauty. This richly diverse area is also home to rare and endangered animals, including the Asiatic black bear, snow leopard, brown bear and blue sheep. The gentle landscape of the Valley of Flowers National Park complements the rugged mountain wilderness of Nanda Devi National Park. Together they encompass a unique transition zone between the mountain ranges of the Zanskar and Great Himalaya. The park stretches over an expanse of 87.50 km².


I would recommend you all to do an image search of valley of flowers in google or flickr. You would be enchanted by what you would see.


When I heard Rajneesh guided tourists to Valley of Flowers, I dropped my plans of going alone.


I thought I would absorb more if I had an experienced guide to go along. Rajneesh usually had a group of 6-7 tourists. But, since it was the last week of the season when Ghangaria would be closed before snow would cover the whole viallge under 9 ft , he had none. So I was the lone tourist for him.
We left at morning 6 pm. Had parathas at his hotel and packed some for lunch.

Rajneesh was a self learnt botanist and had learnt a lot about local flora and fauna.

Rajneesh crawled inside this bark and could stand straight inside much to my amusement.

It took us 5 kms to reach the valley

My first tryst with Himalayan glaciers.

The valley at its prime. The best time to visit valley is July-AUgust when the valey if filled with flowers. Every fortnight the valley is spread with a flower beds of different colours.

Though it was sunny, it was so cold that we got into the sheets on a comfortable patch of bed.

By 12 we were hungry. Stuffed ourselfves with packed parathas and caught a nap amidst heavens.