Dear viewers,
“JAI BHOLE “
This year, in 2011, I and my wife were blessed with the darshan of lord Amarnathji.
To start with, there are two routes for having darshan of Amarnathji, one from Pahalgam to holy cave in three days trekking of (15+14+6)35 kms and the other from Baltal to holy cave with trekking of 18 Kms. We started from Srinagar (opp. tourist reception center, Dalgate) in JKTDC luxary bus to pahalgam; Rs 195 covering 105 km in 3.5 hours. Private sumo charge Rs 2300 for the same.
In Chandanwari, u will find plain thin foldable polythene sheet in the shape of raincoat at just Rs 40. It is very essential and of negligible weight and can even fit in your pocket.
Don’t waste your time for doing breakfast in pahalgam. Just have a brush and bath and catch early possible vehicle for chandanwari. The moment u will land in chandanwari, u will hear loud speakers from Langars inviting u for breakfast & tea.
The must thing for doing yatra here is having a STICK. Search for those sticks which have metal caps covering the pointed tips sold at same price so that there tips will not erode and u will have better hold while walking on ice. For reaching pissu top (just 4km), we took 4 hours. After pissu top, we didn’t find such steep climbs for next 16 km. At the end of day at 6.30 pm, we finally reached sheshnag,a large lake surrounded by snow capped mountains; it is said that few lucky devotes can see a creature with three horn like structure floating in the lake & i.e. the Shesnag. There are no electricity/bulbs in the tents. U will find kerosene lantern & do take LED torch with u. Only BSNL postpaid mobile fon has connectivity. We found connectivity at all base camps & also on & off during the trek..
At cave,there was a huge line of around 1 km there but it was moving fast. It took three hours in line. There were stalls beside line selling Prasad & u have to deposit mobile phone, cameras, baggage against receipt.Just at the foot of the cave only, there is the stall of Shri Amarnath Shrine Board selling Prasad & keeping baggage.
Thereafter, after taking some food,we started our return jrny for baltal. Actually, there are two routes going to Baltal from cave. one is safe but little lengthy while the other is very steep with 5-6 curves with no fencing. It was so steep that we could not walk by standing & we have to creep & take the support of rocks beside to move ahead. If our legs had slipped, then we would have fallen in 2000-2500 feet deep valley.When you will plan for darshan,then please never ever dare to go by that route. I
The return route via baltal is not as picturesque as the pahalgam route. It was narrow road with ponies making lots of dust & pollution with their dunk. Baltal is actually the military base camp 14 km from cave, but the camp for yatri is 3 km ahead of military camp. By trekking it took us 7 hours to reach from cave to baltal yatri camps.
Next day, after breakfast, & started our journey for Sonmarg, just 16 km from Baltal.Govt. bus stand is just 1 Km from base camp. while private bus stand was a km ahead from here where luxury bus for Srinagar, Jammu, and Punjab were standing.
We have found many peoples who were coming for consequetive 6-7 years for yatra. The words bhole addressing yatri & hosssh (uttered by ponywala meaning dekho or just see ) were audible in our return flights also. Overall, we are glad that we could make the entire yatra by foot & could have the blessings of Barfani baba, Bholenath. It is really a life time experience & I strongly believe that everyone should have darshan, at least once in his lifetime till his age & body permits.
BOLO BHOLENATH KI .........JAI.
