Jolly Miles

The best journeys are usually the unplanned ones which have no itineraries, no bucket lists and no bookings; just the desire to explore, to digress and be comfortable with the unexpected.

When we discuss religious tourism, there are few other places which has the venerability of Amarnath Yatra. As legends have mentioned it, Amarnath Gufa is the cave where Lord Shiva revealed the secret of immortality (Amar Katha) to Goddess Parvati. Devotees undertake the arduous trek every year in a hostile region amidst harsh weather to get a glimpse of Baba Barfani. The trek route in the past has been subject to terrorist attacks and landslides yet it has never deterred the devotees who flock in lakhs every year for the spiritual odyssey.

Amarnath yatra requires meticulous planning. One has to obtain a yatra permit which is applied months in advance to undertake the journey. Even with the permit, the yatra is uncertain due to extreme weather conditions. This year there was another uncertainty; the yatra was being conducted in the aftermath of the gruesome terrorist attack in Pahalgam and the perpetuators were on the run hiding somewhere in the vast forest expanses in the nearby regions. Despite all the security arrangements, the scar of the dastardly attack was fresh in the psyche of the populace which deterred the devotees.

We reached Sonmarg on 6th July after a long drive from Leh enroute covering Kargil, Drass and the Jojila Pass. Our original plan was to visit Hanle for a star gazing tour. However, July is not the best time for such adventure and after discovering that Hanle had an overcast forecast for the upcoming days, we changed or plan and reached Sonmarg. As beautiful as Sonmarg is, it is not a place for long stays – high room tariff, costly meals and very limited places to visit. We had ample days at our disposal with very little to do and this is when we decided to plan for the Amarnath Yatra.

Amarnath Yatra has 2 routes – the long & easy Pahalgam route and the short & steep Baltal route, 10 km away from Sonmarg. Due to low turnaround of devotees this year, the yatra administration was allowing limited on spot bookings and we decided to try our luck. We reached Baltal and enquired about on spot bookings and as luck would have it, we were successful in securing tokens for the yatra. Everything happened on spot – form filling, fees deposit, medicals and issue of the RFIF cards. We were all set. We returned back to Sonmarg. Few families in our hotel who had completed the yatra advised us to reach Baltal by 2:30 AM and start the yatra by 3 AM to avoid the crowd, so we planned to leave by 2 AM.

Plans don’t always work and sleep can be treacherous ! We were inside our blankets by 8:30 PM to sleep for 4 hours before starting the journey but we just could not sleep. 9, 10, midnight, we kept tossing and turning until the alarms finally went off at 1 AM. Amarnath Yatra is an arduous trek of 15 km one way from the Baltal route and with no provision for overnight stay, all devotees must return on the same day. A 30 km trek without sleep was not something we were prepared for. We cancelled the plan and went to sleep, this time without any alarm.

Next we woke at 7 AM, too late for the yatra. We were very disappointed; we reached Sonmarg from Leh after cancelling our original plan of visiting Hanle (only dark sky reserve in India) due to overcast weather. Anyway we had ample time so we thought lets reach Baltal and figure out if anything at all is possible. We reached Baltal around 8:30 and indulged in the sumptuous langars. I had never seen langars as extravagant as the ones in the Amarnath route. In the langar halls we understood that the yatra gate closes at 10 AM so we had an outside chance to make it to but now trekking was out of question and we had to rely on the ponies. Not to say I was averse to ponies in any case but a trek would have been more memorable.

We trekked for 2-3 kms and then booked 2 ponies. Usually the official rates are much higher and you can bargain for much less by directly reaching out. However, it is always better to book through official channels where you get proper receipt and you do not have to worry about pony riders abandoning midway which we saw was not very unusual. Anyway in our situation, we hardly had any time so we directly approached the pony riders and booked 2 healthy horses who were now in charge to complete our yatra. What followed was a horse ride of 4 hours through steep uphill, slippery downhills and beautiful landscapes with intermittent shower and sun. The route from Baltal merges with the one from Pahalgam about 3 kms before the cave and the last stretch is very chaotic with devotees and horses jostling through narrow slippery roads and rain adding to the mayhem.

We reach the Amarnath cave around 3 PM. The Amarnath cave is much larger than it appears in pictures. Its a massive stone formation in the middle of the mountain ranges and deep inside is the abode of Baba Barfani. We deposited our mobile phones and bags at the counter and ascended the stairs to the holy cave.

Finally, here we were, at the Amarnath Gufa, with folded hands staring at the beautiful ice shivalingam; absolute bliss. Jai Baba Barfani !!!