Tungnath: Winter Trek To The Highest Temple Of Lord Shiva (120,73 ft)

Yesterday was Christmas and I was at an altitude of 4000 meters above sea level. The name of this place is “Chandrashila”. Due to continuous travel, I am now lagging behind in the #winterchallenge organized by @worldmappin. Due to travel, the internet is not available well everywhere, due to which I am facing a lot of difficulty in writing posts and uploading photos, so it is becoming very difficult for me to make my place in #traveldigest.

This month, there is a lot of turmoil in my mind regarding this contest, on 9 December, I left for Jaisalmer from Dehradun, from where I have returned today after visiting Longewala, Delhi, Dehradun, Bhadraj Temple, Narkanda, Spiti, Dehradun, Kartik Swami Temple, Tungnath in Chopta and finally Chandrashila. I was just calculating on the calculator that I have covered 5430 kms of road distance in 17 days and all this so that I remain in the top 5 in #winterchallenge but it did not happen. Maybe I could not present as good quality as others are able to.

Well whatever be the result of the #challenge, let me tell you about my recent #adventure in which I went to visit a famous temple of India “Tungnath”. On 24th December, there was continuous snowfall in the entire Himalayas for 48 hours, due to which I and @sara.negi immediately made a plan to visit Kartik Swami and Tungnath temple from Dehradun. After cleaning our scooter, we 2 people prepared 4 bags, 2 bags in the boot of the scooter and I kept one bag in the front of the scooter and the fourth bag was hung by my companion on his waist.

While we were supposed to leave at 9 in the morning, it was afternoon by the time we finished packing our bags. Today we did not set any target and left with the thought that we will stop wherever it gets dark. We left at 1 in the afternoon and reached Rishikesh in one and a half hours from where we reached Rudraprayag. The next day we directly reached Chopta where we parked our scooter 5 km below Chopta because there is a lot of snow on the way and our scooter is slipping on the snow.

Since we left yesterday, we have covered a distance of 253 km on the road. From here we take a local taxi which charges INR 300 per person. The taxi has chains on its tyres so it is not slipping on the snow. Moving ahead, we see a Bolero car lying in the ditch about which our driver tells us that this car fell yesterday and there were 12 passengers in it but the good thing is that no one was hurt in this accident.

We get down at Chopta at 11:45, here we leave 3 of our 4 bags at a local shop. My partner also drops off her running shoes here and buys hiking shoes available at Chopta which have micro spikes. I am wearing trail running shoes which I trust a lot and because I have a lot of experience of walking on snow. We leave Chopta at 12:30, the height of Chopta is 2608 meters and this trek will take us to 4000 meters.

There is a lot of snow all around here, rhododendron, pine, deodar and banyan trees are covered with snow. There is snow all over the ground and the tourists reaching here are falling on the snow again and again because everyone is wearing shoes which are not suitable for walking on snow. I am thirsty and we buy a bottle. Coming on the scooter, we reached Chopta directly from where we set out on this snowy hiking without resting. After going about 200 meters, there is a check post where a ticket of INR 200 per person is issued.

After getting the ticket, we set out on this snowy adventure. There are many people around us and everyone is going to the famous temple of Lord Shiva named Tungnath Temple. I have visited this temple twice before and both the times I have come here in winter. Right now I am sitting in a hotel room and writing this post and I am complaining about the bad internet. Ok friends, I will write the rest of the story in the next post.

Disclaimer: This post is originally written in Hindi and I have used Google Translator to translate the Hindi text in English. All the photos have been clicked by me from sony a7iii and edited in lightroom, post thumbnail created in adobe photoshop.

//:# (!worldmappin 30.48838 lat 79.21685 long Tungnath: Winter Trek To The Highest Temple Of Lord Shiva (120,73 ft) d3scr)