The previous post in this series is here..
Day 3 started early as we got a helicopter to go to Gangothri from Yamunothri.
It was a short ride. Once we got there, there were separate cars for each family. The driver told us that we will go to the hotel and then go to Gangothri as there will be traffic and it was Ganga Dusshera, an auspicious festival. We told him that we would rather go straight to see Ganga Dusshera and finish, even at the risk of missing lunch. He was nice and agreed.
We went straight from the helipad to Gangothri temple. It was a long ride and we saw fantastic views, crossed Asia’s third highest bridge and eventually he went as far as he could before asking us to get down and walk. The guide met us at the entrance. He was also a kid. He took us straight to the river, got me a bucket, had me take a bath there (we bought a towel on the way!) and we got to participate in the Ganga aarathi. This day was considered river Ganga’s birthday and it is celebrated in select states where the Ganges flows. I was told that this tharpanam on Ganga Dusshera at the Bhageerathi river was something special!
The best part was the head priest suddenly calling Sangeetha and handing her the aarathi and asking her to do arrathi for Ganga! She was standing in the edge of the river and somehow the light made its way to her!
We did a tharpanam for my dad. My FIL also got to do a tharpanam for his dad. That was nice! Once we were done, we had to walk another mile back to the car. We stopped at one of the stalls and got some food as there was no guarantee of a lunch when we finally made it to the hotel (we didn’t know when).
We were happy that we finished what we came to do that day. We made it back to the hotel. Most of the lunch was done and we scraped what was in the bottom of the buffet bowls and ate something. We were happy with Chai! My MIL wanted to rest but we wanted to see the Harshil village, which also had a military outpost. FIL decided to join us and the three of us spent an hour going around the village. Right after we came into the hotel, it poured like no tomorrow for an hour straight. Good thing we were back in the hotel and not caught in traffic on the hillsides with this downpour!
Here are the photos from this leg..
My tummy is still big after eating those once a day meals during the Varushabdheegam ceremonies… it took another two weeks and back to hot yoga to reduce it .. “a bit” (added that in case Sangeetha contests the statement!)
and a longer video of the days events..
We did have a nice dinner at the hotel and got some much needed rest. We had to wait for when our pickup would be the following morning for our next stop..