Nandi Kund - Ghiya Vinayak Pass Trek

Get ready to take the scenic mountainous drive to Ransi on the famous pilgrimage route of Madhyamaheshwar. The drive is very interesting and offers you a display of various colours of the Himalayan State of Uttrakhand. 

Stop by in between to have your breakfast and lunch before you reach Ransi, the starting point of the trek

Today is the starting day of our Nandi Kund - Ghiya Vinayak Pass Trek. We head towards Bantoli from Ransi and its a very scenic trek. The village and religious life of the high altitude villages of Uttrakhand is on display throughout the trek route. Being a popular pilgrimage route, the route is chirpy as well with full of vivid colours and life.

The trek is more or less easier getting steeper at times. We get enough option to have our lunch and little snacks enroute Bantoli. Gaundhar is a point we come across on the route very near to Bantoli on the Nandi Kund - Ghiya Vinayak Pass Trek. It is here where the Madhyamaheshwar Ganga and Markanda Ganga meets, with a lovely looking small bridge over it. Little more on the route and we reach Bantoli, our halt for the night.

We have quite a few options to settle in one of the homestays on offer. If not, we pitch our small tents somewhere. Hot dinner awaits us and with this, the first day of our trek to Nandi Kund and Ghiya Vinayak Pass ends.

We are into the second day into our trek to Nandi Kund and Ghiya Vinayak Pass. Madhyamaheshwar is one of the panch kedars and is one of the popular and highly rated pilgrimage route for the Hindus. The trek route crosses Nanu Chatti just after some time into the trek. It the passes by Maikhamba and Kun Chatti, from where its a good walk for some 3 hours to bring us to the shrine of Madhyamaheshwar.

Post lunch, we go on for a acclimatization walk to Buda Madhyamaheshwar. If lucky, we might catch a glimpse of Chowkhambha in a small water body near Buda Madhyamaheshwar.

Our route for tomorrow to Kachni Khal is visible and inspires enough motivation in us to take the challenge. Post dinner, we wish good night to  each other and get into our cozy sleeping bags.

Today our trek to Nandi Kund takes a drastic change, both in the form of difficulties of the climb, and the solitude of the trail.

After waking up to a lovely morning in the blessed site of Madhyamaheshwar, we get ready to tackle the day's trek. It involves a steep continuous climb to the Kachni Khal marked typically by 2 huge rocks forming a gateway.

An arduous climb of some 4 - 5 hours gets us to the top of Kachni Khal. From here, the trail forks and one goes left towards Kedarnath, other to Panpatia and the route on the right goes towards Nandi Kund. Our campsite is a rocky patch today with great views of Chowkhamba.

Evening, we take a light acclimatization walk to Kachni Khal and return to our campsite

The trek for today leaves behind all signs of civilization and follows an unmarked shepherd's trail to reach Pandavsera. A very efficient local guide is much required here. We trek through bushes and cross the Madhyamaheshwar nala multiple times and pass by few small waterfalls to reach a flat meadow. This is marked as Pandavsera and we camp here for the night, by the stream.

Today is the highlight day of out trek as we come across the pious lake of Nandi Kund and will also cross the mighty Ghiya Vinayak Pass to topple over to the other side of the valley. It will be a long day today, so as early as we can leave, it will be rewarding for us.

The trail follows the Madhyamaheshwar nala emmerging out from Nandi Kund. Its a gradual climb which gets steeper at times. The rough terrain presents its challenges. We cross the Madhyamaheshwar nala multiple times and then climb up steep for another hour to reach the serene Nandi Kund. The peaceful lake takes our heart right away. The peaks of Chowkhamba hovers over and on a clear weather, its very easy easy to catch a reflection of the Mighty Chowkhamba on the emerald surface of the serene Nandi Kund.

The trek for the day is not over yet as we are required to cross the daunting Ghiya Vinayak Pass. A steep continuous climb for about 3 hours fro here will take us to the top of the Ghiya Vinayak Pass. The view from the Ghiya Vinayak pass is just breath-taking. The peaks of Chowkhamba, Neelkantha and Nanda Devi are visible on a clear day. The glacier table of the Panpatia too is visible from here.

Soon we find ourself negotiating the very steep descend to the other side of the Ghiya Vinayak pass to the meadow of the Barmna Bugiyal. We loose altitude very fast and in some hour and a half we reach out designated campsite for the night.

Its been a long rewarding day and we have completed the 2 missions of our trek to Nandi Kund and the Ghiya Vinayak Pass. The remaining days of the trek is just about taking ourselves back to civilization. The trek still remains very beautiful.

Today's trail is longer, but is much comfortable, easier and is also beautiful with drastic difference to the previous day's terrain. Its all about soft green meadows and thick cover of conifers.

The trail winds easily to the Manpai Bugiyal from Barma Bugiyal before descending steeply through the forest to the tributary of the Kalpa Ganga. From here, it further climbs up to the greens of Bansi Narayan, marked by a small temple.

We continue the descend similar to yesterday with multiple ascends and descends to get us to the settlement of Urgum.

Kalpeshwar is just 2 Kilometers from here and we will visit it in the evening. With this, our beautiful trek to the Nandikund and Ghiya Vinayak pass has ended.

What a terrific trek it was !!

Early morning, we drive back to Rishikesh and bring an end to our walking ways! We bid good byes with a promise to meet sooner, in the Himalayas - same spirit, different location !