Valley Of Flowers Trek Helped Me Get My Adventurous Streak Back After Many Years Of Corporate Boredo

By Author: Shewta
Total Articles: 21
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Recently, I had a chance to meet an old school friend who had moved to the US for higher studies several years ago. We met at a café and our coffee meet went on until dinner since we had a lot of catching up to do. While I shared my corporate stories as a Marketing Manager, she shared stories about her life as a travel blogger. The countries that she has visited, the food, the culture of the people there and plenty of pictures each with an intriguing story to it. On my way back, I thought about my life and tried to recollect my last trip and, to my disappointment, I realised it was almost 3 years ago.

When I got home, I checked my pending leaves and then googled a few adventure activities in India. I came across plenty of options and the Valley of Flowers India, in particular, caught my interest. So, exactly after a week from then, I called the travel organizers, booked my trip and headed to my much-deserved adventure trip.

The Valley of Flowers is in Uttarakhand. With much excitement, I took the train to Haridwar from Mumbai. It was a pleasant journey and I love train journeys during monsoons. Soon, I was in ...
... Haridwar, which was bustling with all kinds of tourists. From pilgrims to foreigners to many like me, those looking for some adventure. I caught up with my trek group and met the trek leader here. We were driven to a place called Govindghat and we all checked-in to a hotel to rest ourselves from the long journey. It took us nearly 8-9 hours to reach the hotel.

The next day we started our trek and reached our first destination called Ghangaria. It was a comfortable trek for someone like me who was a bit out of touch with adventure and physical activity. I think we trekked for about 4 hours and covered almost 14 km. From Ghangaria, we set off for the much awaited Valley of Flowers India trek.

I felt elated the moment I saw a bed of colourful blooming flowers dancing to the tunes of the wind. When I saw a thousand colourful flowers welcome me in this Himalayan paradise, I realised why this is one of the top trekking spots in India. The guide told us that the valley is home to more than 300 species of wildflowers and that several of them are found nowhere else in the world. I felt so special witnessing this stunning beauty stretching as far as I could stretch my sight and see. I was jumping with excitement. I admired it for long and clicked plenty of pictures to show my parents and friends back home. I thought nothing could make this paradise more beautiful till my eyes rested on the Pushpawati stream running through the valley. This surreal view seemed straight out of a poem or a fairytale indeed.

I felt as if I had reconnected with nature after years of exile in the corporate world. We feasted our eyes with this unending beauty and soon with a heavy heart, started our return journey to Ghangaria. However, we found renewed energy and excitement as the next thing on our itinerary was the trek to Hemkund Sahib Gurudwara and we were going to climb all the way to more than 14,000 feet now. This was definitely going to be my highest destination ever. The trek leader told us to be prepared as this one was going to be tougher than Valley of Flowers. But like they say ‘Nothing great is ever achieved without enthusiasm’ and I was all set to witness the view that this day was to offer me. Hemkund Sahib Gurdwara sits on the banks of a glacial lake and was gorgeous beyond words, it was magical. Surrounded by seven snowy mountains, the image of that sight is as fresh as a daisy in my memory even today. As we returned to Govindghat, from there we were lucky enough to visit Badrinath as the weather had permitted but that isn’t the case always.

Once back home in Mumbai, I felt like I was reborn and this Himalayan escape helped a lot in increasing my productivity at work. I booked another trek for the next month and ever since, I have continued with my trekking adventure, always!

Shewta from Mumbai shares her experience of trekking to the Valley of Flowers and how it got her back to chasing adventure after many years, thanks to her busy corporate life.