gangotri 

there is an air of happiness and family holiday in this sacred place

 from up the temple ground id like a chess board , people are the plaing pieces ? they are the players too , each of us is wherever he or she goes

 some more minutes in uttarakashi
where people wait the bus to go up to gangotri
or to come down back to mortal and perishable life
eternal life deserves its waiting share ....

the bus station in uttarakashi is an expanse of land where the market grows around and kids plays
then eventually at some point and some where you slip into a bus to your next destination

another himalayan valley

we rushed to uttarakashi in the late afternoon , the rain was arriving in the low lands and i was wondering whether i could have slept into the tiny weather window to reach gangotri and trek up ...
i guess that the concept of up is a pretty touristy one, referring either to the trekking up to the Himalaya vallyes or to the spiritual lifting one could dream to get from the sacred ganges water...
do the pilgrims actually think in terms of up and down... i could not say whether it is just us the westerners to have this spiritual ladder picture inherited in our mind, however the piglrims there they walk their way praising god wherever the path goes

the way to uttarakashi winds through green hills , gentle slooping but merciless for the driver ...

 once arrived in gangotri despite landslides from the hills and from one's stomach the trek follows the gange up to the glacier

In the camp below gaumukh (ganges source) we spent a peaceful (chilly) night , serene after the afternoon walk accompanied by mountains and delighted by the sunset light .


Only in the morning we all found that we had been transported in uk all of a sudden...
can it be that the english stole also the gloominess of the rainy summer morning to india and not only the tissues , tea etc etc ???

Anyway the gloomines of that morning had also hidden in itself the threat that we did not actually know when it could stop , whether the roads were still alright

 

 There is this incredible feeling that mountains are really alive
it is not just feeling small because of the size, it is the countless number of days and nights that have warmed up and chilled the stones, the endless river bends and waves in the valley...

 here the glacier from which Ganges is born . It may look quiet but plenty of ice falls down
nearby we had to rush a couple of times from some boulders falling down from the nearby mountains...
i had always thought to have slow reaction and be clumsy , this time i was quick enough ,
(maybe one is slow only when he thinks he must be fast and sometimes if you do not have the time to think you can only survive ...)

on the way back to gangotri

tapovan (on top of gaumukh) , quite some perspective, the horizon is so deep and so deceptively close... or maybe it is indeed so close and i could have just met what was on the other side, had i dared to walk those 2 steps more 

Babaji had us at his place when we arrived in tapovan and also the day afte when all the place was covered in snow