Snap Well

From Pandukeshwar heading back to Rishikesh, we stopped at Vishnu Prayag. Before I describe about Vishnu Prayag I would like to explain few things I learned from local people about Prayag in Uttarakhand. Before this, I used to think Prayag is another name for the famous city of Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh. It is after visiting Uttarakhand I learnt, Prayag is a place of confluence or merging of two or more rivers. It actually means a place of Sacrifice in Sanskrit. At these points, when two rivers meet, one of the rivers sacrifices its name and identity to the other. There are five such prayags in Uttarakhand, the land of Gods as they say and I don't think any other states in India has these many Prayags. Rivers Dhauliganga, Nandakini, Pindari, Saraswati merge with Alaknanda and Sacrifices the name and their identities at Vishnu Prayag, Nand Prayag, Karna Prayag, RudraPrayag respectively and Alaknanda sacrifices its name and identity at Dev Prayag on merging with river Bhagirat...

From Uttarkashi we started early for the journey of char-dham to Gangotri - the place of origin of the holy river Ganga. It is roughly 100 kms from Uttarkashi and takes an approximate time of 3 hours to reach.  Gangotri is a small town centered around the temple of Gangotri Temple which is cuddled in the heart of Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand and is located close to Indo-Tibetian border.  The way to Gangotri is a beautiful experience. Here is the first thing that caught our attention. I shot this picture from my car through the mirror. A huge flock of sheep passing on the road with few men and women running after them to guide. As we progressed we witnessed snow clad mountains far across. Stopped over to have the feel and clicked few snaps. Beautiful aren't they? Needs no words to explain the beauty of these Himalayan peaks.   An army base camp near Gangotri. These Jawans are always ready to work at extreme climatic conditi...