Hello everyone!!
Recently I completed the trek of one of the highest peak in Girinar range and would like to share story of the same.
Guru-Shikhar is highest peak in Gujarat (3672 feets). Taleti village of Junagadh district in the state of Gujarat is base village for this trek.It is named as ‘peak of the guru ’after Guru Dattatreya, incarnation of Vishnu and the cave at the summit has temple dedicated to him.Apart from being a spiritual place, this Aravali stretch has beautiful flora and fauna attracts many botanist,zoologists,trekkers and environment experts.
Our group's original plan was to start climbing at 3 am from Taleti village so we will be able to reach summit by 9 am, But after listening to experiences of other people who went there before us , our leader said we will be starting it around 12 am(midnight).All of us got ready around 11.30 pm in our place. Before leaving the place we did small prayer to Guru Dattatreya as it is ritual.Many has experience that ,if one starts climbing with ego of being expert in trekking or physical fitness, that person is never been able to go to the peak.on step one of climbing, we prayed to Chadvava Hanuman to bless us for this climb.
Around 1 am,our actual climb started. after climbing for half hour, I started sweating like I never before.We had lemon candies and chocolates as we were told. Chewing those was only resort we had for energy.6 of us were climbing together and the trail was steep .Around 4.15 am we were at Bhartrihari Gumfa where Bhartriharinath , a Yogi of Nath Sampraday did his asceticism. After that point we were at considerable height from the ground and wind was blowing. Atmosphere was pleasant.We took halts time to time to regain energy and enjoyed the view of village from the top.Around 4.30am fog started gathering around us and were not able to see more than 15 steps ahead. At 5.15 am we completed exact half of the trail. This path up to Amba Mata temple (one shaktipith among 51)consider as tough one.Minute we stepped near Amba Mata Temple , wind was blowing so fast that we had to take out our sweaters as our body started cooling down very speedily. Next trail was bit less difficult.We started descending from that point for 15 minutes then climbed for 5-10 minutes.This was point Goraksha shikhar where I saw the Guru shikhar peak for first time.It was sunrise behind the peak and was very beautiful. Next trail was to descend for 20 minute then ascended for 30 minutes. Around 7.00 am we were finally at sumit. It was satisfying moment.
Later we descended for same trail we ascended for 30 minutes plus few more steps and reached to Datta Dhuni around 8.30.We were told it will be starting on 9 am so by that time you can have some refreshment. This dhuni does not require any ignition by human. Just place woods over their and flame will rise with chants. We were there for an hour and I saw by my own eyes the ignition of Dhuni without adding any inflammable material in it.
At 10 am, we started our way back to base. Now we have to ascend the trail we descended before. It wasn't that tough like I thought. We thoroughly enjoyed mountains, valley, lakes and it was surreal what we saw from upper view. This mountain range has great varities of plants and medicinal herbs.Thanks to lemon candies, we were able to climb the path again with it's consumption. After reaching Amba Mata Temple at around 11.30, we had half of the trail to descend.I was ready to descend on foot, because I wanted to explore the path in daylight and even though it was dark, I realise it has really good photo spots.But my companions put me into rope way to go back to base. I was OK with it because I was able to get amazing view from top of the mountains. One of companion was climbing the mountain for 5th time and she told that, as this range is a part of Gir National Park , sometimes she saw lions from this cable cars. Unfortunately we didn't get to see any kind of animals during this rope way. We were at base at 12.15 pm. Our legs started shaking as we were walking for 12 hours but our hearts were full with the joy of fantastic climb we had.
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