Kedarnath temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva. It is one of the twelve Jyothirlingas, the holiest Hindu shrines of Lord Shiva. The temple, I was told to have been built by Adi Sankaracharya.
It is situated in the Uttarakashi district in the state of Uttaranchal. River Ganga takes the name Mandakini at this location.
I will write more about the inside of the Temple etc. later.
It was very cold even for me, even in May. In the winters with the ground being covered with snow, it is open only from May through November. I did not find out what the locals did. Perhaps they are prepared for the weather or they move to a different location at a lower altitude. We saw some snow caps on far away peaks.
We were told that the rain fall was about 150 cm during the Monsoons. From where we stayed, we could see the beautiful Mandakini river. We were given cabins for accommodation. The rooms were not heated. The mattresses were like ice blocks. Nirmala wore my hooded sweat shirt and a jacket over her sari and covered herself with a blanket and still was shivering. I should have taken my heavier jackets and sweat pants or thermal wear. While we were traveling on the bus, on the way the local dwellers sold some shawls, caps made of pure wool. Glad we bought two of them. Rao and I were able to use those. The water was very cold, no hot water in the taps. To bathe, hot water was supplied in buckets for a fee. Thank God!!!
We finally enjoyed the hot Tea!!!!!!
Kedarnath is at an altitude of 358 meters above sea level.
It is about 230 kms from Rishikesh and 250kms from Dehradun.
The best time to visit Kedarnath is between May (end of April) and October (perhaps early November).
We went by bus to almost Gaurikund and then it was trekking for 14 kms. Like I mentioned in my earlier posts, Rao did the trekiking with the group and Nirmala and I were carried in the dolis. This time, it was a different set of four young men.
To be continued!!!
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