Kunjapuri Temple Trek

A few days ago I had the opportunity to do a trek above Rishikesh. Me and Eliane(guide with Aquaterra as well), left the base at 4:30am heading up the start of the track by head lamp at 5:30am. This turned out to be a good thing as it heated up later in the day. The valley follows a small creek for the most part, quickly leaving Rishikesh behind we wandered up past small farms that had small water delivarey systems to there terraced fields and wheat drying on the roof tops. Passing a varitey of different plants and and seeing some cool birds. This area has cactus, palm trees and decidious trees all fairly close to one another. The walk took us around three hours to climb from around 1400ft to about 6000ft. The view was awsome as you could see the plains lead into the foothills, where we are based and then in the distance you could see the massive frontal range of some of the Himialays. At the Top near the temple, there was an ever handy Chai shack with a nice family there. After a short break at the top we headed back down the same way to avoid the 24km bus ride, as we weren't sure about how often the buses/trucks were going. Doing the early start meant that we avoided the sun hitting us on the way up. Coming down in the sun shine was hot enough so I was glad at that. If you do it in the heat, take lots of water!!! Coming down was nice as well, provided a different prespective on things. There is an excellent office in Rishikesh to get some local beta. Try Red Chilli Adventure, www.redchilliadventure.com

Photos by David Prothero