CHALO BULAWA AAYA H....!!

It is righteously said that Mata calls her devotees by her own will or by her own way. Our train deboarded us at 6 in the morning where we were welcomed by heavy rains, from where we headed to our hotel Kerni Palace in Katra, must say its a fabulous hotel located near market with pleasant stay and  a splendid view and a nice serving staff. The hotel staff, Mr. Kapil was really supportive and arranged taxis for us to drop us to katra helipad.

The splendid Hotel Kerni Palace

But as I said before, Mata calls her devotees by her own way, I had to cancel our helicopter tickets as the weather was not supportive to us. The next alternative was to send our elderlies by horse to and fro from Banganga to Bhairo temple via Bhawan, so we hired the horses at a charge of Rs 1400, which was quite reasonable and we, young blood decided to cross all 14 kms by our feet to see MataRani. It was already 11 am and we were very enthusiastic and started our journey step by step keeping all our faith on her. We crossed the Banganga, where the river is erupted by the arrow thrown by mata to quench the thirst of veer langur. We passed through the clouds, forested ways, all the ways seemed pleasing to us, creating new strength in us to reach her.

View of entire katra from the top 

Since, Shilpa was new to trek, as soon as we reached ARDHAKUWARI(also known as gribhashaya) all drenched with clouds and mountains, she lost all her energy, and we took our first lunch there, the delicious Rajmah Chawal (must say, pahadi rajmahs are just fantabulous ) with the yummy halwa that is only available there in the whole trek. After resting there for around half an hour, we decided to continue our journey by horses as Shilpa didnt want to step up. We bid our heartiest prayers to maa from outside because of the presence of innumerable crowd and a large waiting list. But, as I said, mata chose its own way to call our devotees, ironically, we prefered different path where no horses are available.

The newly created way to Bhawan from Ardhakuwari where autorickshaws are driven instead of horses.

Paradoxically, mata send a group of 20 boys from Maharashtra to help us, throughout the journey to Bhawan enchanting Jaikaras, boosting our morale, all by silent care. In the way, we got to see a deer, a pair of nevalas.

The deer coming playfully running all from highest peaks.

Finally, putting all our faith on her, we reached to Bhawan, maa k darbar at 5 pm in the evening, its an inexplicable feeling over there, we took the prasad from the registered shops of Shrine Board, stand in a queue, emotionally connected to see mata, felt her presence all around us, saw her in her holy cave and came back with purest souls.

View of Bhawan

 It was really hard for us to ask Shilpa to walk another 3 kms for Bhairo temple, so we had no choice left except riding on horse and went there. It is believed that Mata Darshan is not meant to be completed until one go to Bhairo temple. So, after around 1 hr ride, we reached there, thanked bhairo baba for making our journey success. We came back at 11 pm with all our legs hurting badly by the horses, must say, one should better trust her legs than horses as it might be gonna less tiring effort. We had our dinner at the hotel, packed our bags, as we were all set to board our next journey to Jannat-e-kashmir.

To know more about Jannat-e-Kashmir, follow me on my next post "Enormous Dal Lake"

For more pics and info, like me or follow me through my facebook page "Apex Shine Travels"