A short walk in the Himalayas - day 2 - approaching town
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The lower Parvati Valley approaching Manikaran. When we got off the bus in Buntar - where the Parvati river joins the Beas - shattered and broken men - we organised transport up the valley. No buses this time, we splashed out and got a jeep with our own driver. Under the circumstances we felt it justifiable. The horrors of the trip soon fell away as we soaked up our surroundings. The name of the valley derives from Parvati - she was the consort of Lord Shiva, and the pair spent some time here - we're talking a thousand years - because it was so beautiful. It's a pilgrimage site for both Hindus and Sikhs.
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Up to the tree line - about 3000m - the valley is heavily wooded. Mostly deodar, pine and spruce - which will probably be the undoing of the place. It's heavily illegally logged - pretty much uncontrolled, more of this later. This is asking for trouble in an area that is prone to earthquakes. The trees keep the soil on the hill sides - take them away and the risk of catastrophic landslides is very real.
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Our first view of Manikaran. We paid off the driver and sat for an hour enjoying the view. It had all been worth it. The river runs straight down from glaciers at the head of the valley - it's full of silt. Hence the colour - it's is also unbelievably cold. The force of the water is dramatic - at night when it was quiet - after a day of rain, you could hear huge boulders being shifted around in the current. The view is dominated on the left by the the Manikaran gurdwara - Sikh temple - complex. As I mentioned before - the town is of particular holiness to Sikhs - the founder of the religion Guru Nanak spent time here with a disciple and there are various 'miracle' stories attached to the place. A gurdwara functions in a much greater way than say - a christian church. It is a place for worship but also a community centre, it has educational functions and also operates as a communal kitchen. It's a religious duty for Sikhs to feed anyone that asks for food. They make a mean vegetarian curry for lunch. In the background is the 'old town'.
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The only way in and out of town - from this point motorised transport is banned. Probably mainly because the streets couldn't cope but also I suspect that the laden mules you see in the picture are about the upper-end of the safe weight loading limit for the structure.
If you have got this far - thank you for looking and reading. Tomorrow we'll go for a walk about town.
All pictures in this series were taken with Nikon manual focus cameras - either an FM2 or F2. Shot on Fuji Super G film
Cheers - I.