Trekking Note:
Date: 19/May /2024
Destination: Harieshwar cave khanmoh kashmir
Details.
Under the banner of Saraswat Adventures club Kashmir a group trek was organised and initiated to Harishwar cave khanmoh on 19/may 2024.
Since our one group member Mr.vijay ji had visited the said cave previous year but his memory seemed quite faded about the trail.
But it was still a kind gesture from him to lead this team to a successful darshan of Svayambhu (self-born) Shiv linga.
All of us met at the Pantha chowk srinagar at 6 am at the designated meeting point.
It was quite noteworthy to see the happiness of seeing eachother after a week of Shankaracharya ji trek. Inaddition it was quite charming to see the high spirits of our two little hikers.
After getting united we left Pantha chowk towards the
Destination.
It was quite evident on the way we could feel that Mr. Vijay ji has an infallible memory which led us to right path.
On the way we had a brief exchange of words with a local person Mr quoom, and we were too happy and impressed to see his hospitality. He shared his contact no with us in case of any help and invited us to join for a cup of tea after Trek. The guy even pressed he would like to accompany us but he had to attend his duties, he said he would arrange a guide for us which we humbly denied.
With Mr Quooms direction we reached to the base of hill which we were about to climb.
After deboarding our cars we could see a little hill and at its backdrop a mighty peak which we had no Idea we have to climb.
After grouping and setting our Trekking accessories at their place we started to climb the little hill.
Soon with the instinctive directions of Mr Vijay ji we realigned ourselves to the trail.
After hiking some 400 meters we met a local shepherd, to our surprise he owned uncountable number of sheep and upon a little chit chat with him we came to know they travel large distances on foot and destinations like tarsar and marsar are on their sheep grazing list.
The shepherd had a quite welcoming tone, he shared with us his details from where he came and his future plans, on keen query by our little hikers he disclosed the details of his dog breeds and if they do bite or not was a big concern to them.
Upon exchanging information with the shepherd we came to know he has quite knowledge about the herbs and vanspatis which he explained and we documented in a video.
Bidding farewell to our friend and sharing details of eachother and wishing to meet in future we carried on with our steps.
Since we couldn't find any fixed trail, we were trying to scout the area. After a little hit and trial error method and employing the memory of Mr Vijay ji we sucessfully passed by the firse little hill.
By this time our group was getting distributed in three Teams:
Scouts, it comprised of three persons which would go ahead and find the route.
Middle ones, which will keep a track with scouts and pass on information regarding trail and surface of trail to third group called followers.
While hiking our attention was quite occupied by beautiful snail shells, which we collected as a memory of the trek.
Our little hikers were quite interested in the shells and were too curious to find if the shells are live.
It has also come to fore that Mr Robin ji has quite intrest, deep knowledge and infact his hobby to collect and preserve the shells. He even shared with us some photographs of his collection.
Upon hiking we came across barbed fencing which was cut many places which assured us we were on right track.
After sometime our scouts team were full of enthusiasm as they could spot some arrow marked on rocks which they concluded was a marking to help devotees to reach the cave.
Following the quite evident marks we found ourselves infront of a steep rock which all of us presumed to be YamHair( meaning steps of yam, god of death).
This place has a quite mythological reference of Bhasmasur, Shiva and vishnu.
After climbing the steep slope and following the marks we managed to reach to the other side of cliff.
From above the houses appered like dots. We could spot some cement manufacturing plant.
Upon reaching half of the place we could see the changes in flora. There was quite change in the variety of flowers, the flowers which we sighted in the beginning of trek were totally different from the ones at the top.
The herbs like van tulsi, vene, handh, wild mint was easily spotted.
Among all flowers our attention was snatched by a unique flower which we searched with the name of Fox Tail on Google.
A remarkable flower with a bunch of little flowers at the top and slender tube like structure at bottom.
All of us were occupied with clicking its pics and praising the beauty of nature.
These flowers reminded me of the poem Lucy which i had read in my school days.
While hiking our way our scouts team signaled us that we were quite close to our destination.
While reaching top we could find a hundreds of sheep which were flocked by a shepherd and his family. A sight of new born lambs with slender and shaking legs following its mother was noteworthy.
In the mean time the chants of Har Har Mahadev filled our ears and our scouts team was impatiently waiting for us, as they had spotted the entrance of the cave.
It came to our surprise that there are two caves in actual.
With the arrows we decided to have darshan of one cave but we were perplexed to see the mouth of cave was covered with stones, after deep analysis we tried to remove the stones covering the mouth, with the help of torch we could spot an iron ladder running deep down the cave.
After inspecting and satisfying ourselves with every safety we slipped below the boulders to reach the iron ladder.
After going down the cave which would be approximately 25 foot deep we found ourselves in a 8x6 feet wide cave.
Chanting the mantras of Om Namah shivay and seeing the mesmerizing beauty of nature all of us one by one hailed Lord shiva offered our salutations and decided to move to the next cave.
Upon exit we closed back the cave with boulders.
Few meters below this cave we could easily spot arrows depicting the path to next cave.
Upon following the track we saw a fenced cave on the side of cliff. On the entrance of cave we found some depictions in sharda script and flags bearing verses of Buddhism.
Upon entrance of this cave a wooden staircase lead us to three swayam linga which are believed to be of Shiva, his consort Parvati and lord Ganesha, we could also see water droplets from the ceiling of cave falling on these natural formations.
Again all of us gathered together paid our salutations sang shiv chants, offered flowers, dhoop and milk to lord shiva and started to retrieve back to base.
After our darshan we felt famished and decided to take a rest and have some refreshments under pine tree.
All of us cherished the food like an elixer after an exhaustive uphill trek.
After resting a while all of us fastened our bags and decided to start our descend. Which all of us knew was challenging.
On the way we met a nomadic gujar, after chit chatting we touched topics like his age, politics, wild animals, nature trekking routes etc.
We were quite interested in his red coloured beard which was shining brightly under sun, he shared some tips how he gets such shine, which was quite informative.
Inaddition he shared his plans for future which including his source of income from selling sheep, his trek route from Akhnoor Pallianwalla to Drass kargil. Helping Amarnath devotees by providing service of mule.
He also Shared Some information about his licenced rifle which they use to scare leopards.
Upon bidding farewell and wishing him best of luck we continued with our downhill journey which we completed in about 2. 5 hrs.
All of us were quite happy that we sucessfully completed the hike.
The efforts put by team specially little girls were appreciating.
Throughout the trek we shared knowledge, experiences, devotion with eachother.
Planned some future treks. We met some new members which later on disclosed were schoolmates, some shared common friends.
The trek ended with a happy note and chant of Har Har Mahadev.
-----
Pics of some moments enclosed.
