Gaumukh Tapovan: Everything you need to know about Himalayan hiking

Our first trek in the Himalayas was very impressive! Along with a great hiking group we spent five beautiful days in nature, enjoying spectacular landscapes, good food and a technically easy hike.

For all those who think about trekking in the Himalayas themselves, read key information covering our tour.

The hike is called Gaumukh Tapovan and we did it with the highly recommended tour provider Indiahikes, which also took care of the necessary permits for the national park. At Indiahikes you can also rent almost all the equipment, if you don't already have everything yourself.

The trail leads for 21 km from the starting point in Gangotri at 3063 m above sea level to an altitude of 4330 m. From there you descend the same route.

A short quick run-through of the trek:

• Day 0: Travel from Dehradun to Gangotri (8-12 hours drive).
• Ascent:
• • Day 1: 10 km | ~500 altitute meters
  • Day 2: 5 km | ~250 altitute meters
  • Day 3: 6 km | ~500 altitute meters
• Descent:
• • Day 4: 6km | ~500 altitute meters
  • Day 5: 14km | ~ 700 altitute meters
• Day 6: Return trip to Dehradun (8-12 hours drive)

Indiahikes has taken very good care of our catering. An addition, everyone had a few nuts and snacks with them, which were shared in a friendly manner (vegan gummy bears from Germany are also well received:-D). For breakfast, there was Indian food, but we also had our own oatmeal - 5 days Indian breakfast does not taste good to our German taste.

At noon, we received "packed lunch" for two times, which we packed in the morning in our tupperware. The other days, food was freshly prepared at noon - the daily stages are so short, we were often by 14 clock already at the next camp.

In the afternoon it was snack time: there is hot sugared tea to warm you, as well as salty snacks. Once even PaniPuri is served - these are small chip balls, which are filled for example with chickpeas and doused with sweet-salty liquid.

In the evening we always had vegetables, roti, curry, rice and a sweet dessert. On this hike we gained rather than lost weight. Water was available from the springs at the camp or along the trail. The water here is very clean and did not need to be boiled and we also did not use our Microfin tablets.

The night we spend in small camps in 2-person tents. The porters always set up the camps already until you reach the camp. They dig out the bio-toilets and set up a communal tent as well as kitchen tent.

You get sleeping mats and sleeping bags from Indiahikes, though we had our beloved Deuter sleeping bags with us. Next time we also will bring our sleeping mats, because the ones provided were extremely thin and hard.

We did this trek in mid-September. During the day we often had sun and also quite warm temperatures around 20 degrees. At night it was rather cool, with temperatures at around 5 degrees. In between it rained a few times, but it never got wet in the tent.

Above 2000 m, the danger of altitude sickness lurks, which is characterized by headaches and nausea, among other things. If it happens to you, there is only one way: descending from the mountain. If you do not pay attention to high altitude sickness, it can even lead to death. We took half a Diamox tablet in the morning and half in the evening as a preventive measure and had no problems with altitude sickness.

The tablets did cause an uncomfortable tingling sensation in our hands and arms - but at least that way we knew we had taken the tablets. Despite the altitude, we also had no feeling of shortness of breath, which was probably also due to the slow hiking pace.

Is this tour recommended? Definitely, especially because of the landscape and the religious significance. of the places you trek to. Pleasure hikers who want to challenge themselves a bit will get their money's worth here. For someone with more sporting ambitions, the daily stages may seem a bit too short - but then you can always do a few extra laps around the camp ;-).

The landscape is spectacular, the mountains steep and rugged and the Gaumukh (source of the Ganges), as well as Mount Shivling (sacred Hindu mountain) are strongly rooted in Hinduism, so it is also a spiritual journey that lives on stories.

You want to stay sporty? Then run with us a marathon in Vietnam.