GIRNAR

Girnar | Girinagar | city-on-the-hill | Revatak Parvata

 So, the day we reached Junagadh, we kept the day as a off day-so that we could understand the location, the local attraction, food & lifestyle of people and lots of photoshoot, however, we ensured that packed off quickly so as to get a sound sleep to ensure we start from the hotel well before sunrise.

Next Day we all rise At 4:00 AM and started towards the start point i.e Bhavnath Taleti,

once you reach the place you will never feel that its midnight..3 things were worth observing.. its was night before poonam i.e. full moon day..also, while we walked step by step we were able to see the glimpses of lights on the stairway on the mountains and third was the hustle bustle at the location.

You will find all sorts of amenities that could be of help in climbing the  figure 10,000 steps, so food items, beverages (water, lemon water to Red BUll), walking stick(or better said as hiking sticks), also you could find a Weighing machine, we were obviously curious for its use; which revealed that any person unable to walk /climb the entire stretch will be weighed and as per the weight of individual he /she would be charged for the journey(there was a weight /Rs tariff card available)it was the "palki". It was certainly a tough task for porters(Kahar) to climb the distance in pitch dark situations where normal indvidual finds it difficult to climb barehand and without baggage in one go.

Moving ahead step by step along with the twist and curves of the mountain we started the journey with our group amidst the chanting of slogans of "Jai Mata Di"  "har har mahadev" we kept moving, at certain stretches there was no street light, so people used mobile torch & battery etc.

For the convenience of worshippers, the authorities have constructed "Parab"(rest house)which was also a bench mark of coveringup a certain distance, although people  felt in natural vicinity and crowd being more, worshippers rested on stairs or beside shops (with no compulsion of transaction by vendors)we kept moving with short intervals as this was the best time to cover the major distance as once the sunrise, atomosphere would get warmer and fatigue would  increase.

 
So, we kept moving and stopping wherever felt burnt out and again replenishing with energy and again moving on..the first achivement was to reach the jain derasars..you could find temples of both sects ie Digamber as well as Shwetambar..after you completed 4000 steps..after which we proceed to the "Gaumukh temple" and later to "Amba mata temple" which was again another 2000 steps

Gorkhnath temple

On the fourth tonk which is the highest point in Gujarat lies the shrine of Gorkhnath who is revered highly in the nath sampradaya of hinduism, a 'dhuni' lightened by him also lies in the vicinity.Also his footprints lie there.

Dattatreya temple

From the Gorkhnath peak you have to first climb down approximately about a thousand steps from where there are two gates one going up to Dattatreya tonk and second down to Kamandalu kund.From the left gate you have to climb up another one thousand steps to Dattatreya tonk. The Dattatreya temple here houses the footprints of Lord Dattatreya along with an idol dedicated to the deity. There also is a small ancient shivling down behind the Dattatreya idol on a stone.The temple also houses a bell along with ancient idols of Ganesha and Hanuman along its side.

At about 1500 feet there is a stone dharmsala, and from this there is a fine view of the rock called the Bhairav-Thampa, "the terrific leap," because devotees used to cast themselves from its top, falling 1000 feet or more.