My FIRST-EVER VAISHNODEVI TEMPLE DARSHAN

Though it was a long trip by road across Jammu & Kashmir ,But we planed our first stopover at KATRA for Vaishnodevi Mata's temple Darshan..... After reaching Jammu Airport from Mumbai ,it was a horrible experience at the airport, had to walk up to the main road as no private/ public transport vehicle is allowed inside the airport premise.Our Driver was waiting on the main road to drive us to our hotel at KATRA..Reached Katra around 2pm after driving thru' NH-1A & than NH-44, which went up & down the high mountain. Soon after almost 1hr & 45mins drive from Jammu Airport,we could locate the sight of the road that reaches Vaishnodevi temple.Got really scared & wondered,how to walk up to such height, Earlier on the journey from Jammu, we had the Darshan of  Mata's phindi at NAGROTA, were mata appeared as a young girl & stayed there for 5 yrs.... After reaching our Hotel at Katra,we tried for Helicopter booking for Darshan at Vaishnodevi.Lucky to get the helicopter booking as generally, one need to do booking 5 days prior to travel....

   Next Morning We got up early & reached Katra Helipad....But the weather turned bad & we had to keep waiting  for the boarding pass to be issued there;After the weights of individual passengers are noted ,the copter one flies in ,is decided....We were very excited as it was our first helicopter ride too.... We were lined up in 1+5 series to board the copter.... Once inside the helicopter, i felt as its a toy..... The view was awesome, as we kept gazing outside with heart beating very fast; It was quite scary sitting by the window of the copter. It took us some 7 mins flight to SANJHACHAT HELIPAD.. Oh ! what a beauty---kept clicking beautiful snaps of the surrounding.. At the same time,kept wondering,how peopleclimb up the 13km trek--- A scarry Wildest dream for me; Now from the Helipad its 3.5Km trek up & down the mountain slopes of TRIKUT MOUNTAIN RANGE.....

It  was quite thrillingat first with the chilling air....First 1.5km was good enough( roads were well maintained but horses,pithus, made our movement slow.... it was still 2kms to go& we hardly could locate the shrine yet.We kept on walking for quite a while,until  we had to take the step route..which was quite tedious. It was simply faith in heart that kept us pushing in front.... it started drizzling as we moved on... could see the rainbow in the sky between the mountain ranges... Now we could locate the shrine from top of the road route... It was still long way to reach Gate nos. 4( were things to be kept in the lockers provided)..On showing the helicopter tickets ,the keys of the locker were given --- we kept our belongings+ shoes & started off barefooted.
      Walking barefooted over cold ,watery roadway made ofstone was getting bit tough...We collected the prasad for puja at the shrine... Gate -5 is only for VIP darshan & to -fro passangers of helicopter .Just next to the gate lies the cave ,were Ma lived;Had 2 freasking... The cave opens only in 'jan month.... after walking another 5 mins,thru' the steps we reachedMata's cave were the Phindis lies....We now reached the Phindi sthal ............... Our respects,adoration to Ma VAISHNODEVI.....
   After darshan, we had to come down the steps...it was really a heartfelt moment--- atlast we could make it to the shrine---now its hope that Ma fulfills our dreams & desires. After breakfast at the shrine outlet,its our way back.But this time,it turned out to be quite tough as its uphill climb& oxygen was quite less... we kept trying hard to reach the helipad by 12noon... Earlier we had a thought to visit Bhairav Shrine too, but gave of the idea instead,seeing the height & just closed our eyes on seeing the glimpses of the shrine & moved on to the Helipad.... We had a great Darshan of Vaishnodevi... On reaching our hotel at Katra , it was relaxing time & reducing leg pain & waiting for the next day,as we'll be covering 250kms from Katra to Pahalgam across the Jawahar Tunnel.

NOTE : NO NONVEG.AVAILABLE AT KATRA.... Shouldn't forget to get GATHIA LASUN(one type of dried garlic) which is most benificial for people suffering from any sort of legpain/ Artheritis...besides any sort of other shopping.