Panchtarni - second stop of Amarnath yatra
Panchtarni is the place you want to reach earliest if you are taking the Helicopter service to Amarnath.
It is believed that Shiva when he was taking Parvati to a inaccessible location to share the Devarashiyam of Immortality left each of his accompaniments that adorned him at one one place. In here he is believed to have left behind the 5 elements before proceeding to Amarnath Cave.
In the Baltal route - you start your walking/trekking or taking a horse or a dholi from Baltal. But if you are taking an Helicopter your starting point is Neelgrath. The helicopter drops you at Panchtarni From here to Amarnath you need to cover a distance of 6kms. Not everyone is lucky to have the blessings of Bhole Nath that you climb down the Helicopter and go to Amarnath Cave have the darshan of Ice ling come back and take the Helicopter and fly down to Sonmarg all on the same day. So this is an essential base camp for those that need a stay.
The whole area is under the control of Para military forces and the access gate to the path to Amarnath is opened strictly between 5.00am in the morning to 3.00pm in the evening.
There are lots of temporary tents available for rent for yatris to stay. The mobile toilets are kept at various locations for the yatris. Hot water is available at a price of Rs 5 per bucket. The langars provide free food for all pilgrims through out the day. Ofcourse there are lots and lots of small shops selling all kinds of things starting from toothpaste and toothbrush to monkey caps to wooden walking sticks chips cool drinks etc...
For reaching Amarnath you have the options of trekking, horses and dholi the dholi here is a plastic chairs tied to 2 wooden stout poles kept parallel. At the front and back 2 wooden poles are tied perpendicular to these poles. There are 4 men who carry the dholi. The fifth person helps these 4 people through difficult terrains
The pathway to Amarnath Cave is to climb the steep mountain all the way to the top which is the Sangam point. This is point where the yatris walking up from Baltal also join. Then everyone climbs down the mountain to reach the glacier where the temporary plastic sheeted tents welcome the yatris. The horses are stopped here. And only yatris on foot or dholi are allowed to proceed towards Amarnath Cave.
Swami Vivekanda stayed here during his yatra to Amarnath. Sister Niveditha describes how Swamiji took bath in each of the 5 rivulets despite the chilling cold before starting to Amarnath.
Starting the yatra at the very beginning of the opening slot what we were experiencing was very very hot weather. I even got sun burns on my shoulder and neck. But the night time drops to less than 10 and tents provides you with a cot pillow and a good comforter only. You need to have winter wear to help you keep warm during the nights. But I understand that later during end July and August even here it is freezing cold that you experience.
From Wikipedia
Panchtarni is a locality in Anantnag district of the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It is a popular pilgrimage and tourist destination on the way to Amarnath Temple near the Amarnath Glacier in Himalayas.
It is located 40 kilometres (25 mi) from Pahalgam base camp and 15 kilometres ahead of last halt camp of Sheshnag Lake in the north. It is a meadowland on the banks of eponymous Panchtarni River where five glacier-fed tributary streams meet in eponymous Panchtarni Valley surrounded by snow-capped mountains at an altitude of 11,500 feet (3,500 m). It is also the final helicopter drop off for the Amarnath yatra pilgrims, who have to trek the rest of the 6 kilometres journey either on foot or by mule from this camp.
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