Dwarka - Somnath


This will be a day wise series of the Gujarat Trip planned in the month of December. 
The days will then be merged for the final blog.

Day 5

Dwarka - Somnath

The day started much earlier at 2am. We got ready and checked out of our accomodation by 3:25am.
The first destination was Girnar which was a 4 hours' smooth drive. The mountain is at an altitude of 3672ft comprising of 10k steps from the base. The ropeway covers the initial 5k steps reaching mata Ambaji temple. Further up is the Gorakhnath temple and then the next peak is gurudev Datt mandir. It is all stairs to navigate through. Took us around 2.5 hours to cover the 3 peaks. Neminath temple is 1200 steps below the ropeway point but I chose to skip it. The ropeway charges 700INR both ways for adults and half the price for kids below 110cm. The ropeway is very well managed and even during peak hours, the waiting time wasn't high. The ropeway takes 7-8 mins each side.
Darshan at dattatreya temple was just amazing. The view was breath taking and the wind was cooler than an air conditioner. 
From here, we drove to Somnath temple, which was roughly a 2 hour drive. We also stopped to have food on the way. It was 4:30pm with not many options in sight. 
Luckily, we found a restaurant by the name of Kingdom on the way. The food was delicious. We then headed to Somnath temple. They have proper parking available with the charged being deducted through Fastag. There were shops available for almost everything. The temple doesn't allow any electronic items (including phones, smart watches and even remote controlled car keys). In case you still accidentally carry any of the prohibited items, there are cloak rooms available free of charge where you can get your valuables deposited. Footwear were scattered all around the place though there's a designated shoe house to deposit your shoes. There are well managed queues one for ladies and another one for gents. Even with all the rush, the darshan experience was awesome. It was something not experienced in most of the Hindu temples in India.  
We also wanted to see the laser show. There are 2 shows
 First one starts at 8pm and the next one at 8:45pm. The tickets were sold out for the first one the the second one was late based on our schedule. We bought prasad and returned to our hotel (Hotel Madhuram).

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