The religious procession will reach the shrine on August 9 when the yatra is officially scheduled to end coinciding with Hindu religious occasion of Shravan Purnima. "The journey begins from the Shri Amareshwar Temple located in Dashnami Akhara. During the night of Dashmi and Ekadashi, the journey will continue towards Pahalgam," Giri said. The procession reached Shiv Mandir Bijbehara, Anantnag in south Kashmir and is expected to reach Chandanwari in Pahalgam on August 6 and then further up till it reaches the cave shrine. Every year hundreds of thousands of Hindu devotees from across the country visit the Amarnath cave shrine situated at a height of 3,880 metre in the Himalayas passing through treacherous mountain routes, glaciers and ice fed streams. Pahalgam is one of the two main base camps of the Amarnath yatra. More than 4.10 lakh yatris paid obeisance at the cave shrine this year so far. But the weather has been a challenge owing to continuous heavy rains leading to suspension of yatra on and off in the past over a week. Last year, around 5,12,000 pilgrims had performed the yatra, the highest in over a decade.The highest-ever number of pilgrims to visit the shrine was in 2011 and 2012 at 6.35 lakh and 6.22 lakh, respectively.