Obstacles
No, not the ones we faced on the roads while travelling, but those even before we set foot to Lucknow. There were some villains in between like rescheduled project presentations,non-changeable class timings and NDTV's news coverage reporting heavy snowfall in Mussoorie, resulting in my parents pressing the panic button and call me in between the journey and express their concerns. After somehow overcoming these, we could complete what would be one of the most exciting rides in my life.
16:00 Hrs, Feb 11, 2009
After praying to our favourite Gods and waving bye to reluctant friends who were staying back, We started off to Lucknow on this posh Toyota Innova to catch our train to Haridwar at 8:15 PM.We reached Lucknow by 7 PM. But our taste buds wouldn't settle for anything less than Moti Mahal's food. The hotel was 3 km away and in going and coming back in the heavy traffic, we scraped into the station just in time. And UP's notorious train announcement system and jittery me forgetting the ticket in the Innova while getting down made for a chaotic buildup to the wonderful train called "Janata express".Coach S6 had passengers of S1, there were virtually no coach numbers on any of the compartments. Wait, I still haven't mentioned where we were going to. The reason, after managing to find our coach, our itinerary underwent a major revision. We had planned for Uttarkashi and places around it for trekking, etc. But a local of Uttarakhand region suggested Auli for it was supposedly one of the finest ski spots in Asia. So much for my general knowledge, I thought. Other 5 began to ponder as well about the itinerary. So, with a muddled up plan, we landed in Haridwar on Thursday morning.
Thursday, Feb 12, 2009
I vaguely remember visiting the Holy city of Haridwar 17 years ago. We didn't wait longer in Haridwar and took an auto to Rishikesh as it was the point from where the routes split to all the places that were doing a merry-go-around in our thoughts. A word has to be mentioned about this auto driver whose laughter would frighten a laughing hyena. We crossed the ganges at different points and made our way through the road passing through Rajaji park to Rishikesh.
After a brief stop in Rishikesh to get ourselves freshened up, we went searching for taxis to go till Uttarkashi/Auli. And here too, all cab companies were in support for a trip to Auli, could have been with a business motive as Auli is 10 hours away from Rishikesh while Uttarkashi is only 6 hours. We wanted to club a visit to Mussoorie with a trip to Auli. However, the bottleneck came when we realized that we had little time than we had thought earlier. Why? Vehicles are not allowed to ply on hilly roads after sunset. So, when we decided to go to Auli after having this mouth watering Rajasthani Thali, we were too late for Joshimath, Auli's base camp that day. Plus, guys weren't in favour of Mussoorie as by the time we would reach, it would have been sunset there too. So, after a lot of cajoling, I accepted their idea of wandering around in Rishikesh like so many foreign-wannabe-babajis.
First stop was Lakshman Jhoola. We made our way to the temple seeing different businesses like Yoga teaching training, rafting, safari, camping, etc. Also, the western version of Gayatri mantra greeted us throughout the way. It was all fascinating to hear and see.
We then set down to the shore nearby where we sat on the rocks enjoying every pixel of scenery around us. Suddenly, we realized that water level was rising and Ganga was gaining in speed. And in a couple of minutes after we came to the top, the rock these guys were sitting on was covered under water. So, we went searching for another shore and landed on this spot supposed to be Romance corner for foreigners. But, we barged in just like that. From this spot, we could spot the magnificent Ram Jhoola and Ganga's rapids.
As we got back to our hotel, we got a glimpse of sun setting on a beautiful pink background with Ganga mayya giving company to the sky's bright colours waiting to get aboard the coach to adventure on the Himalayas.
Friday, Feb 13, 2009
The human alarm clock, yours truly, was the only person who was working to be ready for a 6:30 AM start with the rest of the gang being supremely confident that Indian stretchable time would prevail.Our driver, one of the best I've seen, was actually on time. So we left at 7:15 AM. Nature must have a special touch when it comes to lighting mornings and twilights. If Rishikesh, last evening was a sight to frame, a treasure of scenic beauties were in store on this tortuous terrain.Have a look at this.
We stopped at Kaudiyala for breakfast. Enroute to this place, we could see sun slowly waking from its slumber and casting its penetrating rays on the gargantuan mountains, Ganga speeding on its course, rafters struggling to stay afloat under Ganga's Godspeed, thatched roof camps on calm sides of the river, it was just breathtaking.
Post breakfast, backseat boys in the Qualis found it tough with curves abound every 50 metres. We zig-zagged our way to Devprayag and Rudraprayag. The former is the point where Bhagirathi from Gangotri and alaknanda from Badrinath merge to form Ganga.We were going to Joshimath, weren't we and qualis decided to follow Alaknanda all the way till 44 kms away from Badrinath. Rudraprayag is the place where Alaknanda and Mandakini river meet. Have a look at these below:
After a modest lunch near Rudraprayag, we started off to greater heights, crossing Karanprayag, Nandaprayag, Chamoli on our way to Joshimath. on our way, the snow mountains kept getting bigger and bigger.The child in all of us was getting excited and could hardly wait. But damn the corporations, NTPC has a hydro plant at such a height.And the route that we had to traverse to reach Joshimath, look below:
The beauty was, throughout this journey, the river was accompanying us, no matter what the height was. On friday evening, we accidentally tripped on Sankaracharya temple, guys wanted to go back to room since they were in shoes, still somehow, something dragged us into the cave of Thotakacharya where we had a miracle in wait. Badrinath's spatik was lying there. It is practice in off season for the spatik to stay in Joshimath and go back to Badrinath by road when season starts. So, despite Badrinath being closed at this time of the year, we managed to get Darshan. It was just an amazing feeling to experience.
Saturday, Feb 14, 2009
All the baba boys, who prefer to be peaceful got up early for the ropeway to Auli. Though some adventurous spirits wanted to bike the 14 km stretch, some sense prevailed and we decided to board Asia's longest (4.15 km) and highest ropecar (11502 feet).We had 25 minutes before ropeway to visit Narasingh temple and have breakfast and as we hurried into the temple, aarthi started. It all went like clockwork. The speciality of this temple is that it happens to be the first stop for all devotees bound for Badrinath. So getting the darshan in the manner in which we did was another wonderful feeling to experience.
On a separate note, few metres away from this temple, the deadly abyss aka road to Badrinath was visible.It maybe only 44 kms, but it surely looks like a point-to-point ticket to hell when one looks downward.
So, we came to this ropecar loading point and in the course of the 22 minute journey, we could see how beautiful the world, indescribable and beyond anyone's imagination.There was Nandadevi peak hiding under the clouds. Snow filled woods on one side, cliff tips covered with ice on the edge under which it is a free fall of 11000 feet on the other side, it was like a snow blanket spread on vast landscapes stretching till infinity...
The above picture was us trekking to the woods and beyond in trying to find a mandir next to which was the natural ski range. The construction of artificial ski in lowe level for SAF games is in full progress. Till then, skiing happens in higher heights and we ran out of time and steam halfway through the search and returned to Joshimath.
So, we rushed back from ropecar station to board our qualis back to Haridwar. We had to put a stop in between on saturday night and we picked Srinagar, a calm town saddled between mountains.
Sunday, Feb 15, 2009
Departing from Srinagar at 7 AM, we reached Haridwar at 11:30 AM. Throughout the stretch, there were sights of a beautiful sunrise and also foggy roads hampering vehicle movement; Contrasting scenarios on way to Haridwar. And Ganga was running rapid fast in ground level Haridwar. One slip, and the corpse will be deposited in Bay of Bengal. We cautiously took a holy dip and got to the station after a sumptuous lunch.
It was not a picture perfect journey. There has to be some balancing element. Once Akbar posed a question to Birbal to make a line look smaller without rubbing it off or cutting the page which had the line. What did Birbal do? He drew another line near the smaller line which was much bigger. If my onward journey was sickening, what did UP railway board do to make me feel better about that journey? Present an even worse experience in the Link Express bound to Allahabad.No comestible food, lighting less coaches, disturbed sleep, 10 people sitting in place designated for 6 and so on...
However, I would discount it as a minor aberration in an otherwise memorable experience. Divine interception, adrenaline rush, peace, visual treat, religious satisfaction, this trip was feeding all my senses in abundance. And the region, uttarkhand is a treasure chest of tourist spots. Trekking, wild life, peaks, lakes, water sport, temples, flowers, etc. My friends, you should all consider visiting this region once atleast. You won't regret it...
(In tune with theme of My Alien Territory, this wasn't my idea for a post, so this post is dedicated to the friend who floated this idea, to my close friends who would have liked to have been there, but couldn't,to all my IITK friends who accompanied me on this wonderful journey and all enablers who facilitated a safe trip)
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