Why Laddakh Primer? Read on.
How lucky for me that my wife would want to go to her myka at the very time when, taking one day off would give me straight 4 days of extended weekend. This is the proof that God exists. Working with Google maps, I planned my trip to the Prayags. I always wanted to visit the Prayags and I would be able to do that on my Bullet was a fantastic wish about to be fulfilled. With my limited inventory of 4 days, I could only plan to visit the lower parts of hills doing Devprayag, Rudraprayag & Karnaprayag and return back. Laddakh will have to wait. Two days before I was to leave, I found the bike's rear chain sprocket missing some tooth. Only a day remaining, I could either finish my office work so that I can take that leave or get the chain sprocket replaced. I could see myself kissing this trip goodbye. Luckily, there was a an authorised workshop near my office and was able to do both. God still existed.
So, I left on the morning of 22nd Oct '15, the Dussehra day. I couldn't say enough thanks to the person who conceptualized Google Maps. There is no bigger waste of time than spending it trying to figure out how to get on the highway on the first day of your road trip.
But getting out of Delhi city onto the highway was easy with Google Maps. That's all the homework I did on map. Rest of it I only used to find the distance between my destinations. India is a populous country and you will always find someone to help you with directions within 30 kms max. But take that with a pinch of salt. Us Indians are automatically under a divine obligation to assist when asked for directions. It is our overwhelming sense of going out of way and helping someone, clubbed with that divine obligation, that makes most of us Indians think we are born with a map of India embedded in our brain. If you are asking directions and tell that person your final destination, in all good probability he will tell you direction all the way on how to reach there, wherever it is, including atleast one shortcut. The younger generation is better, they know that they do not know.
Jaggery
On the way, just after Khatauli I came across "factories" making jaggery. I stopped at one and got to taste piping hot semisolid jaggery straight out of the pan. See the pics below. Speaking to the owner it seemed that the whole of the village either owned or worked at a jaggery "factory" there. With the numbers I got from the owner and workers, I calculated that an average "factory" had a turnover of about 30 lacs in 6 months. Rest of the 6 months it lies idle and people find some other labour jobs to put food on table.
From there passing through Bijnor, bypassing Najibabad I reached Kotdwara. It was the first place where I got decent tea on a road side tea stall since leaving Delhi. Till now, tea meant just warm, sweet & brown colour water, but these guys in Kotdwara actually use some tea leaves. The air was so clear and crisp I thought I had full frame DSLR sensor in my eyes. You never get to see such a clear air in Delhi, its history now. I moved on and shortly the hills started. My first planned destination was Lansdowne, but since I reached there by 1.30 pm and had so much of day time left, I decided to skip Lansdowne and go to Devprayag.
Road to Devprayag
The road started to turn exciting with lots of curves and climbs as Satpuli got closer. Once there, I checked online maps and to my annoyance I found that Devprayag was about 100 kms to go and the route it showed me was via Pauri. There was something wrong. It cannot be that far. There must be some road from Satpuli to Devprayag bypassing Pauri, which I did glanced on map when working on getting out of Delhi. I had two options, take a stop in Satpuli or move on and risk driving in night in the hills if I did not find that road. I moved on and to my delight at a fork an old corroded sign board standing at the side of road seemingly on one leg pronounced "Devprayag - 36 kms". There were small villages sprinkled alongside the road. As the village density started to reduce and it finally vanished, the road started turning perilous. On one side there was a steep hill and on the other, deep valley with no barrication. The road itself was narrow, at many places it was broken or part of it caved in due to landslides, it was full of grit, stones, boulders, loose mud and in all those you-would-think-thrice-to ride-on-this-one avatars. The valley was on the left side of road was for almost all the length of the road till Devprayag. I tried riding on the right side of the road. Actually the road was too narrow to have a separate definition of left and right, so lets say I tried riding on relatively right side of the road. My speed and confidence rose and dropped along with the change in depth of the valley. I was never so focused in my life, not even when I had my final school/college exams. I think this was because final exams were matter of a year drop and father's money, but here on the road it was a matter of life and death. You can't be too careful. One slip and you are enjoying a dip in cold waters of the river along with your bike in the valley many foot deep after probably breaking half the bones in your body.
Vyas Ghat
Most of the part of road was under shadow of one or the other hill so the air was also very cold. I came across Vyas Ghat (Vyas rishi from Ramayan) and decided to stop and take a dip in the holy Ganges. There is a small ashram with a temple and some stairs take you down to the Ganges. There was no one on the ghat so it was like a private one like Kings had it for them. The water was very cold, no - it was frigid. I think I spent only just over 3 minutes in that water but I had a sort of glad feeling. I was bathing in the Ganges before it reached any of the pilgrimages down like Haridwar or Allahabad or Varanasi so the water was relatively clean. When I came out and started drying off myself, I felt thousands of prickling sensations on my body where I touched with towel to wipe off the water. I had never bathed in such a cold, no - frigid water.
When I moved on, it was about 6.20 pm. It started to get dark and on the way I saw a milestone pronouncing Devprayag to be 15 kms away. Judging from my ride on this road so far, I expected to take about 1.5 hr more to reach there with night falling along the way. A voice in my head asked me, "Why are you doing this?" and another voice answered, "Because you are crazy when it comes to biking" and I said to myself, "Ok, this reason is good enough to attempt riding in night on the hills". Brushing off the thought of returning back and spending the night in ashram in Vyas Ghat, I moved on. And as the night fell, I found that my bike's headlight was not working as it should.
Devprayag
The headlight worked only on high beam, which I found is not correct way to illuminate your path when riding in hills. When I had to put it on low beam for an oncoming vehicle from opposite side, I had to rely on my imagination to continue riding or come to a complete stop till the vehicle passed by. And so it took menwhat seemed like an eternity to reach Devprayag. A hotel there cost me Rs 400/-. Had dinner in a restaurant called Roxy and believe me, the Kadhi I had in dinner was so good,that remembering it my mouth waters to this day. There in the restaurant I started discussing about my trip and Devprayag with a local. He suggested me that since I had come so far, I should go to Badrinath. He informed me that it had snowed in Badrinath. Just imagine a man sitting in his room on a cushioned chair, listening to a Ghazal and a beautiful sher (couplet) comes up. He would close his eyes, one of his hands would rise till the palm is at his ears level and he would twist his palm inwards along the wrist with fingers curved and say "waah!" in appreciation. Got it? This man who suggested that I should go to Badrinath did this with both his hands and eyes closed. And said "Badaaa hi ramniya sthal hai. Barf girne se aur sundar ho gaya hai" (In english this translates to something like, "Dude, the place is amazingly beautiful and the snow has increased its beauty"). I knew I could not make it to Badrinath and back given the limited time I had.
On returning to hotel I sat chatting with the hotel owner. There came another person who was driver of a van carrying a party on tour. He has just returned from Badrinath and showed me some pictures of Badrinath that he had clicked a day before on this cellphone. Further in our chat I came across a new thing called 'sulfa' (u as in 'put'). It's an illegal drug. A piece of it - roughly the size of a bengal gram - is slightly burned, powdered, mixed with tobacco and smoked. It takes your mind to divine places. This is what the people with whom I was chatting said. Then the driver guy showed me a stick of sulfa he brought from Badrinath and offered me some. I declined. I had to leave early next morning as I had something going on in the back of my mind. It was nice 11 °C next morning when I got up. Got ready and went to the confluence, visited Raghunathji temple spent some time there and had Aloo Paratha in breakfast in the same Roxy hotel. One thing that I notice that the food available in the restaurants in hilly areas used less oil and tasted like home. And they used soyabean chunks in almost all 'rassedaar' vegetables.
a
Badrinath
I left for Karnaprayag at about 10 am. The roads were curvy but wide and good. Alaknanda flowing in the valley on the right side of the road and then the hills all around were looking very pleasing. I was awed by the scenery and was looking at the river below when negotiating a turn and went on to hit the hill on the left side. It brought me back to my senses and learned one more reason why it is dangerous to ride in the hills. You cannot concentrate anywhere else other than the road. You should not, if you want to complete your ride and return back with all your body parts and your bike intact as it was when you left. But the river looked beautiful and I stopped at few places just to admire the beauty of nature.
All along the way to Karnaprayag I was debating in my mind whether to go to Badrinath or take a stop in Karnaprayag. Badrinath was always on my bucket list and not going there coming so close would be disrespect to the Bullet and the hills. I did not Weigh my options much, but just for the fun of it, I decided my next stop would be Badrinath, come what may, including driving in night in the hills with that faulty headlight. After Karnaprayag, the road gets narrow and there are no barrication on the road and the valley is on the left side of the road when going towards Badrinath. You are already on the hills so high above the sea level but the real climb starts after you bypass Chamoli. Thats when the roads get more tedious to navigate and you encounter more broken roads due to landslides and the temperature starts dropping. That's when it started to get more excited. Looking up from the bottom of a hill I saw a huge landslide that had washed off all the roads that was in its path right from top to the bottom of the hill. I could make out the road only by following miniature trucks climbing on the hills. Yes miniatures! That's how they looked against the backdrop of the mountain and the landslide. It was intimidating and my heart beats increased in excitement of riding on it. Also I was awed so much I forgot to click a picture of it. I think, it was from here that all I could see was mountains, roads and rivers, no flat lands. Its is thrilling to ride on these roads. Some roads were cut "in" the mountain with rocks hanging on top of you.
Just after Joshimath there is a nice place to rest and have some tea/snacks. It is nicely nestled between hills all around with Alaknanda river flowing in almost front of you. You will automatically stop your vehicle there for rest. Crossing the only bridge that connected both the river banks, I moved on towards Badrinath. By the time I reached Govindghat, night fell and the temperature dropped sharply. When I could take it no more, I stopped at the side of road and changed there itself, stripping down to my underpants to put on the thermals that I was carrying. I had to remove my shoes and the earth was so cold, it was almost like I was standing bare foot on ice. After covering myself well, I moved on for few kilometers before I got stuck in traffic, courtesy to a dumper truck blocking the way. It had both the front tyres stuck in the loose mud that was put there to create a new road. I got off from my bike and started chatting with other people. There was a water stream falling from the hill next to the road and people were getting there water bottles filled. Some were using the time to blame the "poor" management of the road which in their view was the actual reason to cause the road block. It took about 45 minutes to move the truck out of the way - actually it took only 2 minutes to do that after a crane reached the spot.
This traffic had an adverse effect on me which I describe now. The road is decent till a hydro power station and after that there is only loose mud and gravels in the name of road and the fact that there is a steep climb with tight hair-pin bends upto Badrinath from here just added to the irritation of driving in night with a faulty headlight. There were two 4 wheeler vehicles in immediate front of me and were raising generous amount of dust as they moved. That clubbed with the high beam of my bike's headlight created a curtain of dust in front of me. I could barely see the road and had to just follow the tail light of vehicle ahead. I stopped for few seconds thus increasing the distance between the vehicles ahead and myself so that the dust settles and stops hindering my view. I moved when the vehicles were at a considerable distance from me only to be overtaken by another 4 wheeler and again found myself surrounded by dust. I stopped again and moved and again a vehicle overtook me after few seconds. Then I realized that since the traffic built up there is accumulation of the vehicles and my bike and myself both are destined to ride in the dust. There were many water stream falling from the hill and flowing across the road. I skidded when I was crossing one such stream but luckily I could balance myself. That was when I stopped for another rest and to sort out my senses.
I was standing there on side of the road on the valley side with just some moonlight in which I could make out the contours of the enormous mountains. I did some stretching to relax my body and while stretching my neck backwards I looked up and was awed by seeing what I had not seen in many years. The sky filled with countless stars of varying intensity seemed straight out of the song "Badan pe sitaare lapete hue", literally. I, like most of you living in the cities, had forgotten what a dark starry sky looked like. There were so many stars, I could not make out even one constellation. Gazing at those stars in the dark night with the cool and crisp air of the mountains seemed very beautiful. I just wanted to stretch and pick handful of stars from the sky. I found myself in another world, but thanks to the honking and bright light of a passing vechicle, I was brought back to the real world. I got on my bike and moved on. On reaching Badrinath, It seemed that the the whole place had gone to sleep. I found a room that charged me Rs 200/- and was close to the temple. The room had a double bed, two blankets, attached bathroom, a tubelight and a door. That's all. The hotel was still under construction.
Rooms at the ground floor were charged Rs 700/- and had a TV and geyser in addition to the other stuffs I mentioned. For the rooms on the top floor, you have to ask the caretaker for hot water which was Rs 30/- a bucket. It was a deal for a frugal traveller like me. After checking in I just patted off the dust on my jacket and pants and went for dinner. Back in hotel when I was making an entry in the log book, I realised the ink would not flow as easliy due to the low temperature. I also realised that since I had only two days to go back to Delhi and the speed that I could get in the hills, I need to move early next morning so that I can atleast make it to Ranikeht, if not Nainital, the next day.
I got ready early next morning for Darshan. I had to stand outside the temple and had Darshan from outside as many people were already there. The temple floor is made of wood and concrete at some places. It was so cold, my feet started to pain and when I touched my nose, I found that it had gone numb. Temperature was 1 °C. I have decided to wear 3 pair of socks next time I visit any temple at such a location. Coming back from temple, I immediately checked out from the hotel. I met a group of bikers who were also from Delhi and were put in the same hotel. They were also going back to Delhi. We had some chat and tea just before we started our journey.
At about 8 am we started coming down from Badrinath and it was in the daylight that I actually saw the road. I was amazed that I rode my bike on this road the previous night. There was no road as such. I think the government did not took effort to make one as it would sure be broken by a landslide before the tar "dried".
At a place there was a narrow gap between two fallen boulders jut wide enought to let one car pass. I did not realise this last night as I as surrounded by dust. I also practically applied and learned that best way to control your bike while coming down is not the brakes but the gears. The mountains all around you seem to look at you and follow you. They are like giants seeming to stand still but about to move and saying, "We allow you to ride on my roads but show respect to us. We are capable of wiping you off in a moment and no one will ever find. Show some respect and we will let you pass and we will welcome you again." We feel so small in front of the mountains not only physically but also looking it through a nature's force perspective. These mountain roads test you physically and mentally. It will put all your riding skills to test and then will teach you some.
Ranikhet
By the time I reached back to Karnaprayag it was about 2.30 pm. Now, going from Karnaprayag to Ranikhet, It was a very monotonous journey. I could occasionally see a car coming from the opposite direction. No one seemed to got towards Ranikhet except me. It was very quite all around which bored me further. It seemed as if there is no one in some of the villages I crossed. There would be some climbs and then some descent and again the same. It felt as if this is never going to end and I will never reach Ranikhet. I considered throwing my bike from a hill and jumping after it, just to add some excitement, but decided against it as I had to write this blog. On the way, I came across an Adibadri temple
At a point I realised that the front brakes of my Bullet are not working well. They spring which brings back the brake pad to its original position after the brake lever is released was not working fully, so I had to be more careful. Tried to get it repaired at one garage on the way but it was not fully repaired. Again, night fell on the way. It was about 30 kms to Ranikhet and I started hearing some noise from the front wheel. I could not make out the exact reason, but just prayed that the front wheel does not come off, atleast till I reach Ranikhet. It did not. The room of the hotel I was put up had an excellent view of the snow clad Himalayan mountains. I did not do much in Ranikhet, just had much needed rest.
Nainital
Next day I reached Nainital by 12 pm. Just went to the Nainital lake, clicked some pics and moved on. As soon as I reached down from Nainital, I saw a straigt stretch of road which I had not seen since I crossed Kotdwara three days ago. I opened the throttle of my bike and it shot like a bullet. I rode like crazy for few kilometers. When satisfied (or let's say when I reached a populated area) I came back to normal. The moment I crossed the border from Uttarakhand to Uttar Pradesh, I was welcomed by most "malnourised" road I have come across in my life. I think a mini earthquake must have occured along the length of the road. I was again riding in dust for about 20 kms till Rampur. The road was screaming for repair but since it did not had any religion, no one either from the U.P. government or opposition noticed. I reached outskirts of Delhi by 8 pm and it took me full two hours to negotiate about 30 kms, getting confused at many places. But some how I reached back home.
This trip is one my most challenging one that I did. The best part was the roads in the hilly areas which were of all kinds - 'Hema Malini's cheek' type road (remember Lalu Yadav's electoral promise to turn Bihar's road into?), 'steep, narrow and slippery' type, 'caved-in' type, 'water flowing across it with loose stones hidden under water' type and 'where is the damn road?' type of roads. There were lots of learnings regarding riding skills, the average speed that I could get in the hills, the preparation I need when riding in this type of terrain. I anticipate similar terrain when I go on a bike ride to Ladakh and hence the title "Ladakh Primer".
How lucky for me that my wife would want to go to her myka at the very time when, taking one day off would give me straight 4 days of extended weekend. This is the proof that God exists. Working with Google maps, I planned my trip to the Prayags. I always wanted to visit the Prayags and I would be able to do that on my Bullet was a fantastic wish about to be fulfilled. With my limited inventory of 4 days, I could only plan to visit the lower parts of hills doing Devprayag, Rudraprayag & Karnaprayag and return back. Laddakh will have to wait. Two days before I was to leave, I found the bike's rear chain sprocket missing some tooth. Only a day remaining, I could either finish my office work so that I can take that leave or get the chain sprocket replaced. I could see myself kissing this trip goodbye. Luckily, there was a an authorised workshop near my office and was able to do both. God still existed.
So, I left on the morning of 22nd Oct '15, the Dussehra day. I couldn't say enough thanks to the person who conceptualized Google Maps. There is no bigger waste of time than spending it trying to figure out how to get on the highway on the first day of your road trip.
But getting out of Delhi city onto the highway was easy with Google Maps. That's all the homework I did on map. Rest of it I only used to find the distance between my destinations. India is a populous country and you will always find someone to help you with directions within 30 kms max. But take that with a pinch of salt. Us Indians are automatically under a divine obligation to assist when asked for directions. It is our overwhelming sense of going out of way and helping someone, clubbed with that divine obligation, that makes most of us Indians think we are born with a map of India embedded in our brain. If you are asking directions and tell that person your final destination, in all good probability he will tell you direction all the way on how to reach there, wherever it is, including atleast one shortcut. The younger generation is better, they know that they do not know.
Jaggery
On the way, just after Khatauli I came across "factories" making jaggery. I stopped at one and got to taste piping hot semisolid jaggery straight out of the pan. See the pics below. Speaking to the owner it seemed that the whole of the village either owned or worked at a jaggery "factory" there. With the numbers I got from the owner and workers, I calculated that an average "factory" had a turnover of about 30 lacs in 6 months. Rest of the 6 months it lies idle and people find some other labour jobs to put food on table.
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| Piping hot semi solid jaggery |
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| 5 kg jaggery blocks ready for market |
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| A Selfie |
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| A bridge on the way |
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| The background should be a river in rainy season. My camera "bag" secured firmly in front. |
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| View from the hills |
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| Just after skipping Lansdowne |
Road to Devprayag
The road started to turn exciting with lots of curves and climbs as Satpuli got closer. Once there, I checked online maps and to my annoyance I found that Devprayag was about 100 kms to go and the route it showed me was via Pauri. There was something wrong. It cannot be that far. There must be some road from Satpuli to Devprayag bypassing Pauri, which I did glanced on map when working on getting out of Delhi. I had two options, take a stop in Satpuli or move on and risk driving in night in the hills if I did not find that road. I moved on and to my delight at a fork an old corroded sign board standing at the side of road seemingly on one leg pronounced "Devprayag - 36 kms". There were small villages sprinkled alongside the road. As the village density started to reduce and it finally vanished, the road started turning perilous. On one side there was a steep hill and on the other, deep valley with no barrication. The road itself was narrow, at many places it was broken or part of it caved in due to landslides, it was full of grit, stones, boulders, loose mud and in all those you-would-think-thrice-to ride-on-this-one avatars. The valley was on the left side of road was for almost all the length of the road till Devprayag. I tried riding on the right side of the road. Actually the road was too narrow to have a separate definition of left and right, so lets say I tried riding on relatively right side of the road. My speed and confidence rose and dropped along with the change in depth of the valley. I was never so focused in my life, not even when I had my final school/college exams. I think this was because final exams were matter of a year drop and father's money, but here on the road it was a matter of life and death. You can't be too careful. One slip and you are enjoying a dip in cold waters of the river along with your bike in the valley many foot deep after probably breaking half the bones in your body.
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| Road to Devprayag |
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| To Devprayag from Satpuli |
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| A boulder fallen on the road to Devprayag. The greenish river is Ganges |
Vyas Ghat
Most of the part of road was under shadow of one or the other hill so the air was also very cold. I came across Vyas Ghat (Vyas rishi from Ramayan) and decided to stop and take a dip in the holy Ganges. There is a small ashram with a temple and some stairs take you down to the Ganges. There was no one on the ghat so it was like a private one like Kings had it for them. The water was very cold, no - it was frigid. I think I spent only just over 3 minutes in that water but I had a sort of glad feeling. I was bathing in the Ganges before it reached any of the pilgrimages down like Haridwar or Allahabad or Varanasi so the water was relatively clean. When I came out and started drying off myself, I felt thousands of prickling sensations on my body where I touched with towel to wipe off the water. I had never bathed in such a cold, no - frigid water.
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| River Ganges at Vyas ghat |
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| Believe me, that's me taking dip in Ganges |
When I moved on, it was about 6.20 pm. It started to get dark and on the way I saw a milestone pronouncing Devprayag to be 15 kms away. Judging from my ride on this road so far, I expected to take about 1.5 hr more to reach there with night falling along the way. A voice in my head asked me, "Why are you doing this?" and another voice answered, "Because you are crazy when it comes to biking" and I said to myself, "Ok, this reason is good enough to attempt riding in night on the hills". Brushing off the thought of returning back and spending the night in ashram in Vyas Ghat, I moved on. And as the night fell, I found that my bike's headlight was not working as it should.
Devprayag
The headlight worked only on high beam, which I found is not correct way to illuminate your path when riding in hills. When I had to put it on low beam for an oncoming vehicle from opposite side, I had to rely on my imagination to continue riding or come to a complete stop till the vehicle passed by. And so it took menwhat seemed like an eternity to reach Devprayag. A hotel there cost me Rs 400/-. Had dinner in a restaurant called Roxy and believe me, the Kadhi I had in dinner was so good,that remembering it my mouth waters to this day. There in the restaurant I started discussing about my trip and Devprayag with a local. He suggested me that since I had come so far, I should go to Badrinath. He informed me that it had snowed in Badrinath. Just imagine a man sitting in his room on a cushioned chair, listening to a Ghazal and a beautiful sher (couplet) comes up. He would close his eyes, one of his hands would rise till the palm is at his ears level and he would twist his palm inwards along the wrist with fingers curved and say "waah!" in appreciation. Got it? This man who suggested that I should go to Badrinath did this with both his hands and eyes closed. And said "Badaaa hi ramniya sthal hai. Barf girne se aur sundar ho gaya hai" (In english this translates to something like, "Dude, the place is amazingly beautiful and the snow has increased its beauty"). I knew I could not make it to Badrinath and back given the limited time I had.
On returning to hotel I sat chatting with the hotel owner. There came another person who was driver of a van carrying a party on tour. He has just returned from Badrinath and showed me some pictures of Badrinath that he had clicked a day before on this cellphone. Further in our chat I came across a new thing called 'sulfa' (u as in 'put'). It's an illegal drug. A piece of it - roughly the size of a bengal gram - is slightly burned, powdered, mixed with tobacco and smoked. It takes your mind to divine places. This is what the people with whom I was chatting said. Then the driver guy showed me a stick of sulfa he brought from Badrinath and offered me some. I declined. I had to leave early next morning as I had something going on in the back of my mind. It was nice 11 °C next morning when I got up. Got ready and went to the confluence, visited Raghunathji temple spent some time there and had Aloo Paratha in breakfast in the same Roxy hotel. One thing that I notice that the food available in the restaurants in hilly areas used less oil and tasted like home. And they used soyabean chunks in almost all 'rassedaar' vegetables.
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| At the confluence |
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| Devprayag |
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| Lord Ram's footprints embedded in stone at Devprayag as per belief. |
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| River Alaknanda coming to the confluence |
I left for Karnaprayag at about 10 am. The roads were curvy but wide and good. Alaknanda flowing in the valley on the right side of the road and then the hills all around were looking very pleasing. I was awed by the scenery and was looking at the river below when negotiating a turn and went on to hit the hill on the left side. It brought me back to my senses and learned one more reason why it is dangerous to ride in the hills. You cannot concentrate anywhere else other than the road. You should not, if you want to complete your ride and return back with all your body parts and your bike intact as it was when you left. But the river looked beautiful and I stopped at few places just to admire the beauty of nature.
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| River Alaknanda in valley |
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| Same river a little upstream |
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| Yet another selfie. Resting. |
All along the way to Karnaprayag I was debating in my mind whether to go to Badrinath or take a stop in Karnaprayag. Badrinath was always on my bucket list and not going there coming so close would be disrespect to the Bullet and the hills. I did not Weigh my options much, but just for the fun of it, I decided my next stop would be Badrinath, come what may, including driving in night in the hills with that faulty headlight. After Karnaprayag, the road gets narrow and there are no barrication on the road and the valley is on the left side of the road when going towards Badrinath. You are already on the hills so high above the sea level but the real climb starts after you bypass Chamoli. Thats when the roads get more tedious to navigate and you encounter more broken roads due to landslides and the temperature starts dropping. That's when it started to get more excited. Looking up from the bottom of a hill I saw a huge landslide that had washed off all the roads that was in its path right from top to the bottom of the hill. I could make out the road only by following miniature trucks climbing on the hills. Yes miniatures! That's how they looked against the backdrop of the mountain and the landslide. It was intimidating and my heart beats increased in excitement of riding on it. Also I was awed so much I forgot to click a picture of it. I think, it was from here that all I could see was mountains, roads and rivers, no flat lands. Its is thrilling to ride on these roads. Some roads were cut "in" the mountain with rocks hanging on top of you.
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| On Way to Badrinath |
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| On Way to Badrinath |
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| On Way to Badrinath |
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| On Way to Badrinath |
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| On Way to Badrinath |
Just after Joshimath there is a nice place to rest and have some tea/snacks. It is nicely nestled between hills all around with Alaknanda river flowing in almost front of you. You will automatically stop your vehicle there for rest. Crossing the only bridge that connected both the river banks, I moved on towards Badrinath. By the time I reached Govindghat, night fell and the temperature dropped sharply. When I could take it no more, I stopped at the side of road and changed there itself, stripping down to my underpants to put on the thermals that I was carrying. I had to remove my shoes and the earth was so cold, it was almost like I was standing bare foot on ice. After covering myself well, I moved on for few kilometers before I got stuck in traffic, courtesy to a dumper truck blocking the way. It had both the front tyres stuck in the loose mud that was put there to create a new road. I got off from my bike and started chatting with other people. There was a water stream falling from the hill next to the road and people were getting there water bottles filled. Some were using the time to blame the "poor" management of the road which in their view was the actual reason to cause the road block. It took about 45 minutes to move the truck out of the way - actually it took only 2 minutes to do that after a crane reached the spot.
This traffic had an adverse effect on me which I describe now. The road is decent till a hydro power station and after that there is only loose mud and gravels in the name of road and the fact that there is a steep climb with tight hair-pin bends upto Badrinath from here just added to the irritation of driving in night with a faulty headlight. There were two 4 wheeler vehicles in immediate front of me and were raising generous amount of dust as they moved. That clubbed with the high beam of my bike's headlight created a curtain of dust in front of me. I could barely see the road and had to just follow the tail light of vehicle ahead. I stopped for few seconds thus increasing the distance between the vehicles ahead and myself so that the dust settles and stops hindering my view. I moved when the vehicles were at a considerable distance from me only to be overtaken by another 4 wheeler and again found myself surrounded by dust. I stopped again and moved and again a vehicle overtook me after few seconds. Then I realized that since the traffic built up there is accumulation of the vehicles and my bike and myself both are destined to ride in the dust. There were many water stream falling from the hill and flowing across the road. I skidded when I was crossing one such stream but luckily I could balance myself. That was when I stopped for another rest and to sort out my senses.
I was standing there on side of the road on the valley side with just some moonlight in which I could make out the contours of the enormous mountains. I did some stretching to relax my body and while stretching my neck backwards I looked up and was awed by seeing what I had not seen in many years. The sky filled with countless stars of varying intensity seemed straight out of the song "Badan pe sitaare lapete hue", literally. I, like most of you living in the cities, had forgotten what a dark starry sky looked like. There were so many stars, I could not make out even one constellation. Gazing at those stars in the dark night with the cool and crisp air of the mountains seemed very beautiful. I just wanted to stretch and pick handful of stars from the sky. I found myself in another world, but thanks to the honking and bright light of a passing vechicle, I was brought back to the real world. I got on my bike and moved on. On reaching Badrinath, It seemed that the the whole place had gone to sleep. I found a room that charged me Rs 200/- and was close to the temple. The room had a double bed, two blankets, attached bathroom, a tubelight and a door. That's all. The hotel was still under construction.
Rooms at the ground floor were charged Rs 700/- and had a TV and geyser in addition to the other stuffs I mentioned. For the rooms on the top floor, you have to ask the caretaker for hot water which was Rs 30/- a bucket. It was a deal for a frugal traveller like me. After checking in I just patted off the dust on my jacket and pants and went for dinner. Back in hotel when I was making an entry in the log book, I realised the ink would not flow as easliy due to the low temperature. I also realised that since I had only two days to go back to Delhi and the speed that I could get in the hills, I need to move early next morning so that I can atleast make it to Ranikeht, if not Nainital, the next day.
I got ready early next morning for Darshan. I had to stand outside the temple and had Darshan from outside as many people were already there. The temple floor is made of wood and concrete at some places. It was so cold, my feet started to pain and when I touched my nose, I found that it had gone numb. Temperature was 1 °C. I have decided to wear 3 pair of socks next time I visit any temple at such a location. Coming back from temple, I immediately checked out from the hotel. I met a group of bikers who were also from Delhi and were put in the same hotel. They were also going back to Delhi. We had some chat and tea just before we started our journey.
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| Neelkanth peak |
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| The biker group I met in Badrinath...some were just reluctant to remove the helmet...bikers will understand |
At about 8 am we started coming down from Badrinath and it was in the daylight that I actually saw the road. I was amazed that I rode my bike on this road the previous night. There was no road as such. I think the government did not took effort to make one as it would sure be broken by a landslide before the tar "dried".
At a place there was a narrow gap between two fallen boulders jut wide enought to let one car pass. I did not realise this last night as I as surrounded by dust. I also practically applied and learned that best way to control your bike while coming down is not the brakes but the gears. The mountains all around you seem to look at you and follow you. They are like giants seeming to stand still but about to move and saying, "We allow you to ride on my roads but show respect to us. We are capable of wiping you off in a moment and no one will ever find. Show some respect and we will let you pass and we will welcome you again." We feel so small in front of the mountains not only physically but also looking it through a nature's force perspective. These mountain roads test you physically and mentally. It will put all your riding skills to test and then will teach you some.
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| Start of snow |
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| Could you make out the road or the water stream? |
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| A mountain |
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| Struggling with the bike |
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| That's my Bullet |
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| Dried river bed |
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| A cut-in road |
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| Another road |
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| Looking over the river |
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| Another mountain |
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| Chamoli |
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| A road and a river |
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| Karnaprayag |
Ranikhet
By the time I reached back to Karnaprayag it was about 2.30 pm. Now, going from Karnaprayag to Ranikhet, It was a very monotonous journey. I could occasionally see a car coming from the opposite direction. No one seemed to got towards Ranikhet except me. It was very quite all around which bored me further. It seemed as if there is no one in some of the villages I crossed. There would be some climbs and then some descent and again the same. It felt as if this is never going to end and I will never reach Ranikhet. I considered throwing my bike from a hill and jumping after it, just to add some excitement, but decided against it as I had to write this blog. On the way, I came across an Adibadri temple
At a point I realised that the front brakes of my Bullet are not working well. They spring which brings back the brake pad to its original position after the brake lever is released was not working fully, so I had to be more careful. Tried to get it repaired at one garage on the way but it was not fully repaired. Again, night fell on the way. It was about 30 kms to Ranikhet and I started hearing some noise from the front wheel. I could not make out the exact reason, but just prayed that the front wheel does not come off, atleast till I reach Ranikhet. It did not. The room of the hotel I was put up had an excellent view of the snow clad Himalayan mountains. I did not do much in Ranikhet, just had much needed rest.
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| On way to Ranikhet |
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| On way to Ranikhet |
Next day I reached Nainital by 12 pm. Just went to the Nainital lake, clicked some pics and moved on. As soon as I reached down from Nainital, I saw a straigt stretch of road which I had not seen since I crossed Kotdwara three days ago. I opened the throttle of my bike and it shot like a bullet. I rode like crazy for few kilometers. When satisfied (or let's say when I reached a populated area) I came back to normal. The moment I crossed the border from Uttarakhand to Uttar Pradesh, I was welcomed by most "malnourised" road I have come across in my life. I think a mini earthquake must have occured along the length of the road. I was again riding in dust for about 20 kms till Rampur. The road was screaming for repair but since it did not had any religion, no one either from the U.P. government or opposition noticed. I reached outskirts of Delhi by 8 pm and it took me full two hours to negotiate about 30 kms, getting confused at many places. But some how I reached back home.
This trip is one my most challenging one that I did. The best part was the roads in the hilly areas which were of all kinds - 'Hema Malini's cheek' type road (remember Lalu Yadav's electoral promise to turn Bihar's road into?), 'steep, narrow and slippery' type, 'caved-in' type, 'water flowing across it with loose stones hidden under water' type and 'where is the damn road?' type of roads. There were lots of learnings regarding riding skills, the average speed that I could get in the hills, the preparation I need when riding in this type of terrain. I anticipate similar terrain when I go on a bike ride to Ladakh and hence the title "Ladakh Primer".
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| The route |
3 comments:
Nice blog brother and very nice pictures captured.
The true lights of hills captured though.
Feels pretty inspiring Dilip bhai...I have yet to read it fully, I could just scan through quickly..
Awesome work, keep it going
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