Auli - Rishikesh - An Unexpected Journey - III

Day 3
We woke up in our hotel at Joshimath. Piyush D the hobbit who had been handed the responsible for destroying the ring was sick and weak. We got lots of Real juice and ate some alloo paratha at the local stalls. From local sources and the low room rent we got to know that the number of tourists has fallen drastically due to the Uttarakhand floods last year. This had caused much reduction in fares and rents. The snow capped peaks could be seen from Joshimath in the cheerful morning. Piyush D and Arpan bravely took the 'helm' of the bikes and guided the fellowship towards Auli about 16 kms from there. The road to Auli was good and fenced at most of the places. Also it was mostly inhabited and the climate was cool, keeping us fresh and spirited for new adventures. Actually perhaps only I felt spirited, the other members of the fellowship - Arpan J whose wrist has become sore due to constant pressure during bike handling and Piyush D was sickened. Perhaps the ring was taking its toll in him. 



We reached Auli resort at mayb 10AM. First we roamed around the army stations where we took pictures of cows and fields and anything neat and clean. Then near the resort we hired a guide similar to Golum to lead us for trekking where we had secretly intended to destroy the ring in the fire of doom. The Golum like guide brought a twist in our story and instead of snatching the powerful ring, ripped us instead charging us 700. Anyways we left our bikes behind and undertook our journey towards the snow capped mountains, panting and gasping for breath as we climbed. The lower region were overgrown with grass, but it gets covered with snow during winters and skiing competitions were organised there. The South Asian Winter Games 2011 were conducted at Auli. We saw the world's highest artificial lake on our way. We saw sheep, mules, tourists riding the mules and pastures. The landscape varied a lot - walking on the gentle and cheerful green pastures as in Shire being grazed by tender sheep huddled and contrasted by cold rugged ice capped mountains in the distance, then we reached the woods with tall straight trees of the cold country with the grounds inundated with fallen brown leaves and twigs interrupted by infrequent patches of ice breaking the monotonicity.  We passed some tents where people had camped and small streams trickling down from some hidden melted ice. We dragged on and stopped to have some lembas bread like aaloo paratha we had brought along with us.   

We carried on our climb over grasslands marked by patches of ice and reached the top region where mules were grazing and long stretches of ice covered ground magnified the beauty of the scene. Piyush D tired and barely walking reached a spot where locals had gathered around a fire to keep themselves warm. And there was the ring dropped and destroyed in the fire of doom. We walked up and down the hillocks, slipping occasionally on the melted snow and clicked lots of pictures. We saw people going further ahead for long duration camps and treks. Then we trotted back along with the Golum like trek guide. The retreat was lot easier due to downhill slope. Besides the ring no longer troubled our hobbit hearts and lightened us. We waited for the eagles but they did not show up.


We reached back to our hotel at Joshimath, packed our luggages, had a light lunch and started back at about 2 30 PM. In between it started raining and we had to stop about 3 times at small shelters to avoid slipping and poor visibilty. We reached Pipalkoti in the late evening and decided we could not go any further that day. We took a decent room, quite cheap, and rested. We had hot tea and round cream rolls like stuff which did not had any cream and succeeded in avoiding speeding swirling vehicles trying to play road rash with us. We slept peacefully after a very fruitful day.

Beginning the journey from Shire scene 

Rest in the woods

Celebrating !!

Before 

After killing the "watcher of the water" 

That feeling after the ring has been destroyed!

Auli - Rishikesh - An Unexpected Journey - II

Day 2
Auli is 263 kms from Rishikesh and the road has been opened not long ago, after being washed away during the catastrophe of Uttranchal. Next morning on the 4th May we woke early and arranged for two bikes - an avenger and a Pulsar 220. Our expedition began at 7 am from Rishikesh along NH 58 going at a brisk pace to get used to the bike. Just like The Lord of The Rings involved some walking, some running, and then more walking and more running and more and more walking and running our trip mostly consisted of biking and sitting and a lot of biking and me sitting on the backseat like Gimli, son of Gloin sitting uncomfortably on horse back along with Legolas.

We stopped at few scenic locations and snapped pictures for our facebook, twitter, linkedin, goodreads, google+, hi5, tumblr, pinterest, flickr, instagram and another 100 accounts. We were skeptical about the climate but it was quite cool in the morning hours. We came across lots of camps along the Ganges where people camped, went rafting, relaxed and played on the clean white sands. The river Ganges followed us as we rode cautiously upto Devprayag. Devprayag is the confluence of rivers Bhagirathi and Alaknanda meet in two contrasting colours. The confluence is called Ganga hence forth. The road at Devaprayag is in quite terrible condition.                                                                                                                                                                                                   Having spent a lot of time in Kanpur and Jharkhand I don't generally fuss about potholes with roads in them but i think it is worthy of mention when the road is barely wide for a truck and, in poor condition and there are is a fully loaded truck honking at your neck from below with the river roaring and effervescing wrathfully in the gorge a few feet to your right. We passed Srinagar and reached Rudraprayag - the confluence of rivers Mandakini and Bhagirathi. The famous man eating tiger of Rudraprayag written by Jim Corbett lived here. 

Intially we had the mountain wall as our guardian angel to our left and vehicles overtook us on the right keeping us away from the devil cliff and the river. Later we were riding on the edge of road overviewing the gorge on the left and big and medium vehicles constantly pushed us to the very edge while overtaking us. I especially disliked the part when the road ahead of us suddenly went missing having succumbed to some landslide in the past and we had to bend around the "Stairway to Heaven" to stay on our mission. Halfway through the ride I had made my mind that if Piyush D brings me back alive I treat him heavily. 

We passed Karanprayag where some more rivers "not so muchj in our geography books" met. We traversed through a multitude of sceneries scraped out of tourism books or places we dream of - sometimes a long road canopied with trees on each side with a cloudy sky and mountains looming in the distance with no sign of sun and cool winds blowing in solitude and silence or sometimes a slanting wall of mountain on one side, a long stretch of road and terraced farms in the valley below with tiny huts scattered here and there in the fields unaware and untroubled of the worries of the world or being sandwiched sometimes two parallel grey rocky mountains, jagged with numerous piercing edges and sharp points without an inch of greenery on it obscuring any trace of outside world from our view.

We had our lunch at Chamoli. The last stretch of journey was unforgettable. The roads were wide but had gone crazy ascending to insane heights and the scenery was outrageously thrilling and dangerous. The chain of steep mountain walls devoid of vegetation and so much grey and rocky as if refuting any trace of life anywhere, only roads going berserk reaching absurd heights in a run from one hill to other, twisting and climbing and falling in the gloom of lost sunlight. It had grown evening and we hardly met any vehicles. Knowing that there were no shelters in next 20 or 30 kilometers we climbed and fell stoically and with haste. The steepness constrained us to a speed of 25kph and the motorcycles were sweetly piercing the quietude of the hills with rumbling engine sound. 


We were loosing daylight and we got an impression of distance between km stones incrementing . Just when we used to feel that we had been riding a long time since the last kilometer post and must have come a long way from it we were met with the reality that only a single km has been covered. It started drizzling and winds blew coldly, piercing our chest. We dared not stop and take out warmer clothes in our desperation to reach Joshimath the nearest shelter. Shivering and shaken we crossed the signboards welcoming us to Joshimath. The mere sign of shelters and human settlements melted our frozen spirits and we were relieved to be in the town enclosed in a ring of human cheerfulness, chaotic yet appearing musical the sound of humanly hustle, the magical street lights, the sounds of vehicular engines and the warmth of companionship of those whom we knew not but appeared so dear. 
It was 7 Pm. We took a hobbit-room with comfortabe beds but unlike hobbits we forgot to eat. Except that I woke at midnight and had a secret mid-night meal.  A hard day ride deserves a good meal. Auli is only about 11kms from Joshimath.

Some more pics:

For once diverting from LOTR here is a pic inspired by Motorcycle Diaries by Che Guevara:

Auli Rishikesh - An Unexpected Journey - I

On 30th April four of us from IIT Kanpur Mathematics department decided to have a little farewell trip and on the 1st May I was there standing in the tatkal line at IIT K reservation counter along with Piyush D who was motivating me to stay strong. It was "mera pehla pehla tatkal ticket" from Kanpur Central to Haridwar. Also behind the scene of action were other members of the fellowship - Arpan Jain on the irctc website and Piyush Vyas sleeping comfortably in his hobbit bed.

Next day on 2nd we boarded Sangam Link express. We played 29. I mean the other three played 29 and I played "put random card on the deck". We reached Haridwar and took a passenger train from there to Rishikesh taking us less than 40 minutes. We had our brunch at Haridwar where decent cheap food is available. The hotels are mostly crowded on weekends but we took an auto to a hotel in close proximity to the station. We got a double bed room for 4 people and were charged 600 rs for it. We inquired about rafting and adventure activities in Rishikesh and left the hotel at 4 for rafting. 

We reached Muni ki Reti and talked to an agency conducting river rafting. They put us on a jeep and it took us to one of the starting point destination of rafting - Brahmapuri. We paid Rs 1000 for 4 people for 12 km rafting. Rishikesh was not as hot as we had seen on the internet. And by hot I mean the temperature hot. The road to Brahmapuri was in good condition and ran along the Ganges flowing below in the gorge. 

Reaching the spot we took a narrow trail on foot to the sandy banks of river. We waited on the sands enjoying the serene views of Ganges, watching other rafters flow past us who took the more thrilling 18 km rafting track. The sands were clean and whitish. It was a beautiful scene with us on one side and river separating us from the mountains on the other bank and sun rays peeping stealthily through the hills and falling on the glittering sands. After our raft was brought we boarded the raft along with another family. We had two people with us who instructed us, had equipped us with a life jacket, oars and a helmet. We sat tightly, holding our oars and rowing furiously and stopping according to the instruction of our guides. Before coming to the each series of rapids the guides used to announce its name and scare an aunty who was already terrified since the moment she had set her foot on the raft. One of the rapids were called "Double Trouble". The rapids were thrilling and it gave us a sensation that we were riding a four wheeler on Indian roadways. 

In the midst we had stopped and disembarked from our raft to the shore where Maggi and beverages were being sold. It was like one of the scenes of Lord of The Rings in which the fellowship stopped at the shores of River Anduin from there narrow boats and rested. None of us four got killed there. Clearly none of us was attacked by orcs or anything lethal but there was one instance when a lady tried to sell us a plate of maggi for 40 bucks. At places where the water was calm the raft slowed down and the guides asked us to jump into the waters. Cautiously we placed our feet in water and with our hands grabbing the raft ropes slowly hopped in the cold water. There was no current and it felt perfectly safe. We laid back on our backs on the water and watched the ram jhula pass over our head as we drifted in the cold and silent waters on the cool evening with the temple lights looming on the edge. It was probably the most tranquil and pacific moment I have ever felt. Our rafting ended at Muni ki reti in late evening. 

With this ended our day 1 of the tour. Here is another picture of us going through the Anduin like Ganges river with the : 

How it actually was:



 How we felt it!!