Day 3 (3rd July 2015): Haridwar to Joshimath
Halfheartedly we took a call to leave towards Gangotri the previous night and as per the plan we packed up and were ready to head out. We had not collected Ganga water yet. We had some spare time before breakfast, so we went to the river to fill up the cans. To our surprise, the water level in the river had receded drastically and the currents were low. It was almost down by 6-7 feet than yesterday! We guessed that the rains might have reduced in the mountains.Also we met few people who had returned from Joshimath 3 days back. They told us that they had to abandon their trip to Badrinath due to landslide mid way. We were confused.
We came back and thought let us have our trust in the supreme and listen to our consciousness and not anyone else at the moment and decided to drive towards Joshimath. If things are okay then move further else return and go elsewhere later. We left Haridwar at 9am and drove towards Joshimath.
After topping up the car at Rishikesh, we lost our way slightly.. thanks to Google maps..it made us lose the way too...But it finally routed us through some lane which we would surely not have thought about going even our dreams. Somehow we managed to get back to the highway.
As we drove through we had a glimpse of the famous Ram Jhula at Rishikesh.
The road is a two lane, just wide enough for a comfortable drive most of the route (say 90%). The route is too scenic to doze off. It was first time to the magnificent and majestic Himalayas for all of us. As we drove through the long winding roads, we had the huge mountain on one side and a chilling drop into the valley on the other.
The ascent was light and slow. We could only manage 40-50 km an hour. But one of the best thing was that the weather was clear and bright. En route we drove pass Devprayag. This is where River Bhageerathi joins River Alakananda to form River Ganga. Its a treat to the eyes to watch two different colors of the two rivers. Green colour of Bhageerathi and brown colour of Alakananda can be easily made out.
We stopped over at a restaurant at Srinagar. Had parathas and lassis again. They had a nice range of Bengali sweets. We had some Rasgullas too. Though not authentic it was not bad either.
As we drove further, we had to took a deviation at Rudraprayag, where River Mandakini joins Alaknanda, towards Joishi Math.
Rest of the journey was uneventful. We covered the distance of 270km in about 8 hours including lunch break. We reached Joshi Math at 5pm. We had booked rooms at gmvn tourist house. Finding the hotel was little difficult thanks to lack of sign boards. Rooms were large and clean. We had tea and went around to check the weather and road conditions to go to Badrinath. Initially our plan was to go to Valley of Flowers and then after coming back we were to go to Badrinath. But we changed it looking at the weather forecast. We thought of completing Badrinath and then if weather is good then go to Valley of flowers. Accordingly to find out more information, we headed out.
Joshimath is a nice hilly town. Roads are narrow. But the people are nice and friendly. Police didn't have much information about the road conditions. We were hungry after long travel. We found out a small roadside shop which had some snacks. We decided to try some golgappas. Then we had some aaloo tikki with channa achar curry. A very interesting combination to eat :-). It was very lovely to eat.
A little roamingA around yielded us nothing. Then dinner was at a small restaurant. Parathas and Lassis again. To go to Badrinath, we planned to park our car in Joshi Math and take a taxi. While returning back to the hotel, we met this local taxi driver Amit Bhandari. Interesting young chap. He agreed to take us to Badrinath next day owing to the weather that night. He told us that some places are damaged, possibly will be repaired that night. We decided to start early next day and went back to hotel and retired for the night. A
As we drove through we had a glimpse of the famous Ram Jhula at Rishikesh.
The road is a two lane, just wide enough for a comfortable drive most of the route (say 90%). The route is too scenic to doze off. It was first time to the magnificent and majestic Himalayas for all of us. As we drove through the long winding roads, we had the huge mountain on one side and a chilling drop into the valley on the other.
The ascent was light and slow. We could only manage 40-50 km an hour. But one of the best thing was that the weather was clear and bright. En route we drove pass Devprayag. This is where River Bhageerathi joins River Alakananda to form River Ganga. Its a treat to the eyes to watch two different colors of the two rivers. Green colour of Bhageerathi and brown colour of Alakananda can be easily made out.
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| Dev Prayag - Bhagirathi River (Green) and Alakananda (Brown) |
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| Dev Prayag - Bhagirathi River (Green) and Alakananda (Brownish Green) |
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| Rudraprayag Mandakini River meets Alakananda |
As we drove further, we had to took a deviation at Rudraprayag, where River Mandakini joins Alaknanda, towards Joishi Math.
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| @ Joshi Math our room |
Rest of the journey was uneventful. We covered the distance of 270km in about 8 hours including lunch break. We reached Joshi Math at 5pm. We had booked rooms at gmvn tourist house. Finding the hotel was little difficult thanks to lack of sign boards. Rooms were large and clean. We had tea and went around to check the weather and road conditions to go to Badrinath. Initially our plan was to go to Valley of Flowers and then after coming back we were to go to Badrinath. But we changed it looking at the weather forecast. We thought of completing Badrinath and then if weather is good then go to Valley of flowers. Accordingly to find out more information, we headed out.
A little roamingA around yielded us nothing. Then dinner was at a small restaurant. Parathas and Lassis again. To go to Badrinath, we planned to park our car in Joshi Math and take a taxi. While returning back to the hotel, we met this local taxi driver Amit Bhandari. Interesting young chap. He agreed to take us to Badrinath next day owing to the weather that night. He told us that some places are damaged, possibly will be repaired that night. We decided to start early next day and went back to hotel and retired for the night. A
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