June 14, 2011
Hello!
We left Ramnagar this morning after breakfast at about 08:25 hrs. Today we were not very clear as to which route to take. We set course towards Ranikhet. The journey was almost entirely through hilly region. The road is very narrow allowing just about one vehicle to pass at one time. Hence when there was oncoming traffic, it got very difficult to maneuver the vehicle, however the road surface was good so we were able to maintain a speed of about 30 km/h. Now when I say average speed, I mean the total driving time for the distance travelled including the stops and breaks.
I have this feeling that we took a completely different road from what we had seen on the maps.
At 10:30 hrs and after covering a distance of about 65 kms we reached Ghatti Nayabazar, at an altitude of 5280 ft above mean sea level. We had our 1st tea break and then moved on towards Chaukutia. As per the map, we were to take diversion from Ranikhet to go to Chaukhutiya but actually we took the diversion few kilometers prior to Ranikhet at aplace called Bhatrojkhan. The road now was rough and narrow passing through a completely hilly region…ghaat as we call it. Driving through such terrain with such steep gradients and rough and narrow roads maintaining an optimum speed calls for high degree of driving skill, concentration and control over vehicle and speed. It had now started to rain aswell.
We reached Chaukhutiya at 12:50 hrs after passing Bhikhiya Sen and Masi. Raju drew some money from and ATM here, just to check if the password was correct. At 14:20 hrs we reached Gair Sain after covering a distance of 165 kms from Ramnagar. We had lunch at the GMVN guest house. We had now moved from the Kumao region to Garhwal region. We left the guest house at 15:30 hrs. After some time I started feeling a little tired and sleepy so I immediately parked our car and I slept for about 20 minutes after which I was recharged and refreshed to take on the further journey.
At 17:15 hrs at a village called Simi the odometer was reading 9999.00 that is to say that we had travelled 9999 kms from the base in a span of about 40 days!
At 18:00 hrs we reached Karnaprayag. It was raining quite heavily. Here the odometer was reading 10006 kms. On the way Raju did some palm reading. It had now started getting dark. The road was rough, steep, winding. At many places there was land slide and the debris had come on the road. Also the road had sunk at many places. In fact there were boards which read ‘sinking road”, ‘stone falling zone, and move cautiously’.
We reached Joshi Math at about 21:30 hrs after passing Adi Badri, Simli, Karnaprayag, Nandpayag, Chamoli and Peepalkoti. Just prior to Karnaprayag there was a big traffic jam because the debris of a land slide had fallen on the road and the road was blocked. We had to drive over this debris. Quite dangerous actually!
We checked in to hotel Shailaja near Gandhi Maidan.
It’s going to be a very long day tomorrow.
Bye for now and see you tomorrow!
June 15, 2011
Left Joshimath at 06:30 hours for Badrikaedar. The road to Badrikedar being very narrow, steep and rough, traffic is allowed to move only in one direction at one time at specific times every two hours starting from 05:30 hrs from Joshimath. When the traffic is stopped from one direction, it is called ‘gate lag hayaa’ in local parlance. The road moves along the flow of river Alakananda through the Nandadevi Biosphere.
On the way to Badrinath is Govind Ghati from where a trek of 18 kms goes to Hemkund Saheb, a holy place of pilgrimage for Sikhs. Thousands of Sikhs do this pilgrimage every year between 1st June to end of October. Beyond Hemkundsaheb is the famous Valley of flowers.
Because of inadequate parking facility there was a traffic jam here.
We reached Badrinath at 09:00 hrs, parked our car and walked the 1 km distance to the temple. This Lord Vishnu Temple is located in the Neelkanth Mountain and is one of the most important places of pilgrimage for Hindus as a part of the Char Dham (the four important places of pilgrimage – Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kedarnath, and Badrinath). This temple was established by Shakaracharya in the 8th Century. The priests of the temple are Nambudri Bramhins. The sanctum sanctorum has idols of Lord Vishnu, Kuber, Narad, Uddhav, Shridevi, and Bhoodevi. All the idols together are called ‘Badri Panchayat’. Inside the complex there are other temples of Lord Ganesh, Hanuman, Laxmi Dahra, Karnaji. There is also a temple of Shankaracharya. At the entrance of the temple there is an idol of Garood.
There was a very long queue for the darshan. It took us nearly two hours to have the Darshan. The flow of devotees is very well managed prior to the temple but once inside there is utter chaos, pushing and pulling. It is really very difficult to get a proper darshan of the Lord. Looking at the rush and queue of devotees, Phadke decided not to come.
We had our lunch and left Badrikedar with the 13:45 lot of the departing vehicles. We were at Peepalkoti at about 17:30 hrs and checked in to hotel Uday Palace. The room and the bathroom were clean and big. The shower was at a correct height and the water flow was hot and powerful. I had a bath, then dinner and now to bed.
Good night and see you here again tomorrow!
Cheers!
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