Travelogues

We started our journey from Hrishikesh. Hiring a suitable vehicle was an uphill task but Nauratan’s bargining skills landed us with a Mahindra MAX, whose driver promised to drop us at Gangotri for Rs 3000/- flat. We set off at 7.00 in the morning for the ride up the hills. The first halt was Chamba where the discovery of the best possible toilet and bath facility (at a BP gas station) came as blessing for all of us. But alas the gap in supply & demand meant that poor Sachin had to go looking for other options. Finally an HP petrol pump came to his rescue. We reached Uttarkashi at 1.30 pm, after a drive of about 140 kms and had a sumptuous lunch at Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN) rest house. Uttarkashi is a big town and has the feel of modern civilization, which is fast eating up the rustic flavor of even distant destinations like Gangotri, but more of it later.

The road is good, wide and well maintained by the BRO people. Sometimes you are speeding along with Ganges and other times the tortuous roads on mountain tops give you a birds’ eye view of the narrow streams in the valley and you wonder, that this narrow stream takes up this gigantic task of irrigating the northern plains and also devastate the habitation by the floods that it brings. From UK to Gangotri is 98 kms drive and we halted yet again for some refreshing tea. The stall owner after listening to the nonsensical gibberish of ours agreed to give us a few latest audio cassettes that we promised to return with the driver on his way back. He was a friendly fellow, who enjoyed the merry making mood that we were in. We reached Gangotri at 6.00 in the evening, hungry, tired & ready to drop. The GMVN rest house is located right next to the flowing Ganges, which makes huge noise to announce the mighty power that its flow has. The GMVN rest house rooms are reasonably good and economically priced. You get double bed rooms and dormitories for Rs 600 and Rs 200 respectively. Electricity has reached Gangotri last year but hot water for bathing is scarce and one has to queue up for that. The temple at Gangotri is small in proportion to its mythological importance and is yet to acquire the fanfare and commercialization of a pilgrimage unlike Badrinath and Kedarnath. We set off for the long walk ahead in the morning by getting up at 5.00, taking bath and all of us raring to go.

From Gangotri your first destination is Bhojwasa, which is 14 kms. From there Gomukh is another 4.5 kms and from Gomukh, Tapovan is another 4 km. The walk starts with a steep climb to get out of the Gangotri town and for people like me, who are on the wrong other side of 40, it was a sign of the mammoth task ahead given the lungs that lost a significant bit of its vital capacity to the pollutants that Delhi chose to make us inhale by the minute. Even a small bag appeared as if I am carrying 30 kg weight on me. Gradually, the personal bags that we were carrying started getting piled up on the head and the hands of Bahadur, who true to his name, carried all that we chose to hand over to him with a smile and such ease as if he is out on a morning walk.

Bahadur hails from Nepal and earning money to support his family. He is also due to appear in his 10th class exams this year and wishes to study in Delhi. He was very caring towards all of us and took special care in guiding the female members in our group and teaching them skills to negotiate difficult stretches of the walk.

Once you are out of Gangotri and enter into the reserve forest, the path is only a 4 feet wide strip strewn with dirt and stones. And you share the passage with returning tourists and mules, whose ride is the only alternative means of walking up to Gomukh. The beautiful spread of mountains and the valley along the path keep your spirits high and when you start tiring, you look for wayside dhabas. These dhabas dot the entire path at regular interval of 3-5 kms. The food that you get comprises of aloo parantha and maggi noodles. It takes about 20-30 minutes to prepare the 2-min noodles, because low air pressure at an altitude of 3200 meters make boiling difficult. The other things you get at these dhabas are chocolates, soft drink and bottled water. The price is linearly proportionate to distance from gangotri. We bought kitkat for Rs 10 (MRP Rs 5) about 10 kms from Gangotri and for Rs 20 at Gomukh. Similarly bottled water costs Rs 20 mid way and Rs. 35 at Gomukh. Ironically, purer and tastier water is available at the waterfalls that you come across on the way.