Joshimath -> Badrinath -> Joshimath (4.5.25)

Bird’s eye view: 

Today was a day trip to Badrinath, a 100 km round trip. There were a lot of imponderables in the trip - how cold it would be, how crowded it would be (being the opening day), how easy would parking be. But all in all it was a great trip. We left a little early, at 7.15 am, and we returned at 3.00 pm, including a few other stops that I will talk about. Weather was sunny throughout, except for a few drops near the end. Badrinath is at 10,000 ft, and driving in the lap of snow clad mountains all through was a different experience. 

Leaving Joshimath (7.15 am): 

We had debated long and hard yesterday as to when to leave. Should we leave really really early, pre-dawn, so as to have enough time for a darshan? Finally, mentally at least, we had accepted that darshan may not be possible for us, since it might mean queuing for around three hours. A lot of weather sites, Accuweather included, were predicting 0-5 degC, and snow, which sort of put a dampener on our enthu for being outdoors for long periods. We carried some hot water in a flask, just in case. Wearing an extra thermal layer inside was, of course, mandatory. All in all, we were getting the feeling that Ronald Amundsen got, hitching the huskies for the last leg to the pole, and checking the lock on his igloo for the last time. Finally, we decided to get up at 6.00 am, and leave when we could, which turned out to be 7.15 am. We skipped breakfast, deciding to catch something on the way. 

Visiting Vishnuprayag (8.00 am): 

I decided to exit via a petrol pump, so that a full tank was at hand, in case traffic jams and landslides intruded into our morning. The earlier stories of the challenging road to Badrinath were now fables in the mist. Now the Uttarakhand government had laid down a 2-lane highway that ran for 80% of the length, except for the roads leaving Joshimath, a few graded patches yet to be tarmacked, and some cliffhangers that simply did not have the space. Some contractors must have received a penalty since they could not complete the road work before Badrinath opened today. We were expecting a back-to-back queue of cars, crawling along, but the highway was sparsely occupied, an occasional yellow-plate honking us aside as the passengers egged the driver on, keen to get into the darshan queue. The green and brown mountains were all around us, like local goons gleefully inspecting an out-of-towner for some physical fun, and the occasional snow-capped peak looked in to preserve decorum. 

We were in fact descending slowly to the bed of Alaknanda, to the sangam, where the Dhauliganga meets her elder sister. We parked by the roadside and descended a few steps to the water’s edge, keeping an eye on the sadhus lolling by the steps, not begging, but inspecting us with dispassionate looks that showed more pride than penury. The sangam was beautiful, with the green waters of the Dhauliganga meeting the slightly muddy waters of the forceful Alaknanda, showing the distinct line of separation that is the hallmark of most of the prayags. The Dhauliganga was also a fast river, but just before the meeting, it slowed down into a languorous pool, then speeded up again to merge with the big sister, like cars accelerate to merging speed when joining the expressway from the service road. We spent fifteen minutes here, although we could have spent longer, but we were keen to hit the main event. 

Visiting Hanuman Chatti temple (9.00 am): 

This small temple, around 30 mins from Badrinath, is a must stop for every devotee, as they put in a quick word with Hanumanji to keep them safe for the last leg to Badrinath. Panna marked her presence there, and the priest marked her forehead, and we started our climb. 

Just after the temple is the first check of registration for the char dhaam yatra (or for as many of them as you want to register) including details of passengers and car, and the date of visit. Since we had done it online beforehand, we were waved through. Else there is a roadside facility to do it right there and then. I guess they keep some sort of check on the level of crowd visiting the dham on a given day. 

Visiting Badrinath (9.30 am): 

Throughout the trip, I had been full of admiration for the efficiency and politeness of the Uttarakhand cops. Today they were a bit tense perhaps, given the high volume of people expected, but that did not crack the veneer of their courtesy. As usual, a one-way circuit had been made for the traffic. As we neared the temple, we could make out parking spaces becoming scarce, so we parked in a notch in the marketplace. The temple was still a one km walk away. 

Before that, let me give a report on the weather. Snow, none. Temperature, around 15-17 C. Rain, none. We were so relieved at the temperate climate that we simply disembarked and took off, not even donning a muffler or a woollen cap, which we regretted later on. All in all, we felt more like Dr Livingstone in the Amazon than like Amundsen in Antarctica. 

The street was very busy with people walking to the temple. As we approached, the street got narrower, and steeper, till we were jostling good-naturedly through people either coming back (happy faces), or going forward (tense faces), or bargaining with the shopkeepers lining the streets (gleeful faces). We reached a small platform, and there was the temple, right in front of us, but across a small chasm, which had to be crossed through a path going around in a long loop and crossing a small bridge. And, man, were there people in the queue. It had to be at least a kilometer long. We could see from afar the group of people milling about on the courtyard just in front of the temple steps, and waiting on the steps in perhaps ten columns to be let in and allowed a view for a few seconds. At a guess, if we joined the queue now, we would be in it for at least three hours. Also, at a guess, there were 20-30,000 people in town for the darshan, and by day end, it would be around a lakh. 

We paid our respects from right where we were. Our trip today was more for the experience than for the darshan, and it was gratifying to see the good crowd management. In the midst of all that, some dignitaries with leading police escort cars would squeeze into the narrow lanes right up to where we were standing, sirens blaring, and drop the aristocrats before squeezing out through a side road. 

We walked back to our car, stopping on the way for a bite of breakfast at the bhandara of Bharat Sevashram. Bite is an understatement, since a full meal was being served - rice roti, puri, daal, alu-sabji, chutney and jalebi. We took a couple of puris with the accompaniments. Lovely food. And what a factory going on inside that space, where at least 60-70 people were having food in one shot, changing every ten minutes. Impressive. 

Visiting Mana village (11.30 am): 

We were through with Badrinath temple by 11.00 am, an early release since we had foregone the three-hour darshan. There were some other seeables, around 5 kms ahead of Badrinath, around the village of Mana, which, in fact, happens to be very close to the Tibet border, hence called “The First Village”. The points of interest were Vyas gufa (where Vyasdev dictated the Mahabharata), Ganesh gufa (where Ganesh sat and wrote it), Saraswati temple (for the river, not the goddess), Bheem pul (constructed by Bheem over the river), and the Keshavprayag (we will talk about that). 

Out of these, we had the interest and energy for only the prayag, so we walked through the Mana village to reach it. The village was one major market-street, with invisible houses beyond it. The street was mostly four-people wide, stone-paved, going continuously up and down (mostly up), and lined with touristy merchandise. They are majorly dependant on tourist inflow, hence the marketing of the gufas, and, as we could see, at least half the crowd visiting Badrinath had descended on this puny village. We felt jostled here much more than in Badrinath. Our car was anyway parked 500 m from the village, and we had to walk another km, with frequent rests, because we were tired already. 

We ditched the gufas, saw the temple from afar, but then we just stood and gazed at Kesavprayag down below, enraptured. You might remember that I had mentioned that Alaknanda has five prayags or sangams in Uttarakhand, and that we would cover all of them. Here, suddenly, was a sixth prayag, completely out of syllabus, where the river Saraswati joins the Alaknanda. This, of course, is not the subterranean Saraswati, but another one with the same name. However, it was also very beautiful, its green waters flowing into the neutral Alaknanda with that typical colour separation. Also, the Saraswati seemed actually wider and more powerful here, the Alaknanda playing second fiddle. We did not go down to the sangam spot - it would have meant a descent another kilometer or more - but spent some time finding a good spot for a photograph, and then started our walk back to our car. 

We saw a Shankaracharya entourage walking through the village to the sangam and back, the villagers joining them as they wished. As we reached the car park, they boarded their Innovas, with a police escort, and klaxoned their way out of the crowd. 

We also made the acquaintance of the village pradhan’s wife, who was the previous pradhan of the village, now running a shop and a homestay. Reminded me of the serial "Panchayat" on the OTT platform. 

We also saw prevalent use of pitthus, both in Badrinath and Mana, which are young men carrying passengers on their backs, who were seated in a basket facing backwards. They had high hopes of me as a potential customer, seeing my white beard, but I upset their customer mapping by wandering around on my own steam. Many old people, ladies and children were availing their services - and it is jolly hard work, believe me - but I saw a few youngsters also climbing on. Of course, it all feeds the local economy, but if I was young, I would not be comfortable doing this. 

Reaching Joshimath (3.00 pm): 

There was one event during our drive back, which was seeing a waterfall inside a glacier that was flowing right onto the road. It was easy to miss if one was just driving past (there were many small glaciers we saw on the mountain sides). We stopped for a while for photo sessions, and it seemed am interesting phenomenon. 

There was a thought that we might carry on beyond to Tapovan, another half an hour beyond Joshimath, but we did not want to invest more energy for a hot spring and a hydro-electric project. So back it was to good old GMVN, the end of an eventful day. A snooze, a dinner of egg chowmein, and we were ready to turn in.

Tomorrow we travel to Chopta Valley, where we will stay for two nights. 

Photo credits: Panna Rashmi Ray