Uttar Mahayatra

Bird’s eye view: Another 100 km drive today. From our Uttarkashi homestay, we travelled 80 km to Gangotri, then retraced our steps for 20 km to Harsil, a beautiful valley, a far better place to stay than the congested Gangotri. We left Uttarkashi around 8.30 am, reached Gangotri at 12.30 pm, and left it again at 1.45 pm, clocking in at our Harsil homestay at 3.00 pm. Gangotri is at 10,200 ft. When we reached, it was drizzling lightly and the temperature was around 9 degC. Harsil, on the other hand, is at 9,000 ft, but it felt more chilly here. Road quality to Gangotri is a bit of a mixed bag. There are stretches where two big vehicles can travel side by side for a couple of kilometers, but mostly, it is a single lane road, though in fairly good condition. The usual driving skills apply. But all in all, we had a wonderful drive and a great day. Leaving Uttarkashi (8.30 am): Uttarkashi had been a simple stopover for us. The homestay was nice, with the river flowing a five min...

Bird’s eye view: Today we drove around 115 kms, mostly northward, ending with an arc to the east, reaching Uttarkashi, hailed as the gateway to both the Gangotri as well as the Yamunotri. For our purposes, it was Gangotri who lay just one more step away. From Tehri, the road was mostly single lane for around 50 kms, when it joined NH34, a grand two lane business till Uttarkashi, after which it petered out and reverted to the old narrow single lane, bumpy and crowded. Our homestay was 10 kms beyond Uttarkashi. The Bhagirathi, whom we had stuck closely to throughout, gurgled close by. Weather was fair all through. Just five minutes before we reached the homestay, around 2.00 pm, hell broke loose and it began to rain felines and canines. Looks like it will continue today. Uttarkashi is at a height of 3,800 ft, and the temperature is a healthy 22 degC. This time we had decided to take a 5-min break every hour, since a 100 km drive in the hills could be as strenuous as a 400 km ...

Bird’s eye view: Today we travelled around 110 km, roughly northward, from Salda to Tehri, via Devprayag again. The one hour drive back to Devprayag was by the same single lane, then we hit the NH for around ten minutes, and then we were shunted off once again to a single lane road to Tehri. We left at 8.00 am and reached Tehri at 1.00 pm, a little extended in time as we were forced to stop repeatedly, so great were the views. Tehri sports a huge reservoir, because of a dam on the Bhagirathi, just after the river Bhilangna joins it. Height of Tehri is not much, just 5740 ft, so we were wearing summer clothes. Leaving Salda (8.00 am): We left without having breakfast, much to the chagrin of the super-hospitable Mr Chetan. It was only exceeded by his disappointment at us not having played the saap sidi game, which, I suspect, would have involved physically climbing up ladders and descending through slides, a pastime more suited to spirited five-year-olds. The road...