Day 3 : Journey along
the Bhagirathi [Rishikesh-Uttarkashi]
The sudden shrill of the alarm and the chill in the
atmosphere was enough to jolt me back to my senses. I felt like sleeping in
that warm, cozy bunker for another couple of hours. But, we had a target to
achieve today and just couldn’t afford dilly-dallying. So, I got out of the
warmth of blankets and the lovely sight of early morning on the banks of Ganga
was enough to take away any sleep left in my eyes. The mist settled over the
Ganga was lifting up slowly giving a dream-like feel. We still had one more
activity left before we would leave the camp – Kayaking. So after getting
ready, we left with the instructor. There was a small red Kayak lying on the
bank and tied to the hook. We pushed it into the water and decided to take
chances to ride it since it had space to carry just one person. There was a single
oar with paddles at both ends. All you need to do was cut the water with the
oar, alternately left and right and direct the kayak ahead. In case you need to
turn, cut the water only on the side towards which you want the kayak to turn.
Soon we learned the basic tricks of the trade and started enjoying maneuvering
the Kayak.
We could have stayed there for maybe another hour or so if
only we didn’t have a schedule to stick to. We even played or rather tried to
play beach volleyball for a couple of minutes before rushing to the dining area
with our backpacks. After having a filling breakfast of Aloo parathas-curd,
toast-butter-jam and tea-coffee, we bid farewell to Patade and Chembe, who had
decided to stay at the camp until afternoon before heading back to Pilani.
The hike back to the main road from the beach camp was short
yet strenuous and it gave a taste of what was going to come ahead during the
actual Gangotri glacier trek to the unsuspecting people in the group.
Our plan ahead
We were 30 kms away from the town of Rishikesh. Earlier, we
had planned to catch the early morning bus from Rishikesh to Gangotri but it
was already 9 am and we still had to reach Rishikesh, an hour away from that
point. So, now we were sure that the most we could manage was a shared jeep
ride to Uttarkashi (a town on the way to Gangotri), since in Uttarakhand
driving in the mountains is not allowed after sunset. Our plan was to somehow
get back to the share auto stand in Rishikesh, but seemed like none of the
private/public transport vehicles were interested in giving us a lift. After
standing there for almost an hour, the local tea-shop took pity on us and
stopped a lorry on the road. He requested the lorry driver to give us lift till
Rishikesh and he complied. The journey at the backside of the open lorry was
thrilling. Enjoying the view of mountains and the valley below with the Ganga
rushing down the Himalayan slopes was a sight to behold. I secretly hoped, if
this lorry could take us all the way to Uttarkashi and maybe Gangotri but he
dropped us at the auto stand after taking Rs 40 per person for the lift. Not
that we weren’t grateful for his timely help. After a quick sip of lemon
shikanji from a thhele-wala, we began our pursuit for shared jeep.
We were fortunate to have reached there just in time to grab
the last few seats in the shared jeep for a price of 250 Rs per person, which
seemed to be a standard rate over there, fixed by the shared jeep union. And so
the journey began.
The Vomit sessions
Probably it was the dirty water used in that roadside
shikanji or the stale food in the camp (just speculating), all of us started
feeling uneasy in the stomach as soon as the journey began but none of us
voiced our thoughts to each other. Bharath was probably the first to complain
about upset stomach and requested the cab driver to stop by the side. And he
vomited. Soon Vishal and Kishan also joined him. I was attributing the
serpentine hill roads to this vomit frenzy and had started lecturing on how to manage
the situation when I too felt the same urge to throw up. Luckily, we had
Pudinhara and ENO sort of quick fixes with us and all of us popped them into
our mouths. The bitter taste travelled down our throats and only made situation
worse for me. I finally gave up and puked.
Lesson learnt :
Never have any drinks from roadside shacks and always keep Pudinhara while you
travel.
Tehri reservoir and
Bhagirathi
We passed the town of Narendranagar and Chamba on our way to
Uttarkashi. On the way we circled round a large turquoise blue water body which
sparkled below in the valley in the afternoon sun. We got to know from the
driver that it was the Tehri reservoir. Though we couldn’t see the dam which
was probably at the far end, several KM downstream but the accompanying
reservoir more than made up for that loss. Our road was high up along the sides
of mountains from where we could see the vast expanses of this man made lake
below us. The driver told that with the construction of this dam and filling up
of the reservoir, the older lower shorter road along the river got submerged
and a new longer route had to be carved higher up along the mountains, which
ran along the edge of Tehri reservoir, all the way upto its the northern end.
Very soon we came at the fork in the mountain road at
Dharasu from where one road goes into the Yamuna river valley, all the way upto
Yamunotri while the other follows the Bhagirathi river to its source in
Gangotri. We picked up this second route towards the right hand side of the
fork and saw the actual shrunken river trickling down along its course. We got
to know that the Bhagirathi river is intercepted somewhere above Uttarkashi and
majority of the water is diverted through canals and directly into the
reservoir while a small amount is released along the original course of the
river, probably to maintain the significance of the original river course. So
much for the human needs that we change the entire course of one of the most
significant rivers in our civilisation’s history and play along with it to
generate electricity, to divert water to our fields. With a slight delay in the
town of Matli few kms before Uttarkashi due to flat tire, we eventually reached
our destination for the day by 6:30 PM.
Uttarkashi
We were dropped at the main taxi stand beyond the city
tunnel which also seemed to be the main bazaar over there teemed with hotels
and lodges. We skimmed through various lodges looking for a reasonable and
decent option and settled down for a triple bed room for Rs 300. After settling
down, we decided to explore the city and taxi options for reaching Gangotri the
next day before finding a place for dinner. Diwali was just round the corner
and we could sense the festivity in the air with every shop lit up and fully
stocked up in anticipation of festival customers. We also came across several
ashrams, afterall it was a holy city, literally meaning the Kashi of the North,
Kashi being the holiest of the Indian cities.
After grabbing dinner at a local dhaba sort of restaurant
comprising of Dal fry, Bhindi masala and Alu-gobhi with chapaatis we downed
coffee and enquired about the taxi timing which would leave for Gangotri the
next day. Satisfied with informations, we got back, saw a match of cricket in
our room and dozed off.
No comments:
Post a Comment