This
was a trip that I had somehow betrayed last year. A solo trip then, a solo trip
now!
And
what a trip! And what a place, what sceneries….slices of heaven!
Reaching Chopta
Last
minute bookings landed me on the LTT HW AC SUP express to Haridwar. If anyone
is taking this train, please be aware that there is no pantry and it stops at very
few stations. So food is a major problem. I arrived at Haridwar at 2:00 pm. The
good part about traveling in trains is that you spend considerable time in it
and then…you strike conversations, with strangers, unknown faces and you
realize how similar and how different the lives of others are. This time around
I struck lots of such conversations and it was fun – right from the stories of
the Pilsbury chef from Rishikesh to the loud mouth guy from Delhi!
If
you are traveling to the mountains in Uttarakhand, you need to bear in mind
that reaching them itself is an arduous task and you can spend your entire day
just traveling to your destination. It is very important that you go as forward
as you can on that single day so that you save time the next day for the rest
of the travel. I wasted no time, had a quick bite of aloo parathas (which I was
to regret extensively later) at a joint near to the Haridwar bus stand, and
embarked on my journey to Rishikesh. As
the bus snaked out of Haridwar, I noticed that that the river bed where the
great Ganges would have been flowing some months back was devoid of the holy
water and all that was left over was countless white pebbles with children
playing and others defecating. Not a drop of water considering the devastation
the torrent had caused a few months back; destroying entire houses and families
in the deluge.
From
Rishikesh, I managed a bus only to Garhwal Srinagar and not Rudraprayag as I
had wanted to and halted there for the night. A point to be made here is, if
you can spend some extra moolah; please prefer jeeps than the state transport or private buses. The way they drive will get your innards jumping and you will feel pukish in
no time. I too let out a torrent in no time. Even though the jeeps stuff you
like chicken, yet better than the buses. The cold was catching up now.
Early
morning I was out in the cold waiting to be taken to Rudraprayag. If you decide
to travel in a jeep, rest assured to spend at least an hour waiting and
consider that in your travel time because the vehicle will not leave until it
is jam packed. You might have to wait for as long as 3 hrs sometimes as I did
while returning back at Rudraprayag. Finally I traveled by bus. From
Rudraprayag I went to Ukhimath in a jeep. Rudraprayag is a small town boasting
the confluence of two huge rivers viz. the Alakananda and the Mandakini. It is
a halt over destination for most travelers traveling to Kedarnath, Badrinath
and other popular tourist and religious destinations in upper Uttarakhand. The
drive from Rudraprayag to Ukhimath gave a glimpse of the devastation that had
happened a few months back. In some places, the roads were completely missing,
gone down, washed away by the flood. The makeshift roads were just spacious enough
for one vehicle and if you saw a vehicle already entering that path, you had to
patiently wait till he covered the entire stretch and crossed you. At some
places, the roads were really dangerous, both due to the floods and due to the
landslides. At places, there are chances of the vehicle toppling as it steers
on the edges of the mountains. From Ukhimath to Chopta, where my camp was, the
roads are very smooth. Driving through the jungle ghats with Garhwali music playing
on the car stereo and tall forest trees lining the roads, we reached the Alpine
Adventure Campsite in Chopta.
The
campsite is strategically and scenically located 7 kms from Chopta in a place
called Dugalbitta, in a meadow, a small valley with a panoramic view of the
tall mountains. The view that lay in front of my tent was mind boggling. The
snow clad peaks of Kedarnath, Mandani and Chaukhamba right before me eyes and the naked
Chandrashila peak behind me was right out of a picture postcard. Looking at my Swiss
tent brought a contentedness. It was big enough with a king size bed, a small
table, 2 chairs, attached toilet and bathroom. Smoothened stones formed the
flooring of the bathroom. Taking a quick hot bath, I sat for lunch facing the
snow clad mountains and it couldn’t have been a better ambiance. Soaring
eagles, chirping birds, magpies dragging their tails like gliding paper
airplanes, the looming silence, the clear skies, a distinct cloud looking puny
floating across a mountain; the food just felt like an excuse!
I
sat out with my book for quite a while and then went for a walk with the camp
owner Manoj Negi and his friend. He showed me the nearby bungalow built by the
Britishers which had the privilege of having Mrs.Indira Gandhi as its guest. We
walked till an opening which gave a clearer view of the mountains. Then we
trekked for a few minutes to an opening in the middle of the forest which gave
an even better panoramic view. As we walked back to our campsite, the sun was
setting and the golden hue engulfing the mountains was unbelievable.
Another
magical sight I saw at the camp was the rising of the moon exactly from the peak of Chandrashila; a full moon. It felt like
an undeterred romance between the moon and the mountain, the silhouettes of the
swaying trees in the dark like a performing choir, the gleaming snow on the
slanting slopes blessing the couplet. If this was not a marriage made in
heaven, then what was? The spreading light of the moon made the snow clad
mountains look white washed.
As
I crawled in the thick blankets donning my monkey cap and gloves, the
temperature fell to just a little above zero degree Celsius. Ever tried turning
pages wearing leather gloves? Quite a task, I must say, so I read only for some
time and then pushed off early in anticipation of a great trek to Deoriatal the
next morning.
Distances, time and modes of
transport
|
Travel itinerary
|
Distance
|
Time required (may vary
with traffic, land slides and road conditions)
|
Mode of Transport
|
Cost
|
Comments
|
|
Haridwar to Rishikesh
|
20 kms
|
1 – 1 ½ hrs
|
Bus, Sharing Jeep
|
INR 33 (Bus)
|
|
|
Rishikesh to Srinagar
|
106 kms
|
3 – 3 ½ hrs
|
Bus, Sharing Jeep
|
INR 140 (Bus), ~ INR 100 (
Sharing Jeep)
|
|
|
Srinagar to Rudraprayag
|
35 kms
|
1 hr
|
Bus, Sharing Jeep
|
INR 45 (Bus), ~ INR 100 (
Sharing Jeep)
|
|
|
Rudraprayag to Ukhimath
|
43 kms
|
2 – 3 hrs
|
Bus, Sharing Jeep
|
INR 80 (Sharing Jeep), ~
INR 80 (Bus)
|
Roads were in a bad shape
when I visited
|
|
Ukhimath to Chopta
|
30 kms
|
40 mins – 1 hr
|
Car./Jeep Sharing jeeps
don’t ply here and you need to book a vehicle. Buses used to go through this
route but due to the recent disaster, that service has been discontinued
until further notice. The frequency of buses anyway is poor.
|
INR 800 – 1200
|
The road conditions are
very good
|
 |
| A misty morningin Garhwal Srinagar as I waited for the bus for Rudraprayag |
 |
| The Malabar whistling thrush |
 |
| My tent at Alpine Adventure Camp, Dugalbitta |
 |
| View of the Kedarnath and Mandani peaks from the campsite |
 |
| Alpine Adventure Camp |
 |
| The range of snow clad mountains |
 |
| Zoomed kedarnath peak |
 |
| Magpie |
 |
| Ghar ka khaana |
 |
| Picture perfect |
 |
| The guest house built by the Britishers in 1925 |
 |
| Me and Manoj Negi |
 |
| Chandrashila peak |
 |
| Magpie Jungle Camp |
 |
| Alpine Adventure Camp |
 |
| Kitchen of Alpine Adventure Camp |
 |
| What a view! |
