One
of the pressing questions for tourists planning to visit Uttarakhand during the
monsoons is the quality of the roads. So, to get an idea, the Dream Mountain
team started on a journey from Dehradun
to Joshimath on 1st July 2015. We started as early as 7 AM and took
a halt at NIM beach in Rishikesh . The water level of Ganga had risen considerably
above the normal level. We took few minutes to soak in the situation, snapped some
pictures of the surroundings and continued on our journey.
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| Laxman Jhula, Rishikesh |
At
around 9:00 AM, we reached Shivpuri , which is the main centre for rafting
business on the Ganga. The main Shivpuri beach is usually crowded full of
adventurous tourists interested in rafting and camping. Today it looked barred and washed -out due to heavy
monsoon rainfall and increased Ganga water level. Rafting on the Ganga had stopped in the third
week of June due to the onset of
monsoon. We clicked some fotos for the record and proceeded another 16 km ahead to Vyasi. Now we were heading
towards Devprayag.
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| Shivpuri, 15 km from Rishikesh |
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| Shivpuri during summer |
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| Tourists enjoying cricket at Shipuri |
Devprayag
is known for the start of Ganga. Although the Ganga originates at Gaumukh and
Gangotri, the river is known as the Bhagirathi till it reached Devprayag where
it merges with the Alaknanda and continues on as the Ganga. There are a few
temples at the confluence which tourists can visit. The photos we took of the
confluence tell their own story. Both rivers are distinct in colour and obviously
the rainfall has been much heavier in the Alaknanda catchment area as evident
from the silt in the river.
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| Devprayag confluence |
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| A closer look |
After
Devprayag, the most important station is Srinagar. But just four kilometers
prior to Srinagar there is a small town called Kirtinagar. Kirtinagar once used
to be the capital of Garhwal under the
kingship of Panwar dynasty. At
Kirtinagar the rishikesh-Badrinath highway crosses over to the left bank of the
river. These two fotos we took show you the
old and modern bridges over the Alaknanda river at Kirtinagar.
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| Kirtinagar old bridge |
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| Kirtinagar new bridge |
Ahead
of Kirtinagar is Srinagar, perhaps the most populous hill town in the Garhwal
region. The usually crowded Srinagar market was surprisingly free of vehicular
congestion and we were soon in Srikot. In the past Kirtinagar, Srinagar and
Srikot were three distinctly seperate small towns. Today these three towns are
almost connected with one another and will not appear to be separate towns to a
new visitor.
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| Srinagar river |
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| Srinagar town |
It is now time to tell you a bit about
Shirau-bagad, the most notorious sliding
zone on the Rishikesh-Badrinath highway. This sliding zone lies between
Srinagar and Rudraprayag and has become the biggest hurdle for Char Dham yatra
during monsoon season. For the last 20
years the problem could not be resolved. Now after decades of sliding of
boulders and rubbles from the mountain, the hard rock has started appearing.
Probably, after few years the nature itself will heal this wound which the man
could not. While driving through this
zone, we were surprised to see that there
was no obstruction here and the road was clear. We moved ahead with ease.
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| Shirau-bagad |
Rudraprayag,
where the Alaknanda and the Mandakini rivers meet, was our next destination
after Srinagar. Rudraprayag town is very congested and due to this problem, a
diversion road is used to avoid the traffic of the main road. Another problem
with Rudraprayag is that it is impossible to view the confluence from the main
road because buildings have come up blocking all view of the rivers from the
main town. Rudraprayag confluence is best seen on the way back via the
diversion route on the right bank of the Alaknanda. While going towards
Badrinath we have to drive through the main town, but while returning from Badrinath to Rishikesh,
the diversion road is used, for which you have to first cross the Alaknanda and
drive for about two kilometers on the Kedarnath highway along the Mandakani and
then, after crossing the Mandakini, join back to the Badrinath-Rishikesh
highway by once again crossing the Alaknanda.
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| Rudraprayag confluence |
When
we started the journey, we were warned that there had been heavy rains in the
Joshimath area for last two days and the Badrinath road had been heavily
damaged at Lambagarh. Perhaps this was also the concern of most people because
traffic was for the most part lighter than usual. We drove on through Gauchar
to Karnaprayag where the Pindar river flows into the bigger Alaknanda. But that
day the situation was different. At Karnaprayag confluence when we stopped the
vehicle to take a look, both the rivers were flowing above their usual levels
but the the Pinder was clearly in a more dangerous mood and almost threatening
to sweep the lowermost houses along its banks. Many of the locals were seen
gazing at the river with various degrees of concern. We took the videos and some photos and hoped
that the situation would not get more serious before driving on.
Before
Joshimath the other townships to cross were Birahi and Pipalkoti. We could not even
stop for some tea at these places as we had
been strongly advised to cross the
Pagal-Nala (The Mad Rivulet)before night to reach Joshimath. Pagal-Nala, as the name suggests, is an another problematic place where you
never know what may happen. Fortunately we crossed the nala at around 6:45 PM and
sighed a heavy relaxed breath. Now we were just 15 minutes drive from our
destination. Nevertheless we were quite
intrigued about how the nala got this interesting name. Next day in Joshimath ,
a local helpfully explained that we should not have been so unduly worried.
Pagal-nala is at its most unpredictable post monsoon, exactly during the period
when people begin expecting rainfed streams to exhibit stable behaviour.
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| On the way to Joshimath |
For more please visit :
www.dreammountain.net ,
www.joshimath.net
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