thanx bro... and i'll love to re-ride there next year...

@archi: can you tell me what is written above the uttranchal in your pic?

it's devbhumi uttarakhand...

Day 2

DAY – II (October 26 ‘08, Sunday)

Delayed by one hour as per the plan and hit the road at 6.30 AM. It was going to be a goodday as I need to cover 350+ kms in hills same day to reach Badrinath, 3 kms before the end of the NH-58. Adv. R. K. Sharma also started with us. We headed towards Rishikesh. But after some 10 kms I noticed that Mr. Sharma’s Eterno is running with low air in rear tyre. So stopped immediately and found a nail, but as there was enough pressure so we rode till Rishikesh. He got his flat tyre fixed and we got cash from ATM and finished up our breakfast. It was about 8.30 AM when we started from Rishikesh. The road was in very bad condition (first 20 kms, and we were unaware of it that good roads are ahead), and it was very disappointing. We were crawling at 15-20 kmph.

The bad patch...


The work was in progress. But the butter smooth road was waiting for us along with river Ganga. So we ripped little fast and stopped at this place for Mr. Sharma and took some photographs.





Awesome roads and superb twisties and frightening cliff roads, those were really delight to ride. The next stop was Devprayag. Reached there at 10.30 AM. River ganga starts from here after the sangam of river Alaknanda and Bhagirathi. You can see the two different colours of water getting in to one.

Sangam...




Mr. Sharma, Om n Mr. Sharma's friend (L to R)




Some pics on the way…


After this we decided to ride fast, as we had to reach joshimath by 4.30 PM. As we had the idea that the last gate for Badrinath is closed at 4.30 PM. But still we decided to meet Mr. Sharma at Chamoli and we will stop there for our lunch. We raved saying him bye. The overall road is in its good condition and the mountain cliffs are little scary than the Himachal. Crossed Srinagar on the way. And I loved the road between Srinagar to Rudraprayag. You will get a variety of mountain roads passing thru villages, scary cliffs, few good hair-pin bends and a few stretch of snake curves to RIP….
We dint took any photo breaks in this day and most of the pics are clicked during ride.





We were exchanging rider in every 60-80 kms and it was really fruitful this time.



And we felt very relaxed by this.
And then we reached Nandaprayag at 2.30 PM. And by that time we were damn hungry. So decided to have our lunch break and we were also getting late. So finished up our lunch in 15 mins and headed for Joshimath.

@ nandaprayag...


Reached Joshimath at 5.30 PM. We were late by one hour. And the real journey started from here and we were unaware of the surprises waiting for us on that day.
The police personnel there at the gate told us that the road is in good condition and we can cover the stretch of 45-50 kms from Joshimath to Badrinath in max 1.5 hours. It was getting dark by then and we were in a confuse state coz we decided in the starting of the trip that we are not going to do any night ride in the hills this time. Asked some local people and they suggested not to go in that road during night as there are some steep roads and we will not get a single vehicle enroute. But still after a lot of confusions in mind we decided to make a night ride again. And we decided to stay at Badrinath. The road was in it’s worst condition with big boulders everywhere and it started some 10 kms after. We were expecting good roads ahead.
It was almost completely dary by 6.30 PM, we crossed a small market area (2-3 shops) and after 5-6 kms we got a flat tyre.
OMG, the most unexpected thing happened in the middle of no where. Tough we had the whole puncture repair kit, but nothing was striking in the mind. It was completely dark and some lights were visible nearly a kilometer away so we pushed the bike there and it was Jaypee group hydro power project. But there was no facilities available rather than lights. That place was 17 kms before Badrinath.
I first attempted to fill air so that I can ride some more kilometers but it was in vain. The tyre was unable to keep some pressure. So finally decided to fix the flat tyre there coz the nearest puncture repair shop was 40 kms before and there was no facilities at Badrinath. Just then a tata sumo came and it was heading towards Badrinath and we decided to leave the bike there and headed for Badrinath with sumowala thinking in mind that we will fix the tyre next day after Darshan. It was also that sumowala’s advice not to ride in that route in two wheels. And finally reached at Badrinath at 9.00 PM.
It was very cold there, and suppose to be sub-zero temperature. Most of the hotels were closed as there were few days left for the closing of the temple. No body lives there for winter six months. With the help of the sumowala we got a room and ended that day’s adventure there…..

Route – Hardwar-Rishikesh- Devprayag-Srinagar-Rudraprayag-Karnaprayag-Nandaprayag-Chamoli-Pipalkoti-Joshimath-Badrinath
Kms Covered – 346 Kms

Beautiful pictures. WOW !!!

awesome dude!!!

The stream looks really nice.....!!!!

Thanx for sharing the pics Archi.... The place looks so fresh....

Nice trip.

the devprayag snap is Just to good to be true man!!!! the long shot, its one of those natures marvels, truly amazing. wonder how could u guys concentrate on the road which so much scenery around!!

Amazing, beautiful ....

Excellent Archi..good going..

@inder:- That stream is actually river ganga and so strong at this point that if one mistakingly slips into the water he/she dies not of drowning but because of severe injuries due to large rocks and because of hypothermia in snow melted water.

Ohh its the Ganges... Thanx for the info buddy ..

and as per the pic it looks like the water is flowing with a pretty high current speed....

We did the mistake to getting too close to the river in Devprayag and the water was heading to the other corner after the sangam and colliding with the huge rock, one mistake and one of us would have been dead.

thanx bro...

thanx cbr...

the place was really beautiful....but still missed some eye catching greens as winter has already started...

thanx betaal...

ye, it was really amazing...

thanx Imran...

thanx setu...
but the water was crystal clear...

thank god.... i din't attempted that
and the rivers in hills are really wild...