thanx kashif...

thanx Manan Bhai....
yes in terms of traffic Uttranchal definitely takes the cake... but i felt same in Himachal after Narkanda... and roads are definitely wider in Uttranchal... but i think the road condition is same in most of the hilly areas after monsoon...
and i dint get that much pics this time...

thanx blackprince...

thanx burnoytz....
posting the rest ASAP...

thanx satish....
how a trip can be completed without a small mishapp..
but it's really Gods grace that we never got that much trouble...

@archistar.. great pics.. And you told me that you did not get enough good shots on this trip

There are quiet roads with no traffic everywhere.. If you plan on riding at high speeds thru one of the busier hill roads in n. india, then you will for sure get a lot of traffic!

I had been to chail around dusshera and the road from kandaghat to chail had even lesser traffic than the road from ranikhet to almora which we took on our way to binsar.. Just avoid the main highways and you can get nice clean traffic roads in any place.. Hell, even in mumbai there are roads with virtually no traffic, if you know where to look for them

-- no1lives4ever

DAY – III (October 27 ‘08, Monday)
After a night in the freezer(temperature there was quite low), there was no chance to wake early. But still I din’t get a decent sleep coz my bike was there alone in the unknown land. I was really tensed for that, the other tension was to fix the bike. Still by 7.00 AM I was out of the room. And what I found was a snow cladded mountain peak when I open the door…. The temp during night was most probably sub zero because I was seeing a thick layer of ice on the still water outside the room.

The first glimpse…


Got ready to go to Shree Barinath Temple by 8.30 AM and walked towards temple. Took a bath at Tapta Kund, the natural hot water pool there. And by 11.30 AM we completed our darshan.

Shree Badrinath Temple…


Neelkanth again…


Then as per the previous plans we had to head for Mana Village. The last village of India on Tibet side. It was only 3 kms away. But as the temple was to be closed for 6 months just after 10-15 days so din’t got any vehicle which could take us to Mana. During this we did our breakfast and decided to walk for the 3 kms. It was 12.15 PM then.
After walking nearly kilometer, we thought that it’s better to return otherwise we’ll loose another day. So returned back to Badrinath and now there was another problem waiting for us.
There was not a single vehicle towards Joshimath. We requested some tourist vehicles to drop us 17 kms down as our bike is there but all in vain, nobody agreed. After nearly long 2 hours Om managed to convince a tempo traveler from Hardwar. It was such a big relief after 2 hours, Oh God.

And finally reached at Jaypee at 3.15 PM, where our bike was standing. Now we had to fix the flat ourselves and it was going to be my first attempt.
We carried the whole puncture repair kit with a small foot pump and of course 2 spare tubes. The mistake I did was I was suppose to change the rear tyre which was going little bald after doing some 20000 kilometers. So I started working and then the guard there came and asked me are you a mechanic? I replied yes… . The whole process took nearly one hour. I replaced the old tube with a new one and found a iron nail which was the reason behind the whole process . Then repaired the old tube so that I can use it if I get a flat again. Anyways it was another experience fixing the flat. And now ‘m confident in fixing a flat tyre quicker .

The fixing…


Now what next!!! It was 4.00 PM. The first thing in mind was to ride again till Mana. We actually dint want to miss that spot as well as missing to complete NH-58 by only 20 Kms. But after a lot of confusions in mind and consulting with Om, we decided to wrap our trip from there and back to Delhi ASAP. And now onwards strictly no night ride in Hills (but how is it possible . you will come to know about this after reading the full story.).
So we had 1 hour to ride and Joshimath was decided to be the Night halt place. We reached Joshimath at 5.15 PM after covering some 40 Kms.

Some images (on the way to Joshimath)






A terrifying road connecting somewhere…


But we dint want to stay there, Auli was seeming interesting some 14 Kms up and it was still bright. And again after little confusion we decided to ride to Auli.

Road to Auli…


Golden snow peak…


Another horrible ride was waiting for us. After some 8-10 kms it became dark. The road was overall good. And we came to know that there is only one hotel there known as ‘Cliff Top’. And I thought it is a GMVN hotel as I read about it somewhere many days before. The black tarmac ended at a STD booth showing 6.30 PM in our watch. And we asked for ‘Cliff Top’, the guy there showed his finger towards the darkest side. I got a shock finding nothing after lighting the area with both of my beams. Giving a shock again the guy told ‘it is 3.5 kms above’. That patch was really the worst I rode ever before. You have to find your own way in the gravels. It was really horrible. Struggling for nearly 1 hour we reached at the top with a very beautiful spot. The sky was very very clear and I was seeing so many stars together after

Day-III is by-far my favourite.. Loved the write up as well as the pictures. Thanks for sharing the experience Archi. So, basically there are no accommodation options at Auli, except for that ludicrously expensive hotel, is it? Or is the GMVN guest-house intact?

P.S: Please share some pictures of Auli as it is a place I would love to ride to in the near future.

thanx Ambar Bhaiya...
actually 'm not satisfied that much with the pics coz
- i dint take any photobreaks.
- most of the pics(read >90%) are with the SX 100.
- dint used the 1000D that much.
thats why i told you that there are not that good pics...

and tough i thought to take some remote routes initially but cancelled because of the flat tyre on the second day but did that on day 4 and that was really amazing as well as scary.... will come to that in next post...

Hell, even in mumbai there are roads with virtually no traffic, if you know where to look for them

really loved this line...

Ohh niceee Archi...the DAY III looks to be the best day of the trip as of yet...

thanx Aryan...
the GMVN guest house work is in full swing and it will be ready by Dec end... now they have only 4 dermitories with 4 bunker beds in each and they charge 150 bucks per head... and 'Cliff Top' is a 5 star catagory...

Auli will be beautiful in winter only... will post the pics on day 4 log ASAP...

Thanks for that information Archi. I am planning to visit it surely towards the end of December or starting of January then, but I wonder whether accomodation would be available as that would be the peak season for Auli (winter sports et al)..

Anyways, getting back to the actual topic at hand, please post some pictures of Auli. I would love to have a look at that place, through your pictures. Thanks!

thanx Inder...
In context of riding day-IV was the best.... will come with it ASAP...

oh that will be the best time to visit there... i'll giv u the GMVN number, you can contact them...

and i've only 1 pic from Auli right now...(i'll mail you some tonight)


Edit: Aryan, the winter sports is in march...

Man, look at that beautiful sky! Please mail me, post the pictures here or do anything but show them to me ASAP!

yes Aryan, sky was the best thing at Auli... and it was changing every hour... and i spent more than 2 hours for it...

Jejus! Looks like there was a war here. Fabulous trip.

Great trip Archi...waiting for the next part...

thanx Sunny Bhaiya...
i was trying my hands in HDRI in this pic...

thanx Setu, will post the rest ASAP....

FANTASTIC pics man....

Looks like you had a blast on the ride! Great writeup too...