Episode 255 : The Devbhoomi Experience- Part 11

As I pull over to the side, I realise the sentry is telling Tiger to keep moving. I cross the barrier and wait for Tiger to come up to me.

'He says we can go. Shall we?' I could sense the excitement in Tiger's voice.

'Ask him if we can return at any time without having to wait like the others. If he says yes, we go' I reply.

A minute later, 4 motorcycles vroom across the barricade kicking up a minor dust storm in its wake. Some of the tourists who were waiting for their turn to move give us a thumbs-up sign as we pass them.

We soon understand the reason for the one-way rule. The road is narrow at so many places, that there is hardly any place for a motorcycle if a bus is coming down the road.

Some stretches were so badly broken that I began wondering if it would take us more than a couple of hours to cross the next 30-odd kilometres.

I had already clamped a flexible tripod on the handlebars. The camera, securely fixed and held, begins to record a video of our ride up to Badrinath.

While climbing up a particularly bad stretch of road, I spot a blond-haired man dragging up a bicycle. I mentally salute his perseverance- we struggle with a motorcycle and for some a bicycle will do just fine.

Suddenly the quality of the tarmac changes. The road ahead of us looks like the good two-lane highways we saw in the plains.

I am aware that the good road is available for us to use as we want because very few vehicles will be coming down the road from Badrinath and vehicles at Pandukeshwar are yet to start.

The thrill makes me "take advantage" of the situation and I lazily zigzag across the road! The good road does not last for long, but allows us to make up for some of the lost time.

Snow on mountain peak glisten in the mid-day sun. At our first stop after Pandukeshwar, Tiger and I snap photographs while waiting for Ron and Srini to arrive. The break lasts a few minutes where Ron tells us about his conversation with a sadhu who was on his way to Rameshwaram.

Having visited Rameshwaram two months before, it feels like hearing about someone who is on his way to our homes.

The conditions of the road changes to the usual as we near Badrinath. The nearby mountain peaks are snow-covered. My biggest surprises await me at Badrinath. The last few kilometres to Badrinath and beyond has paved roads and Reliance Mobile offers excellent coverage. We stop for tea and enquire about the temple.

The way to the temple does not allow us to take our motorcycles with us, so we let go of the opportunity to see the place. Sometimes journeys like these are all about going the distance but not entirely. We head to Mana, the last village in Indian territory in that area.

60481 @ Mana

Mana is only a few kilometres away from Badrinath and has a military outpost. We see two soldiers walking towards Badrinath.

The entrance to the village is teeming with visitors. Tiger and I take our bikes as close as we can.

At Mana, the road narrows to a footpath and looks like the beginning of a trekkers' trail. Tourists gape at us as we manage to manoeuvre our motorcycles out of that narrow walkway and go back to meet Srini and Ron.

The thoughts are the same- the road to Badrinath is worth going on. We get a feeling that Muthu and Zim have missed out on probably the best part of the journey.

It is past two in the afternoon. We have a few hours before sunset with 110 kilometres to Gopeshwar where Muthu and Zim are waiting for us.

60505 @ Pandukeshwar

We reach Pandukeshwar in an hour's time and stop for a break. A local lad comes up to us, selling hand-woven shawls. I had been eyeing them and decide to get one. The lad quotes an initial price of 700 rupees. We haggle down to 300 but I am not satisfied. I am looking to get it at at 150 for a shawl when Ron intervenes. He says I should pay him 300 for the shawl and not try to make a very good deal from poor man living in these parts. I relent but hand over a 500-rupee note with two 100-rupee notes.

Ron and I realise it at the same time, and I ask him to check the notes for me. To which Ron claims (and still does to this day) that I owe him the money because he saved me from paying an additional 400 rupees for the shawl.

It is another thing that I spotted the same shawl being sold at Dilli Haat for 150 rupees!

We reach Joshimath as the sun sets. The remaining 50-odd kilometres will have to be done in the dark.

60581 @ Chamoli

Meanwhile Tiger had received many frantic messages from Zim enquiring our whereabouts. Our replies to him do not reach him for a long time. At Chamoli, the whisky drinkers go looking for their poison, while Tiger gets directions to go to Gopeshwar.

60592 @ Gopeshwar

We reach the tourist home a little after 7. There is a happy reunion and bear hugs are distributed freely. Zim's motorcycle is working well and he tells us how he got help from a dealer in Rishikesh.

We settle down over drinks and exchange ride stories while swaying to the music playing at a wedding reception from across the road. The town is happy and so are we.