It is said that Badrinath is one of the 4 ‘dhams’ of the Hindu Religion and one should get a ‘bulawa’ or call, to visit it.
We were to told that the road to Badrinath was blocked for 4 days due to heavy landslides and our chances of visiting it were dim. However, we were determined!
The next day, at around 5 am, we started our descent to Joshirmath on mules – I was rather dreading the mules (for obvious reasons!), but didn’t have a choice. We reached Joshirmath and started on our way in the Tempo Traveller to Badrinath. At one point, we saw a lot of SUVs and buses parked on the side of the road and were told that the road was cut off due to landslides and may open up in an hour or so (it was closed for about 3 days). We drove up as close to the landslide as possible and watched the clearing work going on. Then our driver told us that his bus will not make it across even if the road is repaired – it was too narrow. So, we talked to a Sumo guy and he agreed to take us to Badrinath and back for Rs.1500.
To add to the excitement, we had to reach the temple before noon as it is closed from 12 – 3. We just could not wait that long. As we were discussing this, came the news that the road was open. We just sat in the Sumo and started the trip to Badrinath.
After about an hour or so of travel, we reached a spot called Kanchenganga, about 2 kms short of the temple. The road here was still blocked and the guys were clearing up things. We got out of the Sumo and started walking. Luckily found another Sumo on the other side and reached the temple 10 mins before noon, but found it closed!! Thankfully, the priests there told us that it would open in a few minutes but again, only for 10 minutes. We waited patiently in line. There were not more than 25 people in line and the guys told us that on a good day, the line extends over 3 kms!!
The temple opened and we got a good darshan. Made our way to the hot water springs (actually we should have had a bath there before going to the temple, but just didn’t have the time) and started back immediately.
On reaching the spot of the initial landslide, we were told that there was another massive landslide there and the road was closed again! It seems barely 4 – 5 cars had gone through before the road was blocked again.
Now, the question was how to get to the other side of the blockage where our bus was parked and someone suggested that we climb through the hills. We asked someone how far it was and he said “about 600 mtrs”. After one hour of climbing on wet rocks, mountain paths and slushy passages, we were not even close to the end and we realized never to ask a ‘Pahadi’ how far it was over the hills! That probably was the most tiring trek for us – basically because it was unexpected and we were not prepared for it.We did eventually reach the other side and climbed wearily into the bus for our long journey back to Haridwar and onto Mumbai. A very tired but elated group. We were thankful that none of us had any major accidents.
Niranjan Bangera
36 Properties Pvt Ltd
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