Where to is No Matter

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Dhunda and Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, India



20^th Sept 2014





“Wind in my hair, I'm a part of everywhere

Underneath my being is a road that disappeared”

Eddie Vidder





I was not quite ready to ride to Himachal and I felt like getting out of Haridwar for a few days in the mountains. Gangotri seemed as good a place as any.

Gangotri is one of the 'chardham' sites in Uttarakhand (the others being Yamnotri, Bodrinath, and Kedanath) which are pilgrimage sites revered by Hindus who aspire to visit them all in their lifetime (together with the more prominent sites across India of Dwarka in Gujarat, Puri in Odissa and Ramaswaram in Tamil Nadu). The Uttarakhand sites are all source areas of what eventually becomes the greater Ganges River below Allahabad.

I had been given variable local advice ranging from it taking 6 hours to 12 hours to get to Gangotri, which I hoped might give me snow-capped mountain views. I left Haridwar around 9.30 am and I thought to just ride and see what happened. Missing the turnoff at Chamba did not help (losing about 90 minutes). I thought it a funny concept... to lose time. I could fume about it or just look and see what was in any case a beautiful vista as I cruised the mountainside. This was where I was right now.

I had planned to make it to Harsil (a place on the way to Gangotri where I thought I might stay a couple of nights and make a day trip to Gangotri itself from there). By the time I got to Dhunda at around 4.30 pm, and on advice from a guy at the last chai stop not to try to get to Harsil by nightfall, I was ready to just stop and find a guest house. I did... Tenzing Guest House. The town was a little Buddhist enclave sitting alongside the Bhagirati River.

Bhotiya (a classical name for Tibet) Buddhists are found in Uttarakhand and speak languages belonging to the Tibeto-Burman family (unintelligible to Tibetan people). Many of them have intermarried with the Hindus over the years and practice a combination of Tibetan Buddhism, Bon, and Hinduism. Hindu gods are worshipped to protect their animals from disease and loss.

I was about 75 km from Harsil and perhaps a further 35 from Gangotri. Local advice in the town was that it would take at least 4 hours to get to Gangotri, and that the road was not great. I thought about it vs just having a shanti day around Dhunda. After a very relaxed morning doing my stuff, by 10 am I decided to keep the room and just start off riding towards Harsil to see how it felt. It felt like a burden when sections of the road became rutted unsealed rocky outcrops, with trucks and buses spewing out their fumes amidst the choking road dust they were throwing up. The decision to turn back and find a quiet place by the river for a swim and a sit was not hard to make. And a perfect spot where a side river entered the Bhagirati soon presented itself.

Fresh and clean, I returned to town, did some reading, took a nap, and walked down the street for some food. Later a wander across the road and down to the river for another cool dip. On the way back I spied a little village way up high on the mountain side and figured there might be a road to it. Back on the bike, I found a side-road leading up, taking many switch-backs until the road became a walking track. From there about 15 minutes took me into the village. A local man invited me to sit and his wife made us chai.

Later more sauntering around the town, including a suspension bridge across the river leading to a Buddhist gompa. It had been my kind of day, and I was glad to have missed the hours struggling to get to Harsil and beyond.

Next morning (after again doing my stuff) I set off for Rishikesh. About 10 km down the valley I glanced back. There in a narrow window presented far up the valley at just this one turn in the road, and with no cloud cover at all, I was grateful to the Himali for giving me the snow-capped mountain view I had hoped for.

It was a glorious 4 hour ride back to Rishikesh through green valleys under a clear blue sky..... like ski-ing well groomed slopes. Perfect corners of left and right and left and right leans..... pushing the bike through the angles as the single-pot engine purred like a kitten satiated with fresh cream.

It takes little to find gems wherever you are. They are often inside you anyway, but mountains and rivers can help bring them to consciousness.

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Photos

A place to 'lose time'
If you are going to get lost... do it in a gorgeous panorama with sweeping mountain corners to ride

Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Stunning
Off the beaten path. The mountains are calling to you again.

[taracloud]

Ah, rivers and mountains
Yes, we can be at peace in any moment, but it is so much easier in the tranquility of mountains or by a burbling river. So lovely, your day of easy leisure and discovery--my favorite too. Why rush, there's beauty all around!

[Jane]

Great read Paul
Loving the detail. I read every word, since it's the closest I'll ever get to travelling in these countries. Jane

[mahadev]

nostalgic
Hi... funny I just read your comment and had just reminisced about the choir... there are some Israelis staying in my guesthouse and I started humming one of those Shalom songs we learned.... nice. And... who says you would never travel to India? It really can be very civilised these days ! :)

[sahil kapoor]

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