Joshimath-Auli-Badrinath Road Trip Jun 2012

After a hiatus of almost a year and a half since our last road trip to Rajasthan and Gujarat and the travel bug hit me again. The aim this time was to plan something more arduous and adventurous. The aim was to drive, trek and raft. Driving on plain land was a been there done that thing...That set me thinking and when a friend suggested Auli, Uttarakhand...i almost jumped at it. The thought of how to reach Auli  was more exciting that what i would actually do at Auli. With minimalistic hill driving experience it didn't seem like a great idea. I had friends tell me the standard chicken and egg story...hey ...you cant do this unless u have hill driving experience and i was like...how the hell am i going to get hill driving experience unless i drive in the hills...So quite determined i gave these suggestions a pass and went right ahead with the plans. In this blog i would try to answer a whole lot of questions that i myself had and didn't find in any blog. I'm hoping the next time traveler to Auli and Badrinath would be good at least as far as information goes. So here goes some answers to start with

Q1: If i have never driven in the hills can i do this route?

Ans 1: I have more than 10 years of car driving and 5 to 6 years of bike driving behind me. My only experience of hill driving was to Mussourie and Nainital. And folks that hardly can be called as hill driving. But even with this experience i was able to do the stretch.. So stretch your minds kill the fear and step out into the unknown.

Q2: Do i need a 4 wheel drive to do this stretch?

Ans2: Absolutely not. I have a 2008 Honda Civic, manual transmission and i did this stretch comfortably. I know someone who did it in a Tata Manza also.The only issue in low floor cars is the danger of rocks hitting the car bottom. As long as you  manoeuvre  around and keep your eyes on the road you are good to go. I even climbed the 14 KM from Joshimath to Auli on mostly 2nd and occasionally 1st and 4th gears.

Q3: The Car interiors and passenger interiors..

Ans3: Service your car before you leave, this is a must. Carry enough spares, no mechanics for miles, so you got to do your own things. Carry a tow chain (if you don't get one carry a thick nylon rope). Carry warm clothing, blankets and a bag full of dry food stuff and loads of water. Landslides are common . I know someone who had a boulder hit his rear glass and broke it along with damaging his bonnet. He  covered it with Tarpaulin and moved on only to get stuck four days due to a landslide. The food, water and warm clothing will sustain you in the middle of nowhere. Don't let this deter your resolve to hit this route. Whats a route without all these challenges..

09 Jun 2012, Saturday - Delhi - Shivpuri:

Daybreak at Delhi, probably 0545 hrs

The car, Honda Civic, 2008. Family size, self, wife and son. The starting point Vasant Kunj, New Delhi. Had an early start to the day at exactly 0508 hrs. It was daybreak but the sun was yet to come out. Got out of the city pretty fast. The tough part is finding the left turn after Nizamuddin bridge to hit the Meerut road. I chose to miss the left turn at Ghazhipur road and instead took the left a few km later which has a board showing CISF and Mohan Nagar. This road goes and joins GT Road (or Grand Trunk road) as its called, where you take a right. thereafter follow the road signs to reach Meerut road. The exit from Delhi always confuses me, but hoping to get a better handle on it the next time over.Thanks to staring early, i reached Meerut in good time and by 0640 hrs i was on Meerut toll road. this road is like a blessing after the 90 min of hell that one has endured. Fantastic toll road for the next 70 odd km from Meerut to Muzzafarnagar. Thereafter it shifts to single lane till Roorkie and then onwards contiunues in single lane.Roorkie is an important junction for Dehradun and Haridwar travelers. Those wishing to go to Dehradun should take a left at Roorkie and those going to Haridwar continue straight.  The drive from here on till Haridwar was still bearable. We reached Haridwar at 1000 hrs, thats just short of 5 hours. The sick part was the journey was from Haridwar to Shivpuri a distance of just 38 odd Km. There was a massive traffic jam and it took us almost 3 hours to wade thru the jam. We finally reached our hotel at Shivpuri at about 1300 hrs. 

My son river Trekking along the 
Ganges at Shivpuri

The last 3 hours was grueling. Total travelling time, 7 hours 50 min. including 30 min breakfast break and a total distance of 279 km. We stayed at the Riviera resort at Shivpuri http://www.theriviera.co.in/index.asp . Had 2 reasons to stay here. First its on the highway to Joshimath and out of Rishikesh and gives you a good head start if you wish to head for Auli and second he gave us a good deal. The resort is on the hill and a short walk down the hill takes one to the Ganges. My son and me went down to the river and did some great river trekking along the rocks of the river. I'm not sure how many of you have done this, but its a fantastic sport and can definitely give you the thrills. 

10 Jun 2012, Sunday- Shivpuri to Auli: 

This was the day i was both waiting for and dreading at the same time. Waiting because it was the adventure that my mind was dreaming of for the last year or so and dreading because one it was my first long drive in the hills and second it was likely to be the 10 hours of this drive. Nevertheless the enthusiasm was high and i was so looking forward to this. We decided to start early and left the resort at 0620 hrs. The destination was Auli. The route was Shivpuri-Devprayag-Srinagar-Rudraprayag-Karnaprayag -

Shivpuri to Joshimath

Nandaprayag - Chamoli-Joshimath-Auli. As you can see in the pic the route is pretty much straight and passes through some of the most beautiful confluences in  the world. That caters to 4 of the 5 prayags in Uttarakhand. I was terribly short on petrol and in my excitement to stop at Shivpuri yesterday after the long drive and bigger traffic jam i forgot to fuel the car. I finally got fuel just short of Devprayag. Devprayag is the first prayag on the way to Joshimath. Its the confluence of the two holy rivers, the Bhagirathi and the Alaknanda, after this point the river is called Ganga.We stopped at Maletha about 70 Km north of Shivpuri for breakfast at about 0900 hrs. It was a quaint little place by the road. 30 min and we were on our way. The road from Shivpuri right upto Srinagar is narrow, but while going up, you are along the hill side so things are better off than by coming down. Just after Srinagar part of a bridge has collapsed making it a route for a single car. So traffic waits on either side with one side progressing slowly. Other than this an an occasional bad patches which are mostly the landslide areas, the quality of road was relatively good enabling me to manage a healthy 30 kmph till breakfast, which reduced down to 26 kmph post breakfast.From Rudraprayag, you can take a diversion for Chopta and Kedarnath. Rudraprayag is the second prayag on the route. At this point the Alaknanda meets the Mandakini river. The road gets bad, with stones and mud for 3 km short of Gauchar. I continued on the Joshimath route towards Karnaprayag.This is the third paryag, the confluence of rivers Alaknanda and Pindar (this river originates from the Pindar river). Nandaprayag was the next prayag, joining of rivers Nandakini and Alaknanda. We stopped at a placed between Maithana and Chamoli for lunch at about 1330 hrs. Quite a good place with little cottages and a nice open air restaurant. Don't quite remember the name but remember that the food was quite good. I always top up my post lunch food with 500 ml of coke always while driving. Keeps my sleep at bay, wonder what ingredients are in it, caffeine may be. Whatever it is, never fails to keep me awake. My initial plan was to stop at Karnaprayag for lunch. Considering the distance and hilly roads, that was a fair estimate. But reaching just short of Chamoli for lunch was a bonus.Devprayag (475 mtrs) and Chamoli (995 mtrs)are at a height difference of 500 odd mtrs, but the climb from Chamoli to Joshimath (1890 mtrs)is about 900 odd mtrs. This is evident from the roads, they are narrower but still manageable. We reached Joshimath at about 1500 hrs. Auli  to Joshimath is about 14 km during which you ascend about 900 odd mtrs. Quite a scenic drive. The road is narrow but in good condition. My Honda Civic climbed easily between occasional first and mostly second gears. So no need of 4 wheel drive, no scene of screwing up non-SUV cars (these are messages i read in many blogs). Its a cool drive and i did the up down twice (once when i drove later to Badrinath) with no problems whatsoever. I reached Auli at 1600 hrs. That was about 8 hours and 40 min drive including 2 breaks of 30 min each and covering a total distance of 243 km of hill driving.I was lucky not to get any traffic jams or landslides on the way. 

View of the snow capped mountains
from GMVN Auli

I strongly recommend you drive the Joshimath to Auli stretch only in daylight, i find it safer that way. Anyway i always drive in the day, never by night  anywhere in India.  The weather at Auli was fab and the mood within the family was great. I had booked the Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN) there. Had done an online booking at http://www.gmvnl.com/newgmvn/check1.asp?naam='trh' . You will have to register as a user before you do the booking. Carry your print out which you got to show at the reception. The rooms were good (cant say great), there were heaters and geysers in the room, all working. A corridor blocks your view of the hills, but you can always walk down to the corridor window and enjoy the lovely snow covered mountains. After a quick tea and resting for an hour, we were out on a short trek on the mountains just behind us.  

11 Jun 2012, Monday- Auli: 

Meadows of Nanda devi Bio sphere
reserve - Auli

Just above GMVN is the Nanda Devi Bio-sphere Reserve Park. We decided to do a day trek to reserve. At about 1000 hrs after breakfast we decided to start walking up the hill. We decided to take a guide, we got this guy for INR 500, not a bad deal eh!! We went past the Clifftop hotel, a good 20 min climb from our hotel. There is a separate mud route for cars to get to this hotel. I read in some blogs that you need to walk up to this hotel, not fully correct. You drive till about 100 mtrs of the hotel after which you need to walk up to the hotel. Another 20 min climb gets you to the ticketing counter, you got to buy tickets to enter the reserve.On the way we stopped at the Padiyar Devi temple. this temple is revered by the local villagers who have an annual festival when all neighbouring villagers gather here and worship the deity. We trekked till about 1300 hrs post which we decided to rest. Sandwiches and pepsi and we were off again. The entire route was scenic. The route that we took is a days walk in the 6 days trek to Kuari pass. The meadows are beautiful and make you want to stay back there for a lifetime, who knows one day i will, The trek lasted till 1700 hrs when we reached back to the hotel. It was a fab day, good trek, wonderfully scenic and fabulously tired. 


12 Jun 2012, Tuesday- Auli - Badrinath: 

Badrinath road (Hanumanchetti to
Badrinath stretch - 10 km)

After such a long hill drive 2 days back i was in 2 minds weather to drive or take a cab to Badrinath. Finally good sense prevailed and i decided to drive. If you love to drive then why be a passenger. Badrinath is 58 km from Auli. We left Auli at 0730 hrs. We were told that we would take up to 3 hours for the trip. There are many wonderful points along the way. the first was about 13 km from Joshimath, i.e Vishnuprayag. This is last of the five prayags in Uttaraklhand.. The Dhauliganga river meets Alaknanda river at this place. with this, i was fortunate to have seen all the five holy confluences. A blessing indeed. Another 8 km from Vishnuprayag is Govindghat. This is the point from where the trek to Hemkunth Saheb the holy shrine for Sikhs and the Valley of Flowers trek starts.Govindghat to Hemkunth Saheb is about 19 Km and Govindghat to valley of Flowers is 17 km. Don't get depressed seeing the pic. The road remains good and the route very scenic for another 13 km till Hanumanchetti, the next 10 km is pathetic broken road with stones strewn all across.From here on you do an average speed of 8 to 10 kmph. unless you want to screw up you tyres. I reached Badrinath at 1000 hrs. 2 1/2 hrs ride. The place had a certain serenity to it. The lovely temple surrounded by snowy mountains with streams running down. The Saraswati river joins the Alaknanda river at Mana and flows from Badrinath.There is a massive line for entering the temple. Local policemen told us that we will need to wait as much as 21/2 to 3 hrs to go inside the temple. We decided to pray from outside and move on. We spent about an hour and half there and decided to move off from there at 1130 hrs after a quick breakfast.

Badrinath (other than 10 km stretch rest of
road is of this quality)

I was pleasantly surprised to get a Gujarati place selling dosas and idlis for breakfast !We reached Joshimath by 1330 hrs, much quicker than the assent. The sad part was that schools get over at this time and we were stuck in a jam for the next 30 to 40 min and then on another jan from Joshimath to Auli where we encountered 3 army trucks coming downhill while we were going up. Thankfully after a loss of one hour we were up by 1500 hrs just before lunch. A short nap later was off on a trek, first up to Clifftop hotel and then down to the ITBP helipad and then back up. Was a fantastic trek, was tired like hell but loved it. 


13 Jun 2012, Wednesday- Auli - Gauchar: 
After quite an eventful 4 days since starting, it was time to head back on the return leg.We left the GMVN hotel at 0750 hrs. The drive down to Joshimath was quite peaceful and having done the route 3 times earlier it was kind of child's play for me. We had packed a few sandwiches for breakfast. We decided to do a working lunch and continue driving till we reached our destination, Gauchar about 104 Km downhill from Auli towards Rishikesh. We intended to stop at a small quaint place at Gauchar arranged by one of my friends who was kind enough to oblige at short notice. The downhill journey was almost as easy or difficult as the climb. The only care one had to take was to keep whispering to one self "go slow go slow". The car tends to have a life of its own on the downhill stretch and you need to reign in the engine in the interest of your own safety. Speeds were definitely slower than the climb but in and around 24 to 26 kmph. Though we intended to complete the distance in one stretch, the family decided in favor of a tea break and finally we stopped at 0900 hrs at a little place for tea, and my son downed some hot Maggie noodles, quite a delicacy in these parts and found in almost every small joint at any altitude. After a 30 min stop we headed for Gauchar. We were there at 1230 hrs or so, almost a 4 hour 20 min drive including the break. Gauchar is a small quaint town about 12 Km after Karnaprayag. After a quick lunch and a fast nap, we decided the explore the hills behind our cottage. There were some villages and the Alaknanda flows through the villages and the hills. We walked around for an hour or so and headed back to the room.After a quiet evening we were all excited to do the second last leg to Shivpuri.

14 and 15 Jun 2012, Thursday/Friday- Gauchar - Shivpuri: 
We decided to start early , left the place at Gauchar by 0655 hrs. We stopped at Maletha just after Srinagar for breakfast. It was a nice place called Riverside resort. Looks like a good place to stay also, though there is nothing around to do except trek.The road after this point especially from Devprayag onwards was quite difficult. Looked funny especially after having done worse stretches, no idea why this looked difficult. An afterthought revealed that the road was narrow and the down traffic was at the outer side of the road with a sheer drop. Finally we reached our hotel (The Riviera) at 1300 hrs covering 139 km from Gauchar. The drive from Auli broken in 2 stretches was comfortable but obviously less challenging than the Shivpuri-Auli stretch. We followed up the evening with another stretch of river trekking along the Ganges. Another quiet evening later we were looking forward to the rafting trip the next day.

The sun reflecting off the Ganga

The hotel had arranged our rafting trip with Red Chillies Adventures http://www.redchilliadventure.com/. The guide was good and safe and they had a Kayak following our boat for rescues if any. I strongly recommend them for any rafting expedition. They also undertake rafting in Ladakh, The website says it all. We chose the 28 km rafting stretch starting from a place called Marine drive (wonder why its called that).We got a safety briefing and were on the boat. The ride overall was safe we jumped in water at  least 8 to 10 times and once even during the rapids. the guide knew his job and the river well. He even stopped us from doing any touristy rowing and made us row with all our strength making it a true adventure trip. We even had a pleasant snack break, pepsi and chips!! The overall route took about 3 hours and was very well worth it. Highly recommended. 

16 Jun 2012, Saturday- Shivpuri - Delhi: 

The next day we has an early start left the hotel at 0700 hrs. We crossed Rishikesh in good time. thereafter there was a massive traffic jam. It took us almost 90 minutes to get out of Haridwar. The route till we reached the toll road was terrible with traffic moving at snails pace. The government needs to do something with the road if they expect people to visit Uttarakhand. Now people do not have a choice and need the damn road to get away from the mess that is Delhi. But with a good road the overall experience will get pleasant. Time lost in the slow stretch till Muzzafarnagar was taken care of by the fantastic toll road till Meerut. Post that too the traffic was thin so we could make it in good time. We finally got back home to Vasant Kunj at 1500 hrs. 
Overall it was a fantastic trip.For a guy who loves to drive all he can see is the road. The beauty of the hills or the river flowing past are just comments that you hear from fellow passengers. For the traveler all such images fuse together and you only see the grey/black background of the road and that itself is orgasmic enough to keep the traveler going. Driving till you collapse dead tired is a dream every traveler sees day in and day out. I had very long stretches of continuous driving and all i can sum up is with a quote by Lao Tzu “A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.” This trip ends but i did sow not one but many seeds of possible future trips and a corner of my creative mind is furiously at work looking forward to the next trip. 
I hope a traveler on this route can use this blog for a safe and planned travel. Please mail me if you find errors or want me to add more details to this blog. So on that last note, my fellow travelers, Au Revoir.....


@Vasant Kunj
14 Jul 2012, 1828 Hrs