Chota Char Dham Yatra.. A drive into Uttarakhand.

Preamble:

What is it about the Himalayas? It seems to keep on beckoning you into its embrace time and again! Maybe its me, maybe I suffer from A.P.S. (Acute Plain's Sickness) as opposed to A.M.S. (Acute Mountain Sickness). I'm probably the only one who suffers from this dreaded disease or am I?

After last years epic IPHE to Ladakh & Himachal, read more about it here: HumbLeh'd II (Indo Polish Himalayan Expedition to Ladakh & Himachal Pradesh) and my road trip to Spiti, Himachal in 2010, read more about it here: Rohtang Didn't Let me Pass; Spiti & Chandratal It Was!,one would imagine that the lust to return to Himalayas would wane, but it doesn't! And it doesn't help when some of your good friends and fellow members of the IPHE do a quick dash in search of some Mughal Ghosts! read more about it here: Cliffhanger Himachal, Hidden Kashmir and a search for Mughal Ghosts. Though I must admit that I was invited for that drive, but unfortunately due to work and family commitments I was unable to make it.

The Ghosts had to be exorcised I kept telling myself and slowly an idea started forming in my head! 2013 is the year when a road trip to Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh and Himachal Pradesh is going to be undertaken. So that left the North Eastern Himalayas and Uttarakhand as places to be explored.

Had brief chats with a few of the IPHE team members and I realised that I ain't the only one suffering from A.P.S., Kaushik Manghani, Shibu Varghese, Lalu K S, Shashank Sanade, Jayasekaran Pillai, Kunal Patwa, Ankit Patel, Ajay Kaushik, Bhaskar Mandapaka, Chaitanya Vineet were more than happy to venture into the Himalayas again.

Taking into consideration everyone's leave availabilities and work schedules a road trip for around 12 days was planned, effectively ending all hopes of driving to the North East. So Uttarakhand it would be. By mid August, discussions regarding dates, etc, started in right earnest, via phone calls, social media, etc. Slowly but surely and with a lot of help and inputs from H V Kumar the plan was finalised. This would be a drive to the Char Dhams in the Uttarakhand Himalayas also known as the

CHOTA CHAR DHAM YATRA

Having fixed the departure from New Delhi on the 22nd. of September, the end of the trip was scheduled for the 1st. of October post noon at Lucknow and accordingly the participants were asked to make their plans and confirm. Come what may everyone would have to be in New Delhi on the 22nd. by 11:30am latest, to proceed to Haridwar in time for the evening Ganga Aarti!

Tried a lot to convince H V Kumar to lead the drive or to join one of us in the drive, but he couldn't make it due to prior commitments. 

The Final team (26 in all & 7 cars) in no particular order:

Kerala Bolero:

Shibu Varghese (JeepCaptain)

Akhil Gopinath (Gamer)

Sam Jacob (Uncle S)

Mathew Chacko (Uncle M)

Indigo from Salem, TN:

Jayasekaran Pillai (JP)

Preeti Jayachandran (JP's fiancée/MsPJ) 

Chaitanya Vineet (CV)

Punto 90hp from Bangalore:

Madhu Sudhan

Lalu K S (laluks)

Bhaskar Mandpaka (BM)

Ritz from Haryana:

Ajay Kaushik (akaush)

Ajay's Parents

Pinaki Chakraborty (PC/laluks' BIL)

Indica from Bombay:

Chandrakant Kamath (CK)

Aditya Singh (AS)

Vivek Kapoor (VK)

NS

Mumbai Roadsters Swift from Bombay:

Ankit Patel (anku)

Mrs Ankit Patel (MsAP)

Devang Panchmatiya (pdev29)

Vikas Bhargava (VB)

Bolero from Bombay:

Kaushik Manghani (KSM-Vtec)

Shashank Sanade (SS)

Kunal Patwa (doctorque)

Gautam Basak (BolBolero)

(Have mentioned Team-BHP handles where available)

The Final Drive Plan:

Day 01: 22thSept. New Delhi-Haridwar(for Evening Ganga Aarti)-Haridwar/ Rishikesh (night stay)

Day 02: 23rdSept. Haridwar/Rishikesh-Janki Chatti-Trek to Yamunotri-Janki Chatti (night stay)

Day 03: 24thSept. Janki Chatti-Gangotri (Darshan and night stay)

Day 04: 25thSept. Gangotri-Gaurikund (Kedarnath Base and night stay)

Day 05: 26thSept. Gaurikund-Trek to Kedarnath-Gaurikund-Rudraprayag (night stay)

Day 06: 27thSept. Rudraprayag - Badrinath(Darshan) - Mana - Joshimath(nightstay)

Day 07: 28thSept. Joshimath - Munsiyari (night stay)

Day 08: 29thSept. Munsiyari - Tawaghat - Pithoragarh (night stay)

Day 09: 30thSept. Pithoragarh - Nainital (night stay)

Day 10: 01stOct. Nainital - Lucknow

Unfortunately the above plan went awry on the second day itself , but more of that later.

The news from Uttarakhand was not good at all, just a few days before we were to leave for the drive. The rains had caused and continued to cause havoc in almost all the districts of Uttarakhand. Kept on reading and hearing about cloudbursts, all over the state, with a lot of trepidation. Lots of lives lost, houses destroyed, roads washed away. In this situation, would we be able to drive to Uttarakhand? The team was also very apprehensive!

After speaking to many well wishers and friends on the HVK forum and elsewhere, it was decided to continue with the plan and leave the rest in Gods Hands! Special thanks to HVK sir and Ram Kris sir for their help in contacting people in Uttarakhand to give us updates on road conditions.

The meeting point for New Delhi was fixed at DND flyover Toll Plaza area at 11:30 am IST.

This is how the team members arrived:

JP and fiancée left Salem in the Indigo CS on 18 Sept. evening and reached New Delhi on 21 Sept. night, halting at Hubli, Bombay(Kalamboli), Chittorgarh.

Gamer, Uncle S, Uncle M, left Wayanad in the Bolero on 19 Sept and reached New Delhi on 22 Sept morning, halting at Bombay to carry out some repairs to the Bolero and another halt at Jaipur.
MS left Bangalore in the Punto 90hp on 19 Sept post lunch and reached Delhi on 22 Sept. morning, halting at Pune, Indore, Bharatpur.

Anku, Anku's wife and pdev29 left Bombay in the Swift on 20 Sept late night and reached New Delhi on  22 Sept morning, halting at Jaipur.

CK left Bombay in the Indica on 21 Sept early morning and reached New Delhi on 22 Sept. morning, halting at Jaipur.

KSM-Vtec, doctorque, VB and BolBolero left Bombay in the Bolero on 21 Sept post noon and reached New Delhi on 22 Sept morning.

CV, caught a flight from Vizag to New Delhi and arrived on 21 Sept.

BM, caught a flight from Chennai to New Delhi and arrived on 21 Sept at 9:30 pm.

SS, caught a flight from Bangalore and arrived in New Delhi on 21 Sept in the evening.

laluks, caught a flight from Bangalore and arrived in New Delhi on 21 Sept late in the night.

JeepCaptain, caught a flight from Dubai and arrived in New Delhi on 22 Sept early morning.

akaush and his parents, left Sonipat in the Ritz on 22 Sept early morning.

AS, VK, NS and PC were from Delhi itself.

A very big thank you to HVK Forum member Dhiraj Kapoor for helping out the team in Jaipur!

HVK Forum member Harjeev Singh Chadha was kind enough to help the team staying at Hotel Iris, Kalkaji to get to DND flyover, without any problems. Thanks for your help Sir, and sorry missed meeting you!

to be continued......