This trip was a result of 7months break from travelling and golden opportunity of utilising long weekend of 2nd October. Initially we 3friends were planning to take on this journey but one of our friend tested covid positive and couldn't make it. We all 3decided to take the Covid test as a responsible traveller, despite the relaxation from Uttrakhand government for travellers. Glad we did undergone the test and didn't become carrier of virus to those remote villages & towns of Uttrakhand.
Me & my riding buddy cranked our bike at 6am in the morning and started our journey towards beautiful and inviting mountains of Uttrakhand. Our first planned stop was at Cheetal Grand to feast on the amazing paranthas and refreshing tea.
Next stop was planned at Dehradun through superfast state highways of Uttar pradesh which takes us to Dehradun via Deoband. In Dehradun we filled our ration of snacks & cold drinks for next few days.
We decided to take the route from Dehradun - Uttrakashi instead of frequently travelled Rishikesh - Uttrakashi, cause later route has too many construction activities going on for "all weather char dhaam road" and Dehradun - Uttrakashi has very limited traffic and is more scenic.
We had to stop just before Uttrakashi to do our registration due to Covid situation which took almost 1hr, but we enjoyed the break since we met many ITBP Jawans from Karnatak and had long discussion on their life & challenges.
We reached Uttarkashi around 7.30pm and took our dinner break and started our journey towards Harsil.
We were stopped by police personnel's at Bhatwari and initially they didn't allow us to proceed further since post Uttarkashi you cannot drive after 8pm. But they were kind enough to let us pass through after knowing our plan and bookings in Harsil.
Next 40kms were really adventurous since is was complete dark and me & my friend were the only two souls on that route.
Reached our stay for next 3days - GMVN - Harsil
It was gruelling & beautiful ride of 17hrs.
Easy day....
We decided to take a trek towards Sattal (7 small lakes on the top of a mountain). This trek starts from Dharali Village (1.5kms from Harsil). Its a beautiful small trek of 5kms. You'll get to see the famous apple orchards of Harsil & Dharali. And even you can buy some juicy apples from the shop owners at Dharali. We bought few apples for our trek and started climbing.
After 1.5hrs we reached on top and we felt bit disappointed to see all the lakes dry. This year Harsil and near by areas were rain deprived & received very little rainfall.
But view from the top was amazing. Adding pictures for reference.
After spending good 2hrs on top we started our return journey and reached Dharali by 5.30pm. We had Chai & Parantha and started towards hotel in harsil, but just before harsil we saw small trail going towards Bhagirathi banks and we decided to unwind ourselves on the banks of river. I'll let pictures do the talking... This was the end of day 2
Wait wait.... See the below picture before we say good night
3rd day of trip. Today we decided to go Gangotri Temple at 10000+ ft elevation.
It took hardly 40mins to reach our destination from Harsil. Roads were amazing and traffic was really sparse. We encountered beautiful views of Himalayas in bhairon ghati & Lanka.
We offered our prayers to Devi Ganga and came back to our hotel.
Tonight we tried to capture the milky-way before we concluded our day.
Today plan was to reach Dhanaulti by evening. We wanted to start at 12noon since the journey was 8hrs long. But we could only start at 1.30pm because we wanted to but some apples for home and Harsil has a problem of Network & Cash. Only available PNB ATM was out of service from last two days and no one accepts any card for payments (including GMVN). We had to do find someone who can give us some cash against the Google pay or paytm, to settle our bills.
Ride was little less entertaining cause of poor road conditions after Uttrakashi and heat. It was almoat 33 degrees through the day time.
We reached Dhanaulti by 9pm and booked a hotel there and crashed in our bed.
Finally the last day of trip😔
We woke up at 8.30am and sat outside our room to see the snow capped peaks of Uttrakhand while enjoying our sumptuous breakfast.
After spending good 3hrs in chit - chatting, we started at 1pm to reach Delhi by 9pm.
This was a much needed break after the difficult 7months of Pandemic and killing corporate life in our cities.
Thank you so much reading and please feel free to share your comments or ask any question about this trip.
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