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UTTARANCHAL
 One
of India’s most scenic and colourful states, Uttaranchal
is a traveler’s paradise of treks, hikes and countless
roads less traveled by. Utterly Uttaranchal was 60kph’s
12 day, 7 bikes, 8 travelers ride through almost all of this
lovely mountain-girdled state. The ride was in association with
the Indian Army which serves the nation in this region, specifically
Garhwal Scouts, 6 Garhwal Rifles, Kumaon Regiment Centre, Kumaon
Scouts and 9 Kumaon and undertaken with the overall theme of
promoting tourism in Uttaranchal.
Srinivas Konidena, a 60kpher from Hyderabad gives you a first-hand
account of the ride. Join him in crunching through the snows
and drinking in the mountainous panoramas and may the pine-scented
air revive your wanderlust.
With lot of excitement and some skepticism (this was my first
group ride), I set out for 12 days of riding through Uttaranchal
in the first week of March. The ride started and ended in Delhi
and our route covered Dehra Dun, Mussoorie, Badkot, Gangotri,
Rudraprayag, Kedarnath, Joshimath, Badrinath, Kausani, Munsyari
and Bheemtal. Other than me, there were Histasp, Naazneen (Histu’s
wife) and Nicky from Mumbai, Kannan from Trivandrum, Jay Jadeja
from Ahmedabad and Vaibhav and Salman from Delhi.
This was my first ride in the “real” mountains and
that too it coincidentally happened at a time when many roads
were just being opened. The ride was through some really amazing
roads and we had newer vistas to view with ever turn in the
road. Each day was a different experience in itself, treating
us to a different pleasure. While from Barkot to Gangotri we
rode along the Bhagirathi river in breezy conditions at Harsil
we faced really cold temperatures. A landslide in the night
threatened to stop our journey to Munsyari but we managed to
get over it to have a closer glimpse of the Himalayas. Gaurikund
(last motorable place to Kedarnath) gave us an insight about
how man messes up with the beauty of nature while the ride to
Mana (from Badrinath) helped us see arguably (some say it is
Khibber) the highest inhabited village in India.
Vivek, V2 and Gaurav were instrumental in planning for this
ride. This was more critical as the riders got the privilege
of getting the Army’s patronage. The route was planned
with very enthusiastic support from Gen. Joseph (Darryl’s
father,) and details of the trip were finalized after a lot
of behind the scenes phone calls, e-mails, etc.
Write-up edited by Anand
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