Delhi to gangotri on bike

Destination : Gangotri.
Round trip : 1100 km.
Max altitude touched : 11,000 ft.
Duration : 5 days (21nd sep - 25 sep 2007 )
The team : sripurna, jay, and me.
The machines : pulsar 150, pulsar 180, CBZ xtreme

21st sepetember 2007 we packed our bags, got our speed machines ready and set off for another adventure tour. Gangotri is Is at about 550 km from delhi and it is at about 9,980 ft above sea level. These numbers are good enough to show that this ride is gonna be exiting and challenging. Gangotri is one of the "chaar-dham" hindu pilgrimage, Also its a pilgimage for trekkers and nature lovers, it is the base for some of the most exiting treks in this region.


So our beasts started roaring pretty early in morning, we were on NH58 at about 4:00 am. This highway is not new now (given the number of rides that we did in Uttaranchal). NH58 is in good condition except for about 30km which is under construction, once this construction is complete riding this 250 km to rishikesh will be a cake walk. Our Average speed on this highway came out to be 40kmph, bad but it is reality, 40kmph is a realistic figure on this highway no matter how fast you go momentarily.


We touched rishikesh at about 12:30pm. From here we headed the two wheels on NH94 highway. Now this is point onwards you have to be careful while riding because next 250km ride will be on the snake like hilly roads, you'll hit places where no roads will be there :) , landslides will be waiting for you. Having said all bad about these roads, i must say riding on hills is a heavenly experience. And because of these challenges we call these tours adventure tour :).

If you are riding in this region you should be prepared to face any challenge, sometime landslides take away whole road, when they do so you are obiously stuck. but we were lucky to have some road so that we could pass through.

We cruised till chamba where we took a wrong way towards tehri which lead us to a place where there was barely any road, actually there used to be road here but few years back it got sunk in tehri reservior. So we were on a road which was under construction, i would say in very early stages of constuction :)

Because of this strech we took a long time. and Sun went down when we were about 68 km from uttarkashi. Riding on hills at night is not safe so we halted for night at a small place called "kandi saur". Cheked-in in a small hotel, enjoyed India-Austrailia 20-20 semifinal at night and in the morning we headed towards uttarkashi.


Uttarkash-gangotri route makes you feel that all your hardwork to reach this place has started paying now.

Here your ride through beautiful valleys, you ride through apple orchards, you ride by small watter falls.

In valleys roads and the river ganga run side by side, and when you gain hight you get some breathtaking views of ganga flowing through the deep valleys. Picture on right is one of those breathtaking views, i had seen such pictures only on discovery channel before this trip :)

Now enough of good views and good roads :(, time to get lil careful because almost 30km of road now on (its in uttarkashi- gangotri strech) is in pretty bad shape.

Rain take a significant portion of these roads with it every year. Hats off to BRO (Border Road organization) which keeps gangotri linked with uttarkashi in these conditions also. Few Hydro power projects are also in progress in this region which is another reason why these roads are in bad condition.

you have to be very careful while crossing these 30km, because mistakes on this road may be fatal. Slowly we progressed, took a long time but safely we reached harsil a small village which is about 40 km before gangotri. After a tea break we were on road again, and reached gangotri at about 5:30 in the evening.


By this time we were tired. Booked a room in a small hotel. hotels here are really cheap. you easily get a room for Rs. 150 - 200. But do not expect a luxury suite :)


As per our intial plans the trip was half complete, we were at our destination, The gangotri temple.

We were already late on as per our plan, initially we had planned that we'll return to delhi in 3 days, but we took 2 days to reach gangotri forget about returning in 3days, simply our time lines were not realistic and now they were messed up :).

Since we are already late so we decided to pull in one more day (that will make our trip a five day trip) , and go on gangotri-gomukh trail to capture as many beautiful views in our cameras as we can in one day.



So now time to do some treking, not really treking just walking :) though because there is a well marked trail from gangotri to gomukh. Real trekking starts after gomukh when you have to cross glaciers.



We started walking on gangotri-gomukh trail at 7:30 in the morning. Gomukh glacier is the staring point of river ganga and is at a distance of about 18km from gangotri .

We knew that we could not do 18km and come back in same day. So we decided to walk towards gomukh for 3hrs and then return back. While walking on this trail you find beautiful valleys, white peaks and ridges in front of you. I kept clicking, then realised that now its time to turn back. Reached gangotri at about 3:30pm, had lunch and then went for a long sleep. Next morning head back to delhi.

This time because of less time we could not go to gomukh, but next time we'll definitely go till tapovan (6km from gomukh, ~12500 ft from sea level).

So this is it here are some tips:

1. Make sure that your tyers are in good condition.
2. Do carry a puncture kit with you.
3. Do such long trips in groups only, avoid going alone.
4. Plan your trip time based on this rule : Average speed in planes 40kmph, in hills 15kmph.
5. Carry first aid box.
6. Do not go on this trip if this is the first time you are riding in hills. You must have some experience of riding in hills before attempting 250km in hills.