I recently took a trip to Kedarnath and Badrinath with my family I started from Delhi at 0530 in my car , Wagon R, and reached Haridwar by 0945. An uneventful drive through wonderful highway via Merrut and Mujaffarnagar bypasses. However you must be careful as Indians behind wheels are unmindful of others. They have tearing hurry in reaching wherever they are going and its incessant torture on road by these drivers and that is more of a rule than exception. Completely inundated by the thrill of powerful revving machines under thier soles they forget that machine has no clue to thier inabilities Little do they learn from various memorablia lying mangled on roads and sides Well I took a trained hill driver from Haridwar as I thought it unwise to drive through the hilly terrain.I would rather let a practised driver do that while I enjoyed that drive with my family. We left Haridwar after I withdrew 5000 for my onward journey as cash by 1230. Wonderful scenic way and enthralling views of bhagirathi made it a real pleasure. The roads are excellent and we reached rudraprayag by 1630. We drove by and passed Shrinagar. Here we fuelled. We stopped at various points for snaps and just enjoying the view and driver was very obliging. He was also a very good guide and story teller. After Shrinagar we drove towards Kund and just about 5 kms before Kund we passed a place called Chandrapuri. A small hamlet at river level has Garhwal Vikas Mandals Guest house. As we had reached darkness we stopped by. The cottage is absolutely at the bank of Bhagirathi which was flowing past with voilent gusto.We sat with our feet in icy water of river and realised how soon it neutralised our tired body and recharged. The cottage has a TV , with few chanells , hot water and comfortable bed. At 500/- it was a great night. Food was simple and very tasty. We started next morning and reached Kund.We crossed a bridge on Kund and came over to other side of Bhagirathi and began climbing the steep hill. This led us parallel to Mandakini and we passed small but beautiful villages of Phata, Rampur, Sitapur eventually reaching Gaurikund at 1230Hrs. by now you are already at a level of about 6000Ft At Gaurikund we left the car and first had a customary bath in the sulphur water of gaurikund. then we commenced our climb to Kedarnath which is about 13km one way. we took horses as aid.I paid 1050 for three horses upwards one way.by the time you reach halfay upto Rambada you get the magnificient sight of snow capped mountains of Kedarnath. The whole strech of difficult climb is blessed with amazing fauna and flora. No two leaves are same. There is real risk of lanslide hence one must be very vigilant. We reached Kedarnath at about 1630. I took a small cottage again for night stay - price 350/- . We attended the evening darshan and arti. Night was lovely and it took a while for hills to disappear.With clouds playing around the peaks the heart stopping views were amazing. the light and shadow on hills and snow sheets were amazing to watch.Priests are fairly transparent and temple is beautiful. There is doctor stationed there with sufficient medicines. there is also a helipad close by. I experienced severe pain in head - said to be because of low oxygen This time round I paid 550 for 3 horses. It was geting risky as rains were on and landslide is too common an occurrence. We reached Kund at 1640 and we started backwards. We again drove all the way back to Kund and crossed the bridge to get to other side of Bhagirathi. then commenced an amazing journey which made us climb to Ukhimath and we drove throgh an amazingly dense and beautiful forest. The road here is thin and risky but with my experienced driver I could enjoy the sights I would perhaps never see again. We reached a small hamlet called CHOPTA. This a base point from where one more temple of Tungnath can be trekked. Chopta is called mini switzerland of India. From this pleatau you could see the entire range of Himalaya. The landscape is full of fir/deodar trees and once again we slept in a comfortable room ( 350) complete with attatched toilet and light.Again food was rajma, aloo ke parathe and rice. This was amazing and I think one could easily spend two leisurely days there. we started at 0800 next morning and reached Gopeshwar. THANKS TO SBI ATM I withdrew some precious cash and reached Chamoli by 1200. we lunced there and fuelled again. From here the road is pretty bad till we reached Joshimath. Climb is amazing and one error could plunge one 5000ft straight down to river. Joshimath one has to hit at right time as authorities allow a caravan of cars to traveres the difficult road from J/M to Govindghat. Once this convoy reaches there then convoy from Govindghat is allowed to move to J/Math. The road from Govindghat is again very risky because of landslides and poor surface .The river is really ferrocious.Last nine Km to Badrinath is steep climb and we reached there at 1700. once again I took a room for (350) and we had generic dsrshan. I cant help but point out that we hindus have this amazing habit of displaying impatience in anything when in que form. people neddlessly would push and shove and jostle even when the que is moving. Somehow it irked me. Temple is beautiful and there also is a kund( sulphur hot spring). Had lovely food as there are hotels that serve regional food.I ate a bengali spread. Next morning I could not go to temple but my amazing wife did the darshan. We started backwards at 0930 and there were reports and signs of bad weather setting in. The journey backwards was one stop to Hardwar where we reached at 1830hrs.
Pros : refreshing, peaceful, serene holiday
Cons: risky driving