The drive - rutted road, many roadworks, endless bends and switchbacks - wonderous views
as the rugged crags gave way to vistas with snow-capped mountains !
We were blesses with not too much traffic.
The flora and the fauna - amazing, wonderous birds of paradise - colourful long-tailed, crested,
Eagles, crows, sparrows too. Rhododendrons ( lovely sweet juice) roses, iris, wildflowers
so abundant.
The beautiful Ganges river, ever-flowing ever-winding, emerald green. Tamed only by the Dams. Tehri Dam took thirty years in construction and has alength of 38kms.
Our trip ttook us through to the market town of Chamba and on to Dhanolti - a sleepy one street village with a few hotels.We visited a wool shop with a working loom just behind the counter!
We ate dinner and breakfast overlooking the pine trees. After a cool night we ventured across
to Mussourie - a hillside town with along high street and panoramic views down to Dehra Dun.
We found a nice hotel with home-cooked food . We visited Kempty Falls but it was too touristy for us - a nice vantage point. Shopping in the rain. We returned to our hotel and even enjoyed a movie for the first time in months.
The folowing day we drove back the same route via Dhanolti and out across the Teri Dam
towards Chinilyalisod. We stayed at a Government run tourist house it was located in a lovely delta usually submerged by water that revealed a temple! We walked over to it and took some photos as this will be gone forever under thw water!
The birdlife was wonferful and we ad sparrows chirruping under our eaves. The birds are so colourful and unafraid it was ajoy to watch them late into the night and early next morning.
After another home-cooked meal and breakfast on the verandah we headed off towards Uttarkashi.
We arranged to stay at a small Ashram to the north of Utttarkashi alongside the Ganges , with a temple next door .
It seemed like the 'Garden of Eden' - Swami Premananda Saraswati gave a talk in the garden
for two hours on the Vasistas. life and death and all that. It was interspersed with hot sweet chai
and ended with an alfresco lunch. He has much knowledge and a long history with Sivananda Divine Light.
Swami Gopalananda was full of fun, great laugh, dance and chants/bhajans on the harmonium.
Jyoti cooked up some tasty food to aid our recovery.
We stayed here two nights - laying on our backs on rocks in the middle of the river in the hot sunshine relaxing ahead of our trip to Dharali and hopefuly Gangotri.
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