Gangotri 4 – Ring Tehri 2

The wrong right turn took us to a round trip around Tehri dam. As we went on the wrong road, we realized that the boards to Gangotri have vanished. It meant that we were on the wrong path. Driving on the same path, we finally decided to ask somebody.

The locals suggested that we go ahead on the same route and cross over from a bridge to the other side of the Tehri. We could have chosen to just go back but thought it was a shortcut to Uttarkashi. We had to drive 80 Kms more and face a 2 hour delay. We should have asked the best possible way.

As we advanced on the road, we were searching for the bridge to cross on the other side. We could see a bridge far away over the valley but from far away it looked like a foot over bridge. But if that was the foot over bridge then where was the bridge we needed to cross over? We kept going on till we reached the bridge we had been seeing from the distance. We asked the police constable “where was the bridge to cross the valley?” and he pointed to the same bridge.

We came from the road seen above

From above the bridge looked shaky and small. But the constable assured us “407 jaati hai ji” (Tata 407 is a small truck from Tata Motors).

We had our doubts but going back the same way would waste another hour. We decided to cross over. When we crossed over and looked back, it was a deep fall down there and the bridge was supported on both the side of the valley with nothing to support the middle. It looks like a frame structure without any solid firm ground.

Its a long way down there

We crossed on the other side to find a dusty, narrow road which was the start of our long treacherous journey to Uttarkashi.

The road from then went just uphill. A narrow dusty road filled with potholes and a view of Tehri dam. We were looking at a deep valley from the car and the car almost touched the edge of the road. The locals who operated the tourist vehicles drove with almost no fear or regards to safety. We stopped many times to give way for a fast moving car. The distance was such that only two cars would pass almost touching each other but we had trucks on the road.

Vijay and me were sitting at the passenger seat on the left and we had the maximum look at the valley below. The valley was a 90 degree drops below and one wrong move would leave us with no chance at all. 

The narrow road and the almost 90 degrees mountain. Tehri lake in the background

The Tehri lake view from the road

The long winding road on the mountains. No matter how much we drove, “road khatam he nahi hounda”

 

The locals could not resist overtaking in the narrow road. The Tata Sumo behind the truck is trying to overtake the truck on a road where the truck is taking all the space. Talk about optimism.

A traffic jam in the mountains where little space created a road block on its own.