19th October, 2006.
Wake up at 5 am, its deathly quiet and freezing outside, wake up kids and the guide for the day Dinesh guides us on the road through Sonprayag to Gaurikund, 31 Kms away. We park the car, Dinesh goes hunting for the Dhols; it’s end of the season, most of the Nepali porters are already gone home, the temple will close tomorrow for the season and everyone is in a winding down mode. With great difficulty and lots of haggling, Dinesh gets 4 Dhols and we’re off @ 7 am to Badarinath, what we dreamt for a long time. What we didn’t plan for was the rain, snow and cold; soon its drizzling and a cutting wind plays tune through the trees, few people and horses going up. 
We were surprised to see old people and a few children walking up on foot, 14 kms up hill in this weather, that’s some demo of faith in action. The porters walk in rhythm, climb gamely on and take a break every 30 minutes for a smoke or a chai. We reach Rambada @ 11 am, alt 9000 feet, 7 km away from where we started. 
The rain picks up stronger, and the temp drops to around 6; we’re numb and cover everything except our noses, still no respite. Nidish vomits all his break fast on the hill side and is sick and cold, the porters pick him up on the Dhol and chug up faster, our porters follow through. 12 noon, we see the temple, 2 km away shimmering and the snow capped mountains all around, dare not take out the camera as the drizzle turns into snow, we’re coated with powder sown and the temp drops to 4; I hum Pink Floyd’s “comfortably numb’, we’re beyond thought, the cold has frozen everything, we’re on auto pilot, the posters happy with the exercise to keep them warm and uncaring, they only to want to finish what they started off. 
By 1 pm we reach Badarinath, Nidish is pretty sick by now and starts shivering, we take him up to Panjab and Sindh hotel and order some hot water and empty plastic bottles to warm him up. Dinesh heaps blankets on him and heat him with hot bottles, he’s stopped shivering and starts breathing easy and normal; we take turns at visiting the temple; hardly any pilgrims and have a nice Darshan. We’re all keen to run back and get away from this cold soon as we can; one of the porters lends his camel hair coat to Nidish and they get some plastic sheets to cover him from falling snow. We’re on our way back, exhausted from cold, altitude and the wicked wind, its snowing hard now, every exposed part is wet, the gloves, shoes and the jeans. We get down from the Dhols and try walking to generate heat, that helped us some, we reach Rambada around 3 pm and have hot tea. Most shops are pulled down, few of them operating, tomorrow the temple will close down, everyone will go down to Gaurikund and sit out the winter for 3-4 months. All the iron railings on the walkway to the temple are also being pulled down, say even iron can’t take the weight of the snow in the winter and buckle down. To preserve the railing they are put down flat on the ground; all the roofings rails, tarpaulin covers taken off till Rambada, lest they will crash with the weight of the snow in winter.
We reach Gaurikund around 0500 PM and pay off the porters and take rest for 30 mts with chai. Its pitch dark already with an icy wind drifting down, reach the car and have a surprise waiting for us. Car wouldn’t start; driver of a jeep nearly says the alarm was going on throught day and the battery has gone dead. Find a cop, explain the situation to him; he says not to worry, leave the car there and attend to it 2morrow morning and wish us good night!!!!! Catch a local jeep and reach back to camp by 730 PM. Wow…. What a day !!!!! Nidish is by now OK, the porters say he might have had altitude sickness and its self-limiting if you move him down quickly. That and the camel hair coat helped him, we paid the guy extra for an exellent job done. Dinesh has been a life-saver throughout the day, he came up and down with us on foot, helped out with Nidish and the hotel up there and again with the police and car etc. God does work in mysterious ways !!!!! We ask for extra blanket for the night and are soon snoring away.
Wake up at 5 am, its deathly quiet and freezing outside, wake up kids and the guide for the day Dinesh guides us on the road through Sonprayag to Gaurikund, 31 Kms away. We park the car, Dinesh goes hunting for the Dhols; it’s end of the season, most of the Nepali porters are already gone home, the temple will close tomorrow for the season and everyone is in a winding down mode. With great difficulty and lots of haggling, Dinesh gets 4 Dhols and we’re off @ 7 am to Badarinath, what we dreamt for a long time. What we didn’t plan for was the rain, snow and cold; soon its drizzling and a cutting wind plays tune through the trees, few people and horses going up. We were surprised to see old people and a few children walking up on foot, 14 kms up hill in this weather, that’s some demo of faith in action. The porters walk in rhythm, climb gamely on and take a break every 30 minutes for a smoke or a chai. We reach Rambada @ 11 am, alt 9000 feet, 7 km away from where we started. The rain picks up stronger, and the temp drops to around 6; we’re numb and cover everything except our noses, still no respite. Nidish vomits all his break fast on the hill side and is sick and cold, the porters pick him up on the Dhol and chug up faster, our porters follow through. 12 noon, we see the temple, 2 km away shimmering and the snow capped mountains all around, dare not take out the camera as the drizzle turns into snow, we’re coated with powder sown and the temp drops to 4; I hum Pink Floyd’s “comfortably numb’, we’re beyond thought, the cold has frozen everything, we’re on auto pilot, the posters happy with the exercise to keep them warm and uncaring, they only to want to finish what they started off. By 1 pm we reach Badarinath, Nidish is pretty sick by now and starts shivering, we take him up to Panjab and Sindh hotel and order some hot water and empty plastic bottles to warm him up. Dinesh heaps blankets on him and heat him with hot bottles, he’s stopped shivering and starts breathing easy and normal; we take turns at visiting the temple; hardly any pilgrims and have a nice Darshan. We’re all keen to run back and get away from this cold soon as we can; one of the porters lends his camel hair coat to Nidish and they get some plastic sheets to cover him from falling snow. We’re on our way back, exhausted from cold, altitude and the wicked wind, its snowing hard now, every exposed part is wet, the gloves, shoes and the jeans. We get down from the Dhols and try walking to generate heat, that helped us some, we reach Rambada around 3 pm and have hot tea. Most shops are pulled down, few of them operating, tomorrow the temple will close down, everyone will go down to Gaurikund and sit out the winter for 3-4 months. All the iron railings on the walkway to the temple are also being pulled down, say even iron can’t take the weight of the snow in the winter and buckle down. To preserve the railing they are put down flat on the ground; all the roofings rails, tarpaulin covers taken off till Rambada, lest they will crash with the weight of the snow in winter.We reach Gaurikund around 0500 PM and pay off the porters and take rest for 30 mts with chai. Its pitch dark already with an icy wind drifting down, reach the car and have a surprise waiting for us. Car wouldn’t start; driver of a jeep nearly says the alarm was going on throught day and the battery has gone dead. Find a cop, explain the situation to him; he says not to worry, leave the car there and attend to it 2morrow morning and wish us good night!!!!! Catch a local jeep and reach back to camp by 730 PM. Wow…. What a day !!!!! Nidish is by now OK, the porters say he might have had altitude sickness and its self-limiting if you move him down quickly. That and the camel hair coat helped him, we paid the guy extra for an exellent job done. Dinesh has been a life-saver throughout the day, he came up and down with us on foot, helped out with Nidish and the hotel up there and again with the police and car etc. God does work in mysterious ways !!!!! We ask for extra blanket for the night and are soon snoring away.
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