Uttarakhand Solo Bike Trip: Rishikesh to Gopeshwar

I was on my Bajaj Avenger hired from Mountain Fox motorcycles in Rishikesh.

This was the first time I was riding in the Himalayas. Basically, it was Raid de Himalaya for me.

Read how did I plan for my maiden and solo trip to the Himalayas.

Luggage loaded and geared up left the Mountain Fox office. Rode to Hrishikesh petrol pump and filled up the tank completely.

Today’s halt was Gopeshwar 220km from Rishikesh. The morning was quite chilly. To make myself comfortable, I decided to ride first 25-30 kilometers with a decent speed.

My bike near Byassi, Hrishikesh

Rishikesh, Ganga, Himalayas, Uttarakhand

Ganga flowing down the mountain near Rishikesh

Rishikesh: Night camping tents on the shore of Ganga

25 rupees Kadhi Chawal in a Dhaba in Srinagar

Roads turned worst after Deoprayag and continued till Srinagar. It was 1:30 PM and I was hungry. I was looking for a small Dhaba to have my lunch. Found one just before the Srinagar town starts on the right-hand side of the road.

Kadhi chawal was ready. Every bit was delicious and the quantity was much more than what I had expected. In the 15 minutes discussion with the Dhaba owner, he shared how difficult it is to fetch good dahi and other stuff from nearby places.

When I asked him what’s my bill, to my surprise, he said ‘matra 25 rupye’. I gave him 40 rupees, that humble man was reluctant to accept. But I was not going to take it back either.

For folks like us who have spent most of their life in metros, encounters like this are not usual and we tend to react unusually until we get used to it.

This is the dhaba and the owner

Journey through the Prayag’s

Resuming the journey, I rode through the towns of Srinagar, Rudraprayag, Karnaprayag and Nandprayag.

All these Prayag’s were beautiful and more or less small town kind of.

From Rudraprayag straight road goes to Badrinath and left one goes to Kedarnath. At Rudraprayag, Alaknanda from Badrinath and Mandakini from Kedarnath merges to become Bhagirathi. In mathematical terms,

Rudraprayag → Alaknanda(Badrinath) + Mandakini(Kedarnath)

Deoprayag sangam, uttarakhand scenic photos, ganga

Beautiful Deoprayag Sangam. Light green is Mandakini coming from Kedarnath and the river on the right is Bhagirathi coming from Badrinath

Roads are pretty good after Srinagar right up to Joshimath with a few bad patches in between.

Anyhow, riding in the mountains is fun. Throughout the route, I was moving by the gushing river down the road and green pointed leaf of Pine trees on both the sides of the road.

Enroute Chamoli

Pine tree leaf – Enroute Chamoli

bike trip Uttarakhand, Bajaj Avenger photos

Enroute Chamoli

Alaknanda flowing down the valley

landslide in mountains uttarakhand, bike rides

Landslide hot zone en route Chamoli

River Alaknanda

Himalayan Sunrise

Gopeshwar, a scenic and quiet hill town

Just before the town of Chamoli, a right turn down the road goes to Gopeshwar.

Gopeshwar is 10 km inside from the highway and falls in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand. It is a scenic and quiet hill town with beautiful people around.

It was around 6 PM when I reached Gopeshwar GMVN. The GMVN rest house is right in the main market opposite to bus depot.

Unloaded my luggage and went inside the office. I was surprised they knew I was Niraj Yadav and they were expecting me by 6 PM.

I had a booking in Dormitory. It was on the second floor. Resthouse was clean and tidy. Dormitory beds and covers were clean too. The washroom was functional. What else do you want in Rs. 110 !!

Started the geyser and took a nice warm water bath. I was the only occupant in the 10-bed dormitory. Ordered a Thali in the GMVN restaurant on the ground floor but it was not that good.

Later, went on the second floor and stood looking at the movements of the crowd in the mini-market functional just outside the GMVN. Trust me, such scenes are very involving and it makes me nostalgic.