gangotri road & bhagirathi river - 63 photos

Photos of a motorcycle trip on the road from Tehri up to to Gangotri (India)

The Gangotri road goes up the Bhagirathi river valley. The Bhagirathi is one of the headstreams of the Ganges.

A good portion of the Bhagirathi is flooded by the Tehri reservoir (artificial lake).

The road ends at Gangotri, an important Hindu pilgrimage destination on the Bhagirathi river, high in the Himalaya mountains.

Along the way, there are a few villages and an abandoned Hydro Power Project (Loharinag-Pala), with some tunnels that can be explored if you have a flash-light and do not mind jumping over the gates. Some of the tunnels are flooded.

Gangotri has no full-time inhabitants, and it is just guarded by a few soldiers during the winter time. Early in the season, before thousands of Hindu Yatri (pilgrims) arrive in Gangotri, all the shops are closed. The town comes to life only later, in late spring and summer, when the pilgrims arrive.

When I arrived in Gangotri in early spring, by motorbike, the place was really like a ghost town!

Only a few locals were there, mostly to repair the accommodations and get them ready for the pilgrims that would come in mass later in the season. Luckily I managed to find a room (very cold, with no heat and with no water) and a place to eat dinner.

For more info, go to:

- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangotri

- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagirathi_River

- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loharinag_Pala_Hydro_Power_Project