Friday, August 31, 2007

VOF Trip : Running into rough weather

My trip to VOF had run into rough weather. It is hopelessly hot and humid in Delhi and at the same time monsoon has refused to go away in Uttaranchal (now Uttarakhand) . Heavy to very heavy rains are reported in Garhwal region at least once everyday in the last month. With just 3 days to go, I know that we will not have a smooth trip up. The road is very landslide prone and there is every possibility of delays due to landslides on the entire route. However, the good news I had received from my colleague Ashish, who hails from Srinagar, almost halfway between Rishikesh and Joshimath, is that vehicle are plying. I am ringing up my friends at Dehradun everyday to find whether it had rained that day.

My other set back was that I had a disc prolapse about 15 days back. This is the second time in the last 14 months that I had to be bed ridden due to slip disc problem. The situation was so worse that I could not even sit, forget about standing. But that was 15 days back, and I have recovered well. Though I do not feel 100% fit yet, my soul says that I can go, even though it will be 50 km walk / trek over 4 days. All now depends on the wish of rain god. Just pray that rains go away soon.

The rain and inclement weather had made me alter my plans. Now I will be travelling to Dehradun by Shatabdi Express tomorrow morning. We had discarded the idea of hiring a car from Delhi. It will always be safer to get a driver / car from Dehradun or Rishikesh. They will be more informed about the road conditions , alternate routes and landslides.

1 comment:

Raviraj Jadhav said...

A very useful and interesting site .....Kudos to you sir..