Part 3: Badinath Himalayan Pilgrimage Trip - the return trip to the ashram and hang on to your seats!

Our return trip to the ashram from our Badrinath pilgrimage was much more than we bargained for. After a fairly easy journey to Badrinath and some great weather while in Badrinath (despite the cold) we felt on a roll to return to the ashram easily.

An hour or so into our 10 hour drive we encountered rain. We soon realized that it had been raining all along the route for all time that we were in Badrinath! The extremely narrow roads were awash with streams flowing down the steep cliffs.

The road was blasted from the mountains some decades ago and the exposed rock sheds sheets of rubble and stones and even boulders with each rainfall. Earth movers and trucks are permanently stationed along the route and they were now working full-time to clear the way. The already narrow 1.5 lane road became an obstacle course. After exclaiming loudly after each close call for 30 minutes or so I decided to save my energy and turn my attention to praying!

The hair pin turns on the road made for a very tumultuous and dizzying ride. We often saw people hanging out the car and bus windows vomiting. Luckily none of our group was affected in this way!

Often vans and buses would come at us with no regard that we were bound by the side of the cliff with no where to go.  Once we found ourself sandwiched with a truck in front and trapped.  He had judged his distance incorrectly. To top it off our car and jeep were bottoming out in the water flowing over the road at about 2 foot or more depth causing stalling.

Every time the vehicles stalled we all had to get out and push in the pouring rain. I don't have any photos of that -sorry! It was too intense to think of the camera.

The water-logged battery of the car (with 5 of inside) finally had enough and decided to take a long break as we stalled out in the middle of the narrow road- we all got out and pushed the car to the side! Simultaneously our jeep (filled with 8 of our team), traveling in front of us also had its moment in the sun (or shall I say shade) when it refused to move after crossing a fast moving stream of water complemented by a pothole the size of a truck.  

Santosh our multi-talented head pundit and  driver saved the day at this time and on numerous occasions!

With both vehicles down and out, Santosh jumped out of the car, flagged down a passing car and hitched a ride to try to restart the jeep which was ahead of the car. After working his magic, he came back an hour later with the jeep running and a strong rope. He swapped out the batteries of the two vehicles, tied the car to the jeep and the jeep towed us for about a half an hour. 

By this time everyone was cold and shivering. Our pundits made the best of it and were singing bhajans (holy songs) and simultaneously sneezing and coughing. We warmed up a bit by taking tea at a tea stall.

We all delighted in holding a small kitten at the tea stall. A sweet moment after all the stress of the past several hours.

By a miracle the car started running again and we were on our way.  The final crowning moment happened when a car rounding a hairpin turn with the driver texting... literally came straight at us. We had nowhere to go as we were inches from the rock cliff. 

Santosh slammed on the brakes, the driver looked up from his phone and did the same at the very last moment. Then the texting driver had the audacity to shout out of his window that he had saved our lives! Santosh who is calm and collected through just about everything- lost it for a moment, shouted himself and pointed out the driver's guilty position. His car was dominating the road . Santosh demanded an apology and after some arguing finally got it!  The rest of us were quivering with emotion. 

The return trip ended up taking about 14 hours (4-5 hours longer than usual). We were all exhausted with nerves on edge. However the feeling of camaraderie prevailed and the delightful experiences that we had had together made it all worthwhile in the end. In reflecting, it was really by the grace of God that we returned safely. There were too many close calls to relate in this post.  It was a trip to remember in every way.

I hope you enjoyed this three part blog post. I am currently in New Delhi for a few hours with Wi-Fi! Tomorrow I travel to Nepal and look forward to sharing those experiences with you!  Thanks for listening!