leaving Rishikesh

I'm finally heading out from Rishikesh tomorrow (Monday) morning on the 8 am bus, for Uttarkashi. I guess it takes 6 hours somehow even though it's only about 100 miles. It's hard to imagine how it could take that long, even on windy mountain roads, but I doubt they're wrong about the time, so I'll see why it's so slow going tomorrow. Uttarkashi is a fairly good-sized town, about 15,000 I think, so I should still have internet access there. It sounds like a pretty nice little town, and I admit I'm ready to get off the tourist trail here in Rishikesh as well as just see something different. Although, Uttarkashi is actually on a tourist trail of sorts, as it's on one of the routes that tons of Indians make to visit 4 different temples in the mountains north of here. Uttarkashi is on the way to a temple located at Gangotri glacier, which is considered the source of the Ganges (although there are several rivers that merge coming out of the mountains, before it's actually called the Ganges). But the Indians aren't making that pilgrimage until summer when the higher elevations are accessible, so there most likely won't be too many people up there, but I guess I'll find out. I just checked the forecast, and it's supposed to be partly sunny tomorrow, but with a low of around freezing, and then there's a couple days next week where it calls for rain, possibly mixed with snow. So, it's going to be cold.

I forget if I already mentioned, but one of the reasons I'm headed up there is because on the train from Delhi to Haridwar, I met an Italian couple who lives in Rishikesh, and asked them about some good spots to check out in the mountains, that I could still get to in winter. So they recommended this place called Gangnani (not the same as the glacier at Gangotri) which is about 30 miles north of Uttarkashi. It's apparently not even a village really, but just a spot on the road where there's a nice hot springs, a small temple and a few lodges of some sort, and they highly recommended it. So I'm hoping those hot springs, which I think are free, will help out in the keeping warm factor up there, as long as they're actually plenty hot. But it sounds like a good place to just hang out for a couple of days in the mountains, do some hiking around, sip some tea (I bought my own herbal tea bags and mug, since I don't drink the caffeinated, overly-sugared chai), read the couple of books I bought and who knows what else. So I'll just see how it goes, if it's too cold I'll just hop on a bus back south and then most likely head for the deserts of Rajasthan. What I really need to do is come back to this area in late spring and early summer sometime and explore the same area, because it sounds really awesome, especially if you can get up into the higher elevations. So anyhow, that's the plan. I may write again from Uttarkashi. But in case I don't stay there long or for some other reason don't get online, then it's possible I might not check internet for a week or more. Just depends on how it goes, and how well prepared I am for the cold (particularly while sitting around my hotel room, since there probably won't be any heating as usual...but maybe up in the mountains they're better prepared, I can hope so at least)....