Joshimath

Now, although Joshimath is only 38 kilometres from Badrinath it still takes a bus about 3 hours to make the drop down to 2000 metres. Fortunately there are several a day ,  unfortunately the last leaves before 12pm and I arrived the bus station at 12.15.

No problem, plenty of share jeeps going that way. Hadn't tried one yet and seeing them on the road almost bulging at the seams from the pressure of the numbers they cram in, I wouldn't rush towards the experience. Needs must, so a jeep it had to be. Ideal if you have a front seat, but a couple of seasoned local Indian travel Veterans snapped them up leaving me to squeeze in last,  next to a guy with the sharpest elbows you ever did feel an no leg room to ease my aching knee. Sardines in a tin really do have more space. I counted 12 in our jeep + driver.
Satisfied he couldn't cram another soul in, the driver set off down the rocky road.

It  was rough and tough on my ribs, and it was going to be like that all the way.  Unless or until we stopped for a bathroom break or chai or even...  after three quarters of an hour you hear an almighty cracking and the vehicle crunches to a painful halt.
Was that a wheel I saw rolling past the window?  Indeed it was... The rear left back wheel had just snapped off. Axle broken like a twig and no way of fixing that in a hurry.

Someone said no problem, someone will come to pick us up in a couple hours. Naturally the driver's mobile had no signal nor had anyone else's. All other passing crammed jeeps expressed sympathy and promised to send help. Fours hours later we were still stranded half way up a mountain in the middle of nowhere with a rain storm about to break.
That's when we got our one and only genuine break, an army truck stopped and took mercy on us, letting us hitch a ride alongside some sacks of potatoes. If the bus and jeep were bone shaking the truck was bone breaking. At least we were moving and after 90 minutes we pulled into Joshimath.

The town itself is nothing to write home about. More a passing through hub rather than a scenic delight. For sure My hotel room was anything but scenic. A government run place, it was cold in every sense of the word. The room was dark dingy and in need of a good scrub. The loo more so and 'horror' was the hole in the floor Indian traditional style. Just what I didn't need as my stomach contents had turned to liquid and stayed that way for 2 days. At the best of time my knees can't support crouching never mind when the world is falling out of my bum.

I had 3 unplanned for nights in the place and didn't find one redeeming factor other than the weird restaurant did do boiled eggs & plain toast which help put my guts back on the road to recovery.

One final oddity - as with every where I go there seems to be a parade of some sort crossing my path. With drummers and out of tune trumpets etc. On my last day a parade stopped in front of my hotel, a crowd formed a circle and a garlanded master of ceremonies invited local lads to swing strange objects around to the beat of the drums. The climax came when 10 lads all holding a large fluorescent light tube started swinging them around before smashing them over each others heads. Whoops of delight all round... The parade passed on.