Roads Scholar

Climb Every Mountain - But Watch The Signs

Photographs copyright: NIRMAL GHOSH

These shots, taken in India recently, have just been emailed to me by a childhood friend, Nirmal Ghosh, who is the Thailand-based correspondent for The Straits Times group. This is his story ...

``These were taken on the mountain highway from Rishikesh to Uttarkashi. North of Delhi, the road winds ever upwards into the high mountains. It is a 14-16 hour drive from Delhi to Gangotri (10,000 feet), where the Ganga roars down from the mountains through a narrow defile between huge yellowed boulders worn smooth by the waters. That's the end of the road, from Gangotri you have to trek up to the source of the river - the Gaumukh glacier at 12,000 feet - and beyond. These signs have mostly been put up by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO). Clearly, some BRO officers have a sense of humour.''