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Hi friends,

I am a fan of ghummakkar but only recently I decide to share my experience with you all. This is about my travel experience to Dhanolti, near mussoorie around 02-oct-09, Gandhi Jayanti, holidays.

since last many months, my family and friends were planning to chill out to some great relaxing place, where our phone shall not work… after much thinking we decided to go to lansdowne… I spoke to couple of hotels and resorts but could not availe a single room… then my bro-in-law told me about his bro-in-laws visit to dhanolti and that he was mesmerized by the amazing views of valley and snow clad peaks from the room balcony atop a hill.

I searched for many hotels @ dhnolti and after lot of research I found the location, features and price of HotelCrystalPalace, Dhanolti to be best. Honestly, it has the best location and you know when you reach there and compare with other hotels enroute.

to start with, we were 3 couples and 2 kids… all of us were working and due to emergency office calls it was not certain.. who all will travel and who will not…in all this mess we had to cancel the Innova booked for the trip… so, finally when we all decided at midnight that all of us are travelling we had to drive down to dhanolti on our own in 2 cars.  Though all of us were reluctant to go in 2 cars ..we had no choice… finally, we started from gurgaon at around 02:00 am 02-oct-09 and drove to Dhanolti till 02:00 PM all the way through ghaziabad..meerut bypass..muzaffarnagar bypass…roorkee pypass..hardwar…rishikesh bypass…narendranagar…chamba… kanatal…dhanolti..
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(recap)
The sun rose from our right. Suddenly, we heard a langur call incessantly followed by a cheetal. Corbett didn’t say a word he just gave me directions and I followed them. We went past the Dhikala FRH towards east took the Ramsingh road and then we heard an unmistakable cheetal call at regular intervals moving further east towards Champion road beyond and north of Khinnanauli FRH. Just before the FRH and on the left where the Ramganga flows, we spied a herd of Cheetal. Tense and necks strained towards the other bank lined by thick elephant grass. Stilled by fear and their snouts sniffing the wind for something close by. We stopped and waited — our cameras ready…

The Ramganga
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I’ve heard the call of the wild since a very tender age, but never really answered it the way I wanted to (when I say ‘wild’, I mean it in all perceivable senses). When Jim Corbett came calling, it was no different. So, this travel account is not going to be the ideal guide on how to plan a visit to the Corbett national park. Rather, my endeavor is to list a few things you should not do when planning a trip to the legendary abode of the Royal Bengal Tiger. To those who are acquainted with me, this travel account doesn’t involve royal enfields. As part of my office excursion party, I took my wife and eight-month-old son on a trip to the Corbett national park. As it turned out, it was like looking for Kashmir in Kashmere pulao. Bad joke? Can’t help it. There was very little of Corbett national park in the entire trip. The majestic resorts in Dhikuli, the Garjia temple, the Koshi River, the waterfall in Kaladhungi, and a day trip to Nainital, constituted a nice and comfortable 3-day trip, but overshadowed the real thing. Bear with me as I try and stitch all those elements together to produce a moderately readable travel story.

Corbett National park - Bijrani gate

When you are in Corbett country, wherever, in a private resort or a FRH or in Ranikhet, get out of your bed and walk under the night sky. Look at the stars, at their bright light and look at the dark brooding hills looming in the moonlight and scores of little lights dotting the hillside, where people live and have lived for years, among tigers, leopards, cheetals, man eaters and otherwise. These people form a living tradition. Do you feel one with them? Can you see yourself among them? Will your grandchild see a part of himself in you when you have grown old and he, young? Are we organically connected or muted souls floating in disconnected space and time? You are not a tourist here. This is your land, your country, your tradition that lies before you, waiting to be embraced.

It is morning now and I have had my breakfast at Tigerstreet and have slept an hour. I leave for the reception centre at Ramnagar and get my passes done. I am told I should be at Dhangarhi gate (the one that leads to Dhikala) latest by four in the evening. I plan for a real heavy lunch at Dhikuli with my friend Manoj and that done I am at the gate by 3:30 pm. Having my papers done at the gate is also a pleasure, the man there always tells me the do’s and don’ts inside the park and I listen to him intently nodding my head gravely. I don’t want to tell him I know it all. He is doing his job and doing it rather well. He gives me a jute litter bag and wishes me good sighting. I smile at Jim and he smiles back.

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