Nature

Deoria Tal – Tungnath – Chandrashila

By

The last night’s amazing views of the sky dotted with innumerable twinkling stars left me spell bound and I was eagerly waiting for the sunrise. Next day, I got up at 4 and asked the tent shop owner to wake up the guide. After half an hour later, we started our climb to the peak and reached there well before time and now all (all bengalis except us as this place interestingly is mostly visited by the bengalis, witness to that are the shop signboards in bengali) were waiting for the sunrise. As soon as the sun rose from behind the Nanda Devi peak, all were all set to capture the golden ring created by the sunrise. Our guide told us the names of all the Himalayan peaks that ranges from Nanda Devi till Yamunotri Peak from right to left where Chaukhamba is the most dominating peak in the middle.

Read More

Sultanpur National Park: Pathos for a Sitting Duck

By

The marshland appeared more like grassland with bushes blocking the way everywhere. There were more grazing cattle inside than birds – I mean the birds which were supposed to be there according to the article. The ambience inside the park was more allusive to the Eliot’s Wasteland than the Wordsworth Tintern Abbey. You must be thinking I am totally nuts…talking like this :-) Well the thing is that I am writing this line on a few miles away from Sultanpur National Park, on revisiting the banks of “not quite” marshlands of the park and 15 months had passed since my last visit to this one time birder’s paradise.

Read More
Trip to village(kirtinagar)

Trip to village(kirtinagar)

By

The drive to Rankandiyal from Kirtinagar is around 8 kms along a small hill stream.In the month of June,the water was very clear and one could even drink it.I can vouch for its purity.The whole feeling was nostalgic since it was after 6-7 years that I was visiting the place.The sun was following with us and in no time,we reached the village.We went straight to the nani’s ancestral house where there was a big pandal and music was full on.The whole atmosphere was very divine and we were feeling very light after a long day of travel.We both were given a room in my uncle’s house.The room was small but quite cosy and we had to take blankets in the night.Soon we both were dead.

Read More
Raven

Paradise on Earth- Jammu and Kashmir (Part 3)

By

We passed the first town enroute – Ganderbal, within an hour. It was after Ganderbal that the real beauty of the drive commenced. After Ganderbal, the snow-capped Himalayas greeted us bang on. Every turn gave us panoramic new scenes, which always seemed to better than the previous one. Complimented by the untouched beauty of the Sindh River, the landscape was picture perfect.

Read More

Road trip – Delhi to Mussoorie

By

GPS showed an internal road near Modinagar – about 40-50 km till Khatauli. We followed that – it was single lane with farm on one side and some small river kind of on other side. I was kind of worried, visibility went even bad, it was dense fog at 7.00 am – after some 10-15 km, and we decided to take another turn connecting back to main road…

Read More
कफनी ग्लेशियर यात्रा- पांचवां दिन (द्वाली-कफनी-द्वाली-खाती)

कफनी ग्लेशियर यात्रा- पांचवां दिन (द्वाली-कफनी-द्वाली-खाती)

By

तभी सामने कुछ दूर सफेद सी आकृति दिखीं। सोचा गया कि वे तम्बू हैं। चलो, वहां तक चलते हैं। जाकर देखा तो तम्बू वम्बू कुछ नहीं था, बल्कि कुछ प्लास्टिक का मलबा सा पडा था। गौर से देखने पर पता चला कि यह फाइबर है यानी एक तरह का मजबूत प्लास्टिक। कम से कम सौ मीटर के घेरे में यहां वहां बिखरा पडा था यह मलबा। इसमें लकडी के दरवाजे भी थे जो आदमकद थे। दिमाग खूब चलाकर देख लिया कि यह बला क्या है। आखिरकार नतीजा निकला कि यहां कभी कोई हेलीकॉप्टर गिरा होगा, यह उसका मलबा है।

Read More
Iceland – Reykjavik, the capital !(Last part)

Iceland – Reykjavik, the capital !(Last part)

By

Reykjavik is a small city having a total population around 120,000. There are very few foreigners here and Indians are hard to find. There are a few Indian families and 10 students in Iceland University. Reykjavik is on the North Atlantic sea. Since the warm gulf stream traverses nearby Reykjavik, the climate of Reykjavik is never harsh. A maximum of 15/16 degrees in summers and around -5/-6 in winters. Some days may see temperature as low as -16C but these are rare. We enjoy 6 months of day and 6 months of night here. Another interesting point is that every other Icelanders vows to have met a ghost or troll or an elve.  There are certain places around Reykjavik known for such entities.  I have yet to meet one !!

Read More
पिण्डारी ग्लेशियर यात्रा- चौथा दिन (द्वाली-पिण्डारी-द्वाली)

पिण्डारी ग्लेशियर यात्रा- चौथा दिन (द्वाली-पिण्डारी-द्वाली)

By

हिमालय की ऊंचाईयों पर एक खास बात है कि दोपहर बाद बादल आने लगते हैं। ये बादल कहीं बंगाल की खाडी या अरब सागर से नहीं आते बल्कि यही बनते हैं। होता यह है कि जैसे ही सुबह होती है तो मौसम बिल्कुल साफ-सुथरा होता है। जैसे जैसे दिन चढता है, वातावरण में गर्मी बढती है तो हवा भी चलने लगती है। बस यही गडबड हो जाती है। हवा चलती है तो पर्वत इसे मनचाही दिशा में नहीं चलने देते बल्कि नदी घाटियों में धकेल देते हैं जहां से हवा नदियों के साथ धीरे धीरे ऊपर चढती जाती है। जितनी ऊपर चढेगी, उतनी ही ठण्डी होगी और आखिरकार संघनित होकर धुंध का रूप ले लेती है और बादल बन जाती है। बादल बनते बनते दोपहर हो जाती है।

Read More

Sandhan Valley Trek

By

The descending is not that simple as it looks. We need to make way from many big rocks. The main problem faced while descending is that we were always in the search of shortest and the easiest path but there is no such path. 14 member of our group went ahead and 4 guys stayed back with 2 girls as they were finding it difficult to descend. The path till the first rappelling point is very time consuming. The first batch completed their rappelling patch and were waiting for us to reach. After around 6 hrs of walk on the rocky path we reached the 1st rappelling patch.  The first rappelling patch is about 45 feet. By 3 PM the last 6 members completed their 1st rappelling patch. We decided to have our lunch as we were walking continuously and were too hungry.

Read More