Nature

Auli – Land of peaks, forest and flowers

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It was a clear day with sun rays warming our bodies that have gone numb due to the chill in the air. High snow clad peaks bordered with Golden oak and deodar kissing the deep blue sky above, welcomed us to Auli. A look at the place and all our tiredness of long journey through zig zag roads, landslides and pilgrims traffic is gone.

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Iceland – the forgotten heaven !!

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When Indian travelers go to Europe, the prime target is always Eiffel Tower of Paris, alpine meadows of Swiss or Rome or Venice or London or  Keukenhof at the farthest.  


Iceland is not even known to many Indians.  It came to news mainly when its volcano erupted during summer of 2010, causing major disruption in air traffic across Europe, bringing many  airlines to the brink of bankrupcy.


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A Memorable Tour to Kutch- Part 2

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Mandvi is known for its 400 year old ship building centre. The local carpenters still make ocean going Dhows in much the same way that their ancestors had done a century ago. One can go and visit the men at work, shaping the great vessels with hand tools and coaxing the seasoned timber into shape. The predecessors of these very same ships had roamed the Indian Ocean and made Kutch a maritime power. Hand made models of these Dhows can also be procured from local artisans.

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Discovering Fried Eggs at Luray Caverns

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The caves resulted from the accumulation of layers of limestone over millions of years. The caves are confined to a 100 feet thick zone. Rain water trickles, dissolving the carbon dioxide to make a mildly acidic solution of carbonic acid (secondary school chemistry, people). The acidic water percolates through the limestone, eroding layers and carving out shapes in the cave. A precipitate of lime forms, making stalactites from the ceiling and stalagmites from the ground join together to form limestone pillars. It is like witnessing a chapter out of a Geography textbook right in front of you. This is an active cave and new deposits are formed @ one cubic inch in 120 years.

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A trip to Narkanda – Sangla – Chitkul – Kalpa – Jalori Pass

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After crossing the dam towards Sangla, condition of road was not very good and it was narrow too, however it was fun driving through this chilling route along with green Baspa. My wife and son were also lost in this beautiful valley but my 13 yr daughter was alert enough to remind me to blow the horn at every blind turn which I think is advisable while driving on hills. Before reaching Sangla my kids were excited enough to peep the scenic beauty through the sunroof.

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Kali Mathh -काली मठ

Kali Mathh -काली मठ

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Kali Mathh is the only hindu temple, where they dont worship any pindi or any idol or photo.  It is only that hole which Kali caused, which is worshipped here.  All Shaktas at least once in their life, visit this place, specially Bengali Shakta followers. Even if you do not have deep religious appetite, the place is so beautiful, untouched by tourists and civilisation, that it would be a mistake not to have visited there by anybody loving Himalayas.

So in a wintery Feb,2010 I fixed programme with my childhood friends, Pradeep, Awasthi and Vijay to be ready for a surprise visit ! We started from Delhi early morning around 5 am and crossing the usually jammed roads, in the fastest way possible and reached Haridwar around 9.  Taking a quick dip in Ganges, we continued our journey uphill and next stop was at Devprayag.  You all know it is from Devprayag that the name Ganga starts, after Bhagirathi meets with Alaknanda.  We stopped for a while for “Pind-daan” of my father who died 2 months before.

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Ghumakkar Insights – What is on your mind and what goes into your bag?

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But surely, there is one thing in common in all our expeditions. It is the seed of thought on our mind which grows and matures into a fully well planned and executed trip. A thought about where to go next is the seed I am talking about. While some of us get inspired by learning about places from friends, the new trend I see is the trend to explore the unexplored virgin places. Not bad at all, isnt it?

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पिण्डारी ग्लेशियर यात्रा- दिल्ली से धाकुडी

पिण्डारी ग्लेशियर यात्रा- दिल्ली से धाकुडी

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बैजनाथ से आने वाली गोमती नदी के पुल को पार करके थोडा सा आगे जाने पर भराडी स्टैण्ड आता है। यहां से भराडी के लिये जीपें मिलती हैं। भराडी सौंग जाने वाली सडक पर कपकोट से करीब दो किलोमीटर आगे एक कस्बा है। भराडी में फिर दोबारा जीपों की बदली करके सौंग वाली जीप में जा बैठते हैं। जहां बागेश्वर से भराडी तक बढिया सडक बनी हुई है, वही भराडी से आगे सौंग तक महाबेकार सडक है। वैसे बागेश्वर से सीधे सौंग तक और उससे भी आगे लोहारखेत तक के लिये जीपें मिल जाती हैं

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Kerala’s Green Treasures-Part Three

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Alleppey beach beckoned us and we reached there in the scorching mid-day sun at 1 pm. We didn’t spend much time at the beach because of the extreme heat. We started looking around for a nice restaurant for lunch and the local suggestions led us to Hassan Restaurant, just half a km from the beach, on the way towards the town centre.

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Drive to the district lake

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Around noon we reached Nainital.The weather was just perfect and nice breeze was blowing which was a great relief from dusty and parched plains of delhi and gurgaon.Since we hadn’t booked the accommodation,we had to search for the hotel and also this was a long weekend ,people had started reaching the hill station.

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