Munsyari

Munsyari: The story retold

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If you decide to meet your destiny, God will help to achieve this, I had gone through this face, my childhood dream was to drive on hills on a grand Royal Enfield machine, my dream comes true on 20th June 2018 when we five friends me Mohammad Saleem Haider, Rakesh Kumar Singh, Praveen Kumar Aswal all three riders of their Royal Enfield Classic 350, with pillion on Rakesh and Praveen’s bike is Vijay Sharma and Mohit Srivastava,

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Munsiyari – A bowlful of beauty

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It was getting darker by the minute. The road went up and up in loops quickly gaining height so we felt the vehicle ahead of us is almost above our heads. Narrow roads didn’t leave much room for manoeuvring on either side. The gorge to one side was so deep it sends a shiver down the spine of anyone who is not attuned to such heights especially if there’s an oncoming vehicle. There weren’t any, thankfully; no human beings in sight either.

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In the lap of reclusive Choukry

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As we had to cover less than 100 kms, so we started little late after breakfast at 0900 hrs. Though I had to face the same huddled road of Munsiyari but the situation was little different then as most of the patches were there while we climbed the road so keeping in mind that those would be on the slope I feel little relaxed and we started again from Munsiyari.

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Motorcycle Diaries. Road to Munsiyari…the Sound of Silence…

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There is so much to see – age-old photos, long-standing maps, coins from all over the world, documents, local utensils & other items, wind-up gramophones, hand-made saddlebags, wooden bottles, native dresses and attires, hand-crafted shoes…so much that I can’t portray it in words and even if I venture to, I need to write at least 10000 words!

With our hats off to Dr. Pangtey, Nitin and I came back for lunch to the hotel by 2:00pm. En route, we crossed several beautiful living mountain streams – there’s something magical about these streams, indescribable in words. I’ve always been fascinated by them…the mountain-lover in me wants to halt at everyone, wishes to explore the start of each such stream and secretly plans to some day even live next to one such stream!

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Motorcycle Diaries. Road to Munsiyari…here we come…

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By now, Nitin was up and ready with his arms and ammunition – the Camera! Gaurav guided him to a viewpoint they constructed right the top of the hill, located at a 5-minutes trek. Nitin came back with amazing set of images – spectacular mountain panorama of evergreen Himalayan ranges and valleys. The views of major peaks like Chaukhamba, Panchachuli, Nanda Devi, Nanda Kot, and Kedarnath are distinctly visible from there. Sitting leisurely at the camp, one couldn’t even fathom what vista laid just a five-minute trek ahead! This was a clear sky day, which offered a 180-degree Himalayan view. I must share with all readers here that such vast panoramic view can been seen only from Binsar and Kausani in Uttarakhand. In fact, there is a location called the ‘Zero Point’ here, which offers amazing views of the magnificent range. Binsar also offers an excellent view of Almora town.

As we sipped the superbly made herbal tea, prepared from the herbs grown in-house, Gaurav helped us with sourcing five litres of petrol from Almora through his contacts. This was done as the next filling-station was at Berinag, another 65kms ahead. Since we rode almost 430kms on day one, I didn’t want to take risk of running on an empty fuel tank in case of any exirgency.

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Chakori To Munsyari via Mighty Birthi Falls

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The break at Nachni gave a lot of calm to cabin crew and the drive thereafter was spent gazing at might Himalayan views, almost a sombre drive with not much of chit-chat followed. Kids found time to catch on some sleep and I quietly moved on from one Himalayan village to another till someone asked on a white line, visible from afar. As we continued to drive, we could witness the Himalayan beauty in full glory, the tall blue mountains, the green carpet of flora and the thick white line. After about 30 minute of drive, it was getting clear that this white line is the famous ‘Birthi Falls’.

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