Uttarakhand

Rain Fury in Chakrata, Uttarakhand in June 2013 (Part III)

By Gaurav

By 7:30 in the evening the passage got cleared by JCBs, and as soon as the vehicles started to enter Damta the police authorities started announcing: Aap sabhi yatriyon ka Damta gaon mein swagat hai, apke bhojan ki vyavastha school aur mandir dharamshala mein ki gayee hai, kripya ghabrayein nahi aur bhojan grahan karein We were overwhelmed with this gesture of the authorities of this small village who were offering free food to stranded travellers. The local villagers also offered places for night stay to travellers at very nominal prices, and all the shopkeeper were warned not to overcharge any travellers for any food items. After having dinner at Sharnarthi camp, we also took the shelter in the house built over local Police Station.

Kedarkantha – The Winter Trek

By Shalini Koli

This one sentence accurately defines the trekking experience 19 of us had in our recent trip to Kedarkantha. Kedarkantha peak at 12500 ft. seem to be too remarkable, but as the name says shaped like Shiva’s Neck, (Kedar means Lord Shiva and Kantha means Neck), actually one of the most scenic trek and offers great views to the Himalayan ranges, reason behind making it to one of the Top 10 treks in India by Conde Nast

Unexplored Uttarakhand – The Misty Mountains Retreat in Jhaltola, near Gangolihat

By Mala Raman

It had been a long tiring winter and a recharging vacation had been on the cards for far too long. Sushil – a close friend, suggested a new retreat in Uttarakhand – The Misty Mountains. He had been there with his wife and another couple in his friend circle. The name itself suggested just the kind of place I wanted to go to. Reminded me of the many exotic locales from fantasy books I had read over the years. I was sufficiently intrigued to check out their website at http://themistymountains.in and was soner convinced.

Chasing the Rain

By Anandarup Nandi

Vishal and I rarely disagree on anything. So, when Vishal proposed a bike trip, the excitement got to me instantly. The last trip we made was quite a while back and the longing for the next one was getting stronger by the day. The Independence Day falling on a Friday gave us a long weekend and we made it longer by taking the Thursday off as well. The initial plan was to go up to Joshimath and back, but that had to change.

Driving from Lucknow to Nainital and Corbett – Road Review

By Patrick

The road upto Bareilly was generally good and but bad in a few patches. However, Bareilly to Lalkuan was a different story altogether. I believe there is a bypass outside of Bareilly but I couldn’t find it so I had to go through the city. If someone gets to know of the location of the bypass do inform. The number of trucks have to be seen to be believed. Coupled with bad roads it’s definitely a slow track. There’s some kinda factory before Lalkuan and trucks are lined up on both sides of the road. Where there are trucks, there are traffic jams and coupled with atrocious truck drivers the experience is tough. There is also extensive construction work on this sector.

The road improves dramatically from Lalkuan. A stop is advised before the climb from Kathghodham to Nainital. The Drive from this point on is smooth cos the roads are very good, maintained well and aren’t as steep as people would have you believe.

Rain Fury in Chakrata, Uttarakhand in June 2013 (Part II)

By Gaurav

With loud jaikaras of mighty Lord, journey was resumed. It was going good for 10 odd kilometres, our car was leading the show with Atit car following us. Soon the task of clearing boulders and rocks from road started as they were all on the road due to landslides. We all were going mad by getting out of the car in the rain after every 200 m to get various kinds of blockages cleared. We were actually afraid by not seeing any human existence in the entire stretch of road and having not seen any vehicle crossing us in the past 3 hours. It was not a journey of 22 kms, it was manifolds, and appearing to be never ending due to disastrous hurdles coming our way. To add to our fear and bring our jaws out of the mouth, we saw a mighty river flowing over a bridge that we were supposed to cross. There was no point of going back, and crossing that flooding river over the bridge was a task we have never ever imagined, so after much courage both the cars decided to keep accelerating without any thought of applying brakes. Both the cars managed to cross the river but that courage comes with a price, and the bumper of our car was washed off by the river flowing perpendicularly to the motion of car with mighty pace. Had we even thought of applying brakes, we could have been flowing in river along with cars. We celebrated our victory of crossing the hurdle by clicking a photograph and moved ahead.

Serene Naukuchiatal & Bhimtal

By AJAY SHARMA

Sattal is another pristine and less polluted natural place in the area. Seven lakes interconnected and bounded by many hills from different sides never allow viewing the entire lakes together. The hillocks in the water obstruct a wide angle vision however, the greenery around with clear water beautifies the area mystically. Few good resorts and one KMVN TRH are located here offering a pacific stay in wilderness. Camps are also organized by locals on the back drops of the hills amidst the water, now gaining popularity gradually. Evening is very calm and solitary here since, it is located far from any near by localities, feelings of adversity may engulf family tourists. We however, enjoyed a boat ride, a red duck shaped paddle boat, yellow was not available but the kids were generous and happy with a red one too.

Rain Fury in Chakrata, Uttarakhand in June 2013 (Part I)

By Gaurav

We made ourselves comfortable in the tents, opened our bags to change the clothes but got the shock of our life as all the clothes inside the bag were equally wet like the clothes we were wearing. I decided to continue with my present set of clothes which got dried with my body heat in next two hours. The camp guys brought a battery driven LED light which ware barely emitting any light, some pakoras and masala tea by 7:30 pm in the evening. Our gang enjoyed these snacks and felt a little relieved and energetic, since we have not ate anything after breakfast. The Sun was setting behind the hills quickly and with the absence of electricity and inability to light the fire outside due to rain, darkness was building up inside the camp and outside. The sound of rain smashing against the camp started to scare us. Rajesh the dabangg, got dumb struck, the thing that was enthusing voice in him were the never ending songs of Gurdeep ‘Dil ro raha hai…’ to which Rajesh was getting irritated and saying ‘yaar chup ho ja, tere aise gaano ki wajah se hi itni barish ho rahi hai‘. Rest of us were enjoying this cat fight between the two and were trying to be back in holiday mood. Sanjay and me were quite sure that rain will subside by morning and we will be able to visit Tiger Fall. All were keen to visit Tiger Fall, but there was no voice coming out from dabangg bhai’s mouth. By 9 pm dinner was served, and post-that we slipped inside the quilts after closing the zipper inside tent. Very soon the camp got quite warm inside assuring us that atleast we will manage to have a decent sleep. We keep chit chatting inside our camp and occasionally across the camp of Gurdeep and Arun. The rain kept turning mightier with the darkness of night, and at a point we were not able to hear each other’s voice because of deafening collision sound between rain drops and tent. With prays for God, we slept in a hope of better tomorrow.

अन्नू भाई चला चकराता …पम्म…पम्म…पम्म (भाग- 3 ) टाइगर फाल (TIGER FALL)

By GHOOMAKKAR PANKAJ

बिलकुल थोडा सा आगे जाते ही मन एक दम खुश हो गया होता भी क्यूँ नहीं …हम एक बेहद ही खुबसूरत सफ़ेद झरने का कुछ हिस्सा जो देख रहे थे। मन एक दम लालयित हो उठा चलो जल्दी …अरे पर जल्दी तो चले लेकिन चले कहाँ से सामने तो दोनों पहांड़ी नदिया मिल रही रास्ता कुछ दिख नहीं रहा था। एक बार लगता के इन्ही नदी में पड़े पत्थरों से होकर जाना होगा। लेकिन २ दिन पहले से बंद हुयी बारिश अब तक हमें इसी और खड़े रहने का इशारा कर रही थी।

अन्नू भाई चला चकराता …पम्म…पम्म…पम्म (भाग- 2 ) रहस्यमई मोइला गुफा

By GHOOMAKKAR PANKAJ

ये सब देखकर हम तो मानो जैसे स्कूल से छुटे, छोटे छोटे बच्चो की तरह दोड़ते भागते , गिरते पड़ते जब उस मंदिर नुमा ढांचे तक पहुचे तो एक बार को तो उसे देखकर हम तीनो सिहर से उठे। वो एक लकड़ी का बना मंदिर ही था पर उसमे न कोई मूर्ति न घंटा , हाँ उसमें इधर उधर किसी जानवर के पुराने हो चुके सिंग , कुछ बर्तन से टंगे हुए थे और एक लड़की का ही बना पुतला दरवाजे से बाहर जो की कोई द्वारपाल सा लग रहा था। मन ही मन उस माहोल और जगह को प्रणाम कर अपने साथ लाये मिनरल वाटर की बोतल से उन्हें जल अर्पण किया और परिकर्मा कर बड़े इत्मिनान से वहां बैठ दूर दूर तक फैली वादियों और शान्ति का मजा लेने लगे। थोड़ी देर बाद सोचा के चलो ताल में नहाते है फिर कुछ खा पीकर गुफाओ को ढूंढ़ेगे।

पानी का ताल जो की थोडा और आगे था जल्दी ही दिखाई दे गया लेकिन वहां पहुँच कर नहाने का सारा प्रोग्राम चोपट हो गया। कारण उसमे पानी तो बहुत था परन्तु एक दम मटियाला। सो सिर्फ उसके साथ फोटो खीच कर ही मन को समझा लिया। अब बारी गुफा ढूंढने की तो लेकिन वहां चारो और दूर दूर तक कोई गुफा तो नहीं अपितु मकेक बंदरो के झुण्ड घूम रहे थे। जो की हम पर इतनी कृपा कर देते थे की हम जिस दिशा में जाते वो वहां से दूर भाग जाते थे। हम तीनो काफी देर अलग अलग होकर ढूंढते रहे पर हमें तो कोई गुफा नहीं दिखी सिर्फ शुरू में आते हुए एक छोटा सा गड्ढा नुमा दिखाई दिया था।

A Road Trip to Enchanting Mukteshwar

By Mishri

With all the theoretical knowledge collected through blogs, we had few recommended names for our stay. We started having a look on hotels. First and the very pleasing one was MT- Mountain Trail. Ambiance/view here was awesome. After discussing about the tariffs we moved on to other hotels. We were more concerned for a captivating view rather than the tariffs. We went ahead to few more lodges along with PWD Guest house. But, we had already lost our hearts to MT. So we called back the manager and asked him to book 2 rooms for us.

We parked our car near the entrance of Mukteshwar temple and started taking a walk towards the main tourist attraction point “Chauli ki jali”. After putting in few efforts in climbing the rocks we finally reached on the top of the cliff. The cliff gave a splendid panoramic view of snow-white Himalayan ranges. Captured the “Orange- setting Sun”, did some archery. As it was getting late and the temperature started dropping with Sun, instead of going for Rock climbing we opted to just give a pose :)

गढ़वाल घुमक्कड़ी: जोशीमठ – तपोवन – बाबा आश्रम

By Vipin

पैदल घूमते घामते प्रकृति को निहारते हुए सलधार पहुँचे और सबसे पहले वसुधारा की पद यात्रा से सबक लेकर एक दुकान पर रुककर आगे की यात्रा के लिए कुछ चने और मीठी गोलियाँ रख ली. सलधार से भविष्य बद्री तक का रास्ता ज़्यादातर जगह जंगल के बीच से गुज़रते हुए जाता था जहाँ कई जगह राह मे दो रास्ते सामने आ जाते थे जो हमारी दुविधा का कारण बन बैठते. ऐसे मे कई बार या तो स्थानीय लोगो की मदद से और कई बार बस किस्मत के भरोसे ‘अककड़ बक्कड़’ करके हम लोग जैसे तैसे सुभाईं नामक गाँव तक पहुँचे जहाँ से भविष्य बद्री की दूरी लगभग 1 ½ किमी ही रह जाती है.

1 Nirdesh Singh Charming Chanderi – of Baiju Bawra, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya and 1200 Baoli

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2 Nandan Jha Charming Chanderi – of Baiju Bawra, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya and 1200 Baoli

A close friend and an avid traveller, Srijan (https://www.ghumakkar.com/author/srijan/) calls me to share he finally managed to run-out of Noida and AQI of 600+ to Madhav National Park and is…
3 Rakesh Mehta Experiencing the temple town of Puri, Oddisha

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4 Sunderban National Park The Sundarbans : A long cherished dream

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6 Jaipur Delhi – Goa – Delhi Road Trip : A quick guide

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7 Bhraman Together The Sundarbans : A long cherished dream

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8 venketesh iyer Cool Coorg

Coorg also called Kodagu, is a magical hill station filled with lush coffee plantations and rich traditions. It�s a peaceful escape perfect for nature lovers seeking calm and culture. Discover…