Trip to Uttaranchal – Third stop Munsiyari

Driver Uncle told us that to reach Munsyari, we will be climbing up and up and round and round on Kalamuni Mountain and then go down and down again on the same mountain.

We started climbing up and soon there were all Devdar trees. I liked Devdar jungle more than Pine Jungles. When we have climbed high up I could see roads moving like snakes. Now the Devdar trees were longer than our society’s fifth floor. In fact I could not photograph it and had to take a video.

From Birthi to Munsyari., Climbing up on Kalamuni Mountain

The climb was becoming steeper and steeper. From above, the river was looking like a ribbon. It was all big mountains and more mountains……..

We reached at Kalamuni Top. Driver uncle had told that we could see Panchchuli Peaks from there but we could not see. It was cloudy :-(
There was a temple. We went to the temple. There were many Bells hanging in the temple in a line. I and Dolly threw pebbles in the deep dense forest behind the temple.

Now the journey was down and down. It was thrilling. One side of the road was very steep and there was a deep forest. But it was amazing also. We stopped our car and got out to feel that big group of mountains and jungles. It was a great place. We saw some hawks flying freely…but not above us. We were above them. I saw any bird flying below us for the first time. We also spotted some animals. They were running. But we could not identify because they were looking very small from there. I was looking at hawks with Binocular so mummy could not see what these animals were. Hawks were flying round and round and not going away. We spent a lot of tome there.

Then we came to a hill from where we could see Munsyari Town. I thought how our hotel would be because it was not KMVN. Papa booked Zara Resort for us because it was out of town. When we reached there we all were disappointed. There were no cottages and it was a simple building. But KMVN was in the town.

There was a rose climber at the entrance and it had many roses. I saw so many roses on one tree for the first time .We collected keys of our rooms. One was a suite and one a deluxe room. The suite had many windows and they told us that we will get a very good view of Peaks, if clouds go away. Peaks could not be seen from other room.

rose climber

We climbed up a small hill right behind our hotel in evening. On our both side were farms and we were walking between them. We all liked it- it was cold, a cool breeze was blowing and sky was beautiful. We did not go up much because it was about to be dark. As we climbed down it became very windy and cold so we all went inside the hotel. Soon it was dark and it started to rain so we remained in the hotel.

Next day when we got up it was cloudy. We could not see Himalayas but we all liked the weather and soon got ready to go out. We went to Nandi temple high up on a hill. Behind the temple a track was going down and far below the Gauri Ganga River was flowing. There was a small flat lawn at the end of that track. We thought that we could have a better view from there so we started to track down. It was steep and passing through stepped farms. We reached at that point and sat there and it was a good place.

view from Nanda Devi Temple

We wanted to track further down and down up to Gauri Ganga. But we did not because my little brother Tanmay could not walk on a steep climb. Papa and mausaji lifted him. Then it started to drizzle and we had to climb up. I and Dolly were going in full speed but papa was asking us to stop and wait for them. Dolly and I reached very fast and went in a shed because it was raining now.

Nandi Temple

From there we went to Darkot Village .The way was beautiful, it was raining. There were always three or more loops on every hill. We could not go deep down to the river because after Darkot it was a mud road.

After some time it stopped raining. Suddenly we saw a small white cap on a faraway mountain. We all shouted in joy and came out on roads. We went down some stairs to have a better view. It was a playground of a school.

School

From there we saw many V shaped mountain ranges and Gauri Ganga was coming down through them. It was coming just below the school and going to Munsyari :-). So we spent a lot of time there.

Gauri Ganga originates from Lilam glacier, runs down to Munsyari and further on

Clouds were going away and we saw more and more snow on the Mountains. One peak was looking like a temple.

temple shaped peak

There we met someone. His mother was a knitter. We went to his house and there we saw pure cotton and wool. There we also saw spinning of yarn. From there we went to another house. We went up from stairs. Mummy asked me to take off my shoes but I did not want to open my shoes. After a while mummy called us I saw that his mother was showing pure wool sweaters. They were too costly. We went back to our cars.

I did like the view of Gauri Ganga River from Darkot village and from Nandi Temple. In the whole trip, we always asked for Aloo Bhujia because it is very tasty :-)

While coming back to Munsyari, we saw all five of the Panchachuli peaks and all the Himalayan Range. I took more than 15 photos. It was a beautiful time watching Himalayas :-)

PANCHCHULI PEAKS

The twins

From there we went to a museum. It was called as Tribal Museum. There were many interesting things to see in that museum. There we entered and saw someone telling about the things that were stored there. I and Dolly were watching the things.

We came to another room and it was full of books. When everyone was busy looking at those books, I and Dolly went out in the balcony to see Himalayas.

When we reached to our hotel it was already evening. We rushed to our suite room. WOW! What a magnificent view of Panchachuli Peaks from our window.

view from window

We went to the terrace of the Zara Hotel to see the peaks in the evening light. We sat there at least for one and a half hour.

A close-up

A colorful evening

So much for a day – rain, peaks, Gauri Ganga and fun.

End of a brilliant day!