Weekend getaway to Pangot

Guys here come another weekend trip of ours. We made this trip on weekend only with family like friends without taking any leaves from office. Although it was a tiring journey yet we made it energetically and my write-up will show that hopefully :) We are a crazy group of friends I must say :P

So finally after a long group discussion on WhatsApp among us we chose Pangot as our weekend destination which I agree a very good decision. We all thought to drive by our own cars. We were 9 friends and 2 cars one i10 and other one i20 with 2 driving friends per car so that the driving pressure should not go with only one person per car. One of my friend is a Tripguru means he use to book the hotels economically without any discomfort to us so we gave that responsibility to him. A good hotel always contributes to make your journey comfortable. So now without wasting more time of my blog readers I will go direct to my travel plan which we executed beautifully :-)

1. Date-06 May 2016

We all friends currently live and work in Noida, Delhi and Ghaziabad so to make it easy for all of us we planned to meet at a common place from where we all can start our journey altogether. We chose Vaishali at one of our friends place(basically tripguru home :P) to get start for our destination. We all reached there at 11 pm and then after staying for 1.5 hours we started at 12:30 am Friday midnight. As we all had our dinner already at our respective homes so our stomachs were full and we can start our journey without any long stoppages in between. We started as 4 friends in 1 car and 5 in another one. The roads were clear as it was too late in night so the drive was smooth without any traffic in between. We planned to take the route as : Ghaziabad–>Hapur–>Moradabad–>Rampur–>Haldwani–>Nainital–>Pangot.

It was late night and we all were tired after long working hours in our respective offices so we thought to stop in between for a 5-10 mins break. As we were 3 girls in the group so we have to look out for a suitable place where we all can stand altogether and can stretch ourselves to achieve a relaxing journey. So after achieving a certain distance at around 5 am in the early Saturday morning we thought to stop at a dhaba to have something to eat. Then we all halted near Rampur at a dhaba and ordered the tea and some paranthas to eat. The tea broke our sleep and the delicious paranthas gave us some energy to resume our journey.

Midnight masti with friends

Early morning masti

2. Date-07 May 2016

At around 7 am Saturday morning we reached Nainital and stopped our cars there to enjoy the Nainital Lake view in between and to have some fresh air and Vitamin D3 of course which I generally miss in NCR :P Jokes apart seriously it was an amazing and heartthrob view. And when there are girls in your group then its obvious that there will be a selfie session and a long photo shoot session. So we all took some coffee and morning starters to open our eyes for a photo session of course :P

At Nainital

Selfie Selfie

Anyways after spending some 25 minutes there we resumed our journey towards Pangot which is still 20 kms away from Nainital. As soon as we crossed Nainital our actual adventurous journey get started with hair pin like bending curves and turns one side hills other side open sky Wowwwwwwaaaaa awesome route but scary as well. As we all know that the fire had already spread all over Uttarakhand jungles so we got the view of burnt trees and shrubs covered in all black color. We were able to see the fresh smoke raising from the burnt leaves and the stones were black due to fire residual. The roads were clear as there were very less vehicles once we crossed Nainital. We continued our ride till we reached ‘Sigri’ a small village somewhere around 4-5 kms away from Pangot where we booked our camp “KAMPLAND”. There are no hotels around as this is a far away place in peace where you will see very less human beings. We reached our camp at around 9 am. Although the check-in time was 12 pm but the owner kept our bags inside our rooms so we didn’t face any problem. We booked 4 cottages there in for 9 people. The weather was good with little bit of sunshine which was playing hide and seek with us and we were enjoying it. The owner kept some chairs and tables for us outside the rooms so that we can take rest and enjoy the surroundings. The view from our rooms was amazing. We were able to see the mountains and forests from the windows of our rooms. After taking a fresh shower we all gathered outside our rooms for tea/coffee and yummy breakfast in which we had mix veg pakoras and some chips and namkeens.

Enjoying the weather

Amazing view from our room

After having breakfast and some fun with friends including selfies, groupfies and photo session again we took a 2-3 hours nap in our respective rooms to get relaxed from our tiring journey. The only thing that you can enjoy there is “NATURE”. No malls, no mall roads, no shops, nothing. If you are a true nature lover then can only enjoy. The only thing that you will feel is “PEACE” with birds chirping here and there. You will enjoy the fresh fragrance of flowers, plants, vegetables that the local villagers grow. No tensions nothing only peace. After completing our nap we all wake up and started enjoying the weather. We felt little bit of raindrops on our heads and we started dancing like mads and crazy people.

Time for some rain

Mast mausam

Gangs of Pangot

The place was ours and we were using each nook and corner of that place with full madness. Now it was the time for our lunch in which the camp owners served us with Aloo gobhi sabzi, rice, rotis with fresh butter, tadka mix daal, papads, pickle and fresh pure drinking water. We were all eating like hungry lions as the food was tasty, yummy and delicious. Not much spicy as we use to eat here in local restaurants. After having our respective lunch we went for trekking at nearby village and then returned to our camp. The camp owner told us that he will arrange a night safari for us as well if we wish Rs. 500 per person. So we all discussed and took a decision to go for a Night safari. The slots were 7 pm- 10 pm and 10 pm – 1 am. So we all decided to go for the second slot as it would be very enjoyable and adventurous to enjoy the safari so late night. It was 8 pm and the owner prepared a bonfire for us with a speaker so that we can play our favorite numbers to dance. It was a cold night due to rains but the bonfire was enough to relax us. Then the camp workers served us our dinner with the bonfire at around 9 pm.

Bonfire Time

The non-veg lovers were enjoying chicken and we veg lovers enjoyed veg food patta gobhi matar ki sabzi, rotis with butter, papad, dessert, rice and kadhai paneer. Again the food was delicious and our stomachs were full. It was around 10 pm and the time was for Night Safari. Woooooowwww 10 pm, the jungles, the hills, the roads, the animals which we can see in that safari the whole idea was adventurous and scary a little bit :)

The safari guide so called ‘Bhuvan bhaiya’ told us that we will be able to see a lot of mountain goats but if we get luck by chance then we will be able to see leopards as well. But the guide didn’t guarantee for the leopards. Anyways we started our safari in Bolero. He told us that only 5 people can sit on the roof if anyone want to so including me and guide 3 more friends joined and sat on the roof of Bolero.

We saw so many mountain goats and barking deer in middle of the safari. It was dark night so only our guide was able to track the animals as he is a trained guide and he knows where we can get a visibility of the animals. So he took search light and started focusing in the forests and top of the mountains. The sight was reminding me of a horror movie as RAAZ :P while sitting on the roof. The branches of the trees was attacking on us and we were moving our heads up and down again and again. The cold breeze was making us shivered but we crazy people were excited just to see a glance of leopard :-) We completed our one way journey and reached a point from where we have to move the vehicle back so that we can return to our camp from the same way. I went down and sit inside the jeep as I enjoyed enough on the roof so now I wanted to take some rest. We were feeling dissatisfied as we didn’t get chance to see Leopard after 1.5 hrs. So we started returning back and again we saw only mountain goats there. After 1 hr the driver told us that the forest boundary is coming closer and now we will be reaching our camp. After hearing this we all started taking nap inside the jeep. But suddenly the guide told the driver to stop and he started throwing search light in the jungle. I thought that it would be a mountain goat again so I didn’t take any much interest but the guide shouted ‘Tendua” i.e Leopard. I jumped up from my seat in excitement. The Leopard just crossed in front of our Bolero and ran towards the jungle. The driver opened the door of the jeep and we stepped out of it to have a glance of him. He was staring back to us in attacking mode so we were standing near our jeep doors. But after sometime he leaped and ran towards the forest and we captured that moment in our eyes forever. The camera battery was down so didn’t capture in the camera :-( Then we resumed our journey back to our camp. Our safari was successful :-) Thanks to that guide and our luck :-)

Beautiful Blue

Mountain Goat

Wild Cat

We returned at around 1 am and then we all went to our respective rooms to take a long nap.

3. Date-08 May 2016

We all woke up at around 9 am early Sunday morning. And what we saw heavy rainfall and temperature was approx 4-5 degrees. But as I already mentioned that we are crazy creatures so we went outside and started dancing like mad started shouting actually we were enjoying the weather.

Selfie Masti

Cottages

Started taking photos again and then it was the time for morning tea and breakfast. So after having a fresh shower we sat together for tea and breakfast including poori sabzi, boiled eggs and omlettes. After taking breakfast we took some rest for 2 hrs and now we all were ready to return back. The rainfall stopped so we thought to start our return journey to avoid slippery roads and rains. We started at around 12 pm and decided to stop at Nainital to enjoy there as well and to utilize our time to the fullest. So we started our return journey and after almost 2 hrs we reached Nainital.

Milestone achieved

I am not new to Nainital and most of the ghumakkars had already been there as this is one of the favorite weekend getaway near Delhi. So we all planned for lake boating and then lunch.

Lake Boating

Naini Lake Boating

After lunch we did little bit of shopping as well on Mall Road. And then we started our journey back to Delhi at around 6 pm. We did our dinner near Moradabad at a food court and reached to our final destination at around 1:00 am.

Thats alllllll. Hope you guys enjoyed it. I will suggest you guys to explore this place including night safari if you are fearless :-) Please share your feedback and suggestions so that I can help if needed. Here are the camp details:

Kampland Jungle Camp, Sigri: Total amount paid including Safari:-Rs. 11,580/-

Cheers !!!!!!!