It was March 2010 already. And we had been itching to go to the hills since the last time I had been to the hills was *way back* :grin:, in Jan 2010 ..lol – a separate log is due for that trip to Simla and McLeod, including a trek to Triund (my first ever). My friend Kshitij had friends from his BSchool who were visiting him from Poland, so yes – we had an excuse to head home, and plan a trip to Garhwal.
Admission : I was born in DDun, lived there till I was 18 – never ventured beyond Mussouries, never crossed Rishikesh, never went to chakrata, never heard of places like Munsiyari etc.
This is unpardonable, right ?
But the thing is that till you live in a sufficiently serene beautiful place, you don’t get that kinda urge to explore more. At least I suffered from this syndrome. Add it it, come holidays, you want to go to visit cousins in the plains, or go to metros to see what stuff do they sell in them malls, ….shit !
Ok, so back to the topic:
Reached Delhi from Hyderabad, took the AC Special overnight train, and reached DDun. The sweet smell of your old room, the room where you grew up. The window from where you could see mussourie, and you took it for granted, and never bothered ! Ahh..no words.
Btw, it was Holi the next day.
Day 1 : Local DDun, Rajpur, Mussourie
Played holi with friends, had awesome holi customary sweets and snack, and just lazied around.
In the evening an impromptu plan was made to visit mussourie, stopping briefly in the Budhist temple @Rajpur (not that we don’t go uptil here daily when we are in DDun ;) )
Mussourie was good and slightly cold. Less tourists, more fun. Had some street stuff and came back by 11pm.
Day 2 :
We were leaving for something I had never seen. I really didn’t know what to expect. I never knew any of these places that my friend had been mentioning. So there was a lot of excitement that had built up already.
Here is the trip plan :
Booked a Qualis (there were 5 of us), for 4 days from Dehradun.
2nd March 2010 – The plan was to start at 8am, reach Ukhimath (via Rishikesh, Devprayag, Srinagar, Rudraprayag,)
Started on time. There was a little traffic we had to negotiate till we reached the diversion point to Rishikesh. It is usual as ther is a lot of daily commutation happening between DDun and Haridwar, rishikesh. March is a pretty good month to be in this region, as the weather is pure pleasant. Slightly chilled.
Crossed Rishikesh, and headed towards Byasi – whose delicious food had been a point made by my firend kshitij tens of times. Anyways, we skipped it and left it for the return journey. But had to stop near shivpuri for a quick tea break. Some pl wanted a loo break as well. Had some tea and toasts and witnessed the ganges roaring a couple of feet down from where we were. DO I need to mention the characteristic green colour of the river here ?
Started off from here, and I was very happy to be venturing into the hiterto unknown (to me) areas of Garhwal. We had some problems with out car when we had to stop before Devprayag due to a traffic jam (kind of). When an attempt was made to start the car, it just would not. Our driver, Sumeet ji, gave us the kind of look that means “utaro aur dhakka lagao”… duh.. so we did, and the car eventually started.
In a matter of another few minutes, we were at Devprayag The scene of the confluenece is beautiful, specially given the distinct colour of Alaknand and Bhagirathi. It is this point where what we call Ganges in down in the foothills and the plains forms. Clicked a few shots here and drove onwards.
Headed off towards Rudraprayag, where we stopped for lunch at this resort kind place. Not a resort exactly, but something more than just a hotel. It had a nice garden and we had a quick post lunch stroll. Ah, and the lunch was delicious.
We were confident of reaching Ukhimath by ~4 but what is a Himalay trip without a landslide, eh ? So we hit this bad patch where there had been fresh landslide. It must have taken a good 3 hours before we could get going, and by that time the sun had set, and it was dark.
After this point, I dunno what happened to our driver, and he sped on this road like anything. I could see that the road was relatively straight, but narrow. We passed through some small settlements, to reach the GMVN guest house at Ukhimath. We had some steaming hot arhar dal, roti, achaar, egg bhurji, and alu gobhi for dinner. Ukhimath was pretty cold, and nothing better could have happened to us than this food dinner.
We called it a day, and the next day was supposed to be the trek to Deoriya Tal.
Day 3:
We called it a day, and the next day was supposed to be the trek to Deoriya Tal.
Day 3:
Day 3:
Woke up early, took that dreaded cold morning bath, and gorged on some heavy breakfast. The usual stuff – toast, omelettes, parantha and a couple of pegs of tea
Anyways, today’s plan was to do Deoriya Tal, head to Chopta and stay overnight there. We headed for Deoriyal Tal, and my eyes were wide open
. Since yesterday had been dark when we travelled to this place, it is only tnow that I could really appreciate where we were. The scenes of the village cattle, smoke emerging in the morning from the huts, the kids going to school, the old lady setting up stuff to prepare food. That’s what we come here for, don’t we. Here are some of the pics to describe what the settings were, in the small settelements of Ukhimath and beyond…
We reached the base village (Sari ?), from where starts the ascent to the Deoriya Tal. I was not exactly sure how could there be a ‘pahad ke upar talaab’ ?!
Its an easy trek, and though I had not done many treks before, it does take a lil bit of toll on you. I mean when you huff puff, you will huff puff.
Sari
You are greeted with loads of rhodendron (buraansh) trees enroute. Their colour is blood red, and Ive heard that their sharbat is extremely beneficial for health.
Huffing and puffin we reached the top, though just before the main thing is this shop. By this time it becomes extremely necessary to intake some energy drinks, and well, coke serves the purpose here. After the sugar shot, we headed towards the lake, and strolled there for a bit, lazily enjoying the views and vista’s around. SO this is not the best time atleast to visit Deoriya. Best time would be when its green (during or just post monsoon), or when it has snowed.
From here we headed off to Chopta and witnessed some beautiful surroundings around. Reached Chopta, and had food. Wanted to go upwards to Tunganath, but was informed that there is heavy snow, and we were not equipped enough to do it without some kind of protection atleast for our feet. So we had to drop the idea.
We stopped in between and strolled in some of the bugyals that Chopta is famous for. It was getting dark and we had to decide on where to stay put for the night. In sight was a hotel downhill, but the setting was *really scary*. There was nothing else in the vicinity of this place, and it was getting dark. We got inside and the silence inside this place scared the shit out of some of us. I cannot describe it, but we could not just think of staying there !
Around Chopta
So we decided to head on to The Birahi GMVN (via Gopeshwar and Chamoli). It was pitch dark by noow. All I could see out of the window was dark mountains staring at you. There were patches of thick forests in between, that added to the environment of mystery and horror.
We reached Birahi and checked into the GMVN. There was not food available now, so we had to go back up to Chamoli go get dinner. Had dinner, ad slept off.
Day 4 & 5 :
Woke up leisurely and raomed around the Birahi Guest hose. Today's plan was to reach Joshimath, and then visit Auli
The road was alright, and the terrain changed significantly as we drove towards Joshimath. The amount of vegetation kept on getting lesser, and soon there were barran mountains, pure loose rock, no green whatsoever.
Reached Joshimath and checked if the ropeway was functional. But the arragement there was typical sarkaari, and we didnt get a clear answer - beat that . We didnt basically know if we could or could not go upto Auli by the ropeway. damn.
Anyways, we went around joshimath getting some pics transferred in a cyber cafe, and shopping for other essential items.
And then it was time to head to Auli, by car. Clouds had been playin hide and seek all this while, and it could start rainning any time. And it did, on our way to Auli. By the time we reached Auli, it was raining pretty hard. But the atmospherics were pure fantastic. The view from the window of our GMVN room was something one can die for (atleast I would
)
Went down to the bar and took a table beside the window with a breathtaking view. Gulped some drinks, alongwith some snacks. It was all wet and cold outside. Retired back to our rooms, and switched on the heaters.
Came down again for dinner - this place serves some traditional garhwali food, and is a must try. I loved it, If memory serves me right, the Dal prepared in garhwali style is called "chensu" - slurrppppppp
Anyways, 'twas too cold to wake up, so we got inside the warmth of the quilts.
And woke up the next morning to see what games nature played the last night.
This is something that gets clicked invariably by almost everyone at Auli.
After having fun with the snow, it was time to head to Khirsu. Khirsu is a place my friend used to visit during his childhood days, during vacations. So obviously, he has a lot of memories, and told us fun tales about the 80's ..
Khirsu is famous for the panaromic views it presents, of the garhwal and kumaon himalayas. We stopped briefly at Karnaprayag and the Gaucher for some refreshments.
Karnaprayag
Reached Khirsu by 4ish and checked into the GMVN there, and had some tea. It is also the region infamous for many many leopard and tiger attacks. We did go out in the dark towards the woods. But fat gayi aur waapis.... The element that I like about the himalayas is its nights, and the atmospherics of the mystique, the fear of unkonwn and the local legend folklore. The combination of all of this coupled with the deadly silence, only to be broken by the odd movement on the dry leaves in the jungle bed - man - I look forward to the day I encounter something supernatural in the woods somewhere in garjhwal/kumaon.
Day 5:
Got up to a beautiful sunny morning - and the views were majestic.
Had breakfast, and started off toward
s Dehradun, stopping at only Bayasi for food
Reached Dehra Dun by 4 pm, thus ending this short, but very happening trip !
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