Awesome Uttarakand..!

Nothing gets more exciting than an adventure in the Himalayas. Uttarakand(UA) is not known to many as a tourist spot. But it covers the best ranges of the Himalayas and is simply breathtaking!
We started from Delhi; morning 3.30 AM by car. It was very foggy. Not surprising as it was in the peak of winter. We had planned a 3 day trip. One night stay at Chowkori and a night stay at Kausani. Nainital was the first destination. The best part of Nainital was the Naina lake. It is also called by the locals as "I" lake as it is in the shape of the letter "I". I felt that the sun must be in love with Naina because, you should see the lake!! It was glittering thousand times more than a diamond! It was a relishing boat ride in the lake. It was freezing cold, around 1.5 degree celsius. The wind whipped across the face almost causing a scar. But all the cold pain was submerged by the beauty of the place. Next, we took a ride in the winch way. It was truly spectacular! It was about 20 minutes ride to a mountain there. The winch gave us amazing top views of the naina lake, naina temple and the mountains surrounding the lake. Once we had reached the other side, we started to trek. We climbed the mountain for about half an hour to get the first peek of snow. Wow! it was a sight to behold! It was the most purest white snow. It almost gave me a divine feeling. I managed to get a couple of good shots of the snow and by the time we got to the bottom, we were ravenous. Winter really works up your appetite in a jiffy. We found some dhabas there and had hot soup and pakoras. Since very few people land up coming there for sight seeing, the shop keeper took almost 40 mins to get the soup and pakoras ready!

Our next halt was Jim corbett national park. Unfortunately it was not open. But we managed to find a hole to squeeze inside the park. It was a park cum museum. It was amazing to see the spectacular catches of man eaters caught by Jim Corbett. We heard some voices and saw some guards coming. They were shouting at us in punjabi and were calling people claiming that we had broken into the museum. We made a run for it and was soon speeding through the not so smoot hair pin bends of the himalayas. The hairpin bends in the north are not like our ooty or kodaikanal bends, but more "Ghatarnak". They are called as "Ghatarnak mode". One slight touch from the opposite vehicle and we would be rolling deep in the valley below. But it also gives excitement to be sitting in the edge of life to see places that people are afraid to explore. Soon, we were the only living souls in that range. The snow mountains were closing and it was simply awesome! There were also trees that were brilliant purple, orange and yellow colors. Everything was going very smoothly till we landed up facing the landslide. The whole area was graded and fully covered with dust. But kudos to my dad's excellent driving skills, we made it to the other end crossing the land slides. We then halted a bit to relish the beauty of tranquility and also to give rest for our car. All that we could hear were our own breathing and the birds chirping. The surrounding was so quiet that we could even hear the sound of every leaf rustling. We had some bread for lunch and continued our way to other ranges. We crossed 4 ranges( approx 68 hairpin bends) and reached chowkori in the evening. we just made it to capture the beautiful sunset there. We watched it spell bounded. The sun rays were like golden beams on the white snow. It was like honey dipping on the snow. We reluctantly left the sunset spot to find a hotel to spend the night. We soon found one which offered a wonderful view of the snow. We had dinner in a hut. It was freezing cold and we were all loaded with 4 layers of clothing to stay alive! The paneer dishes were scrumptious and we climbed our way to the hotel for a good night's sleep.

We got up early in the morning to catch the sunrise. The digi cam almost cried since i was taking pics almost every single second not wanting to miss capturing the sunrise forever. The sunrise proved more scintillating and we had chai, sitting in the special hand woven chairs made by the local tribals.We then started to continue our exploration to the other ranges. It was raining and the hotel owner asked to halt for sometime and proceed as it would be risky to ride in the rain. But we decided to take the risk. The roads were very slippery and we skidded more than once, but soon sun started to take mercy on us and we were almost at Kausani. Kausani is the personification of heaven. It is one of the closest to the nanda devi peak and the place we stayed had amazing views of the entire snow peaks. We had a quick lunch and had a long siesta in the resort with snow reflecting in our eyes. Around 4, we started to trek to a view point to get the best of the scene. It was long trek, but we made it to the view point. We spent sometime there and got back to the resort. We were the only people in the resort and the people working there were amused to see south Indians in such a lonely northern place. We considered spending night in the tent but the temperature was running in negative, so we decided to snuggle in the warm rooms with warm blankets. The next morning was the best morning in my life. I have never ever seen the sun look so smashing! It was a brilliant sight. I also managed to get a classic shot of a bird taking bath in the sun rays. We then finally left Kausani to Delhi. One the way, we made a visit to the "India's most ancient temple". The floor was freezing cold and i almost became numb after taking 2 steps. The temple was in ruins but there was certainly something very holy about the temple. We had stuck a label in the back of our car, "I Love Coimbatore".This caught the attention of many people in the temple. When we got back to the car, we heard people arguing the whereabouts of this unknown place-Coimbatore!! One man was actually commenting that it was in Nepal! We tried to explain them that it was deep down the south of our country and bid adieu. We then reached the china border, took shots with Chinese kids and we seriously considered driving into china. But the border guys weren't friendly and we had a long drive back to Delhi and we reached home by night 11.50. It was a trip worth remembering!