Wherever you go, go with all your heart
Confucius
We’re a family of four. We wanted a trip that lets us combine things that we love doing – road tripping, camp cooking, camping, hiking. This trip to Uttrakhand in December of 2017 gave us a chance to experience all of this and much more…..
Before the first kilometer
In my view, half of the fun of a road trip is in preparing for the trip. I am one of those who like to plan and then have back-up plans if the main plan doesn’t work. All of this means spending numerous hours researching about the places to visit, pit stops, routes etc., but I don’t mind spending these hours as I find the entire exercise enjoyable. These mental runs of the trip helps me live the feeling of being on the trip even before the first kilometer is clocked.
Aside regular vehicle servicing which is mandatory before undertaking a journey of 5000 kms, I wanted a comfortable bed inside the vehicle for my 4 year old son who can sleep while we are on the move at unearthly hours. I wanted the set up to be flexible enough so that I can bring back the car to its original configuration once the trip is over. It took me several hours of racking the brain, searching on the internet to get ideas and finally with the help of a local welder, I got a set-up made which didn’t cost be more than INR 1,000. Next was to make a platform that we can use to cook meals. This again was a DIY project that got completed with only INR 200 investment.
If you would like to know more about this set-up, leave a comment and I will share further details.
On the Road and in the land of Mountains
We started from Mumbai on Friday, December 22, 2017 at 4 pm and reached Ankelshwer (Gujrat) that night by 11 pm. The journey from Ankelshwer to Haridwar (with stop at Jaipur) was pretty uneventful. It is probably my bias, but I get a different feeling when I am around mountains. Plains of India don’t excite me as much as hills do. Towns like Haridwar, Rishikesh and several prayags (confluence places of holy rivers) which we visited in next few days had an amazing and calming effect on our senses.
In the next few days, we drove to Ukhimath, Chopta, Gwaldham, Choukari and Munsayari. Ukhimath and Gwaldham were just stopovers while Chopta, Chaukori and Munsyari were our main areas of interest. We stayed in tented accommodation in Baniyakund (6 KMS short of Chopta) which was the highlight of the trip. The Swiss tents with attached bathrooms overlooking the mountain ranges like Chaukhamba, Trishul and Nanda Devi, ensured a mesmerizing and comfortable stay. INR 2,500 for the night for a family of four with dinner included was a sweet deal that we got for the tented accommodation. Chopta is also a base for trekking to Tungnath, a Lord Shiva abode (3.5 Kms away) and Chandrashila (another 1.5 KMs from Tungnath).
Our next main stop was at Chaukori, another beautiful town in the Kumaon region of Uttrakhand offering spectacular views of Panchchuli mountains (better and closer views from Munsayari). We booked ourselves a Airbnb accommodation and got an amazing experience staying with a local family. The family owned a mini mountain (!) and we had a great time exploring their backyard.
From Chaukori we headed to Munsyari which is another beautiful town in the upper Kumaon region, offering very close views of Panchchuli peaks. We had booked a room in KMVN resort (very nice government run resort) which had amazing views from our room. In the evening, we went for a stroll to the Nanda Devi temple which had panoramic views all around. The dinner was at KVMV and we treated ourselves to a local delicacy, Gandreli chicken, a chicken dish cooked in local herbs.
Two small hikes
Our first trek of the trip was to Deoritaal, a lake at hour and a half long trek from the base village Saari (15 KMs from Ukimath). It is an upward climb which was a challenge for novices like us, but the view of the lake and the reflection of the snow clad mountains (including, Chaukhamba) in the lake are well worth the effort. While in Himalayas, I think it does not matter where you are going, the journey in itself is worth more than the destination, every turn unfolds into a new adventure, a new vista.
There is something about snow that make us city-dwellers go crazy. We first saw snow in Chopta and later while doing our second trek to Thamri kund (near Munsiyari), we came across decent amount of snow on the trail. I am yet to see snow fall, but I guess that will have to wait for some time….
As we had the kitchen set-up in our vehicle, we stopped for breakfast and lunch at the most picturesque places. Cooking food was no longer a task, it became part of the whole experience. Here is one picture just outside of village Sari (base village for Deoritaal) after we finished our breakfast.
The Encounter
We started from Choukari at 6 am to be able to trek to Thamri kund before heading to Munsayari by evening. Our host at Chaukari guided us about the trail to follow for Thamri kund. He mentioned that if we ever are unsure about the trail to be followed, we should stick to the trail that is on the side of the mountain.
We got late reaching the starting point for Thamri kund, but we decided to give it a try and set ourselves a time limit by which we would return if we are not able to reach the lake. The start was exhilarating as we encountered snow for the second time on the trip. We also saw quite a few people on the trail, some ahead of us and some returning. Finally, after walking for what must have been an hour and when we had come far ahead from rest of the human souls, we reached a point where the trail become little less identifiable. My wife suggested we head back, but because we still had some time left for our deadline to kick in, I insisted we continue. We must have taken just few more steps on the trail, that all of us froze seeing what looked like a fox. I had heard that they are always in a pack – that thought set panic among us, especially because kids were with us and there was nobody around. I asked my wife to move back and be in front of the kids and I decided to keep myself at the back. Luckily, we found few sticks and we decided to keep them so that if we get in danger, we will have something to scare off the animals. For next few minutes, we were rushing through the trail, all of us not saying a word and my eyes turning back at the slightest sound just to ensure that we are not being chased. Here is the picture after it all ended….
The Return and a small hiccup
We reached Nainitaal pretty late in the evening, but still managed to take a stroll by the lake. When Nainitaal gets lit up and the lights cast their reflection on the lake, the effect is magical. Next morning we had a minor scare with the vehicle. It refused to crank. I started wondering if the battery died in the December cold. My mind started thinking of different possibilities only to find that I had slotted the vehicle into first gear the previous night and that was the reason for the ignition to not work. I moved the gear lever to neutral and it fired up in the first crank. This resulted in a late start, but finally reached Agra amid think blanket of fog.
Our next morning plan was to visit Taj Mahal, but the fog didn’t clear up even by 10 am. Visibility had reduced to 10 meters. We still went ahead and decided to visit, but even after standing barely meters away from Taj, I would still say that I haven’t seen the Taj.
Only other stop before reaching home was at Bhilwara which was 200 kms short of Udaipur (the actual planned stop on the return journey). This meant we had to cover 950 kms on the last day which we managed, thanks to the bandh that day in Mumbai which resulted in us finding very little traffic on the roads after we entered the city.
The trip ended, but the memories will remain with us forever. We loved this trip so much that in eight month’s time, we were in Uttrakhand again, this time with our parents. The second story for some other time…..
Things worth noting
- Hire a guide if you don’t know the trail – this was our lesson from the encounter that we had on the Thamri kund trail.
- Cooking your own meal next to a river or overlooking a beautiful valley is a great experience. Invest in the kitchen set-up, if you have the space in the vehicle.
- We had downloaded quite a few movies on the phone which we could play on the Bluetooth enabled ICE – this will be very handy when you have kids travelling with you.
- Pre-book hotels/home stays at places which don’t have them in plenty. For example, Ukimath, Chopta, Gwaldham.
- Uttrakhand has very good network of government run hotels. Check their websites at http://gmvnl.in/newgmvn/index.aspx (for hotels in the Garhwal region) and (http://www.kmvn.gov.in/ (for hotels in the Kumaon regions). We stayed in government hotels at Gwaldham and Munsayari.
sushil.is.out.of.office 