Bird's eye view:
The morning dawned dim, but the day was anything but. Till date, this drive of Almora to Ranikhet was perhaps the most beautiful one. It was not a long distance, perhaps 55 km, but I really did not feel like driving fast. We left at 8.45 am and reached at 12.45 pm, with a Kosi river crossing and a mystery stop in between. The weather remained cloudy and cool, the perfect climate to wander around the countryside. We were dropping 600 ft below Mukteswar, so the weather became a little warmer.
Leaving Almora (8.45 am):
Like other days in the recent past, we had decided that we will leave after breakfast. Panna, in particular, was particularly enamoured of the alu paratha, so an early departure was out of the question. We peered out at a gloomy sky. Did it look like rain? Not really. We did not mind a little gloom in the hills; it gave the feeling that a couple of murders may have happened in this ancient KMVN heap, particularly in their super-delux-luxury suite, and gents in grey long coats, soggy hats and drooping moustaches would get down from a convertible and squint up at our window. The thought galvanised us a bit, and we started packing while placing our breakfast order of toast-and-poach (I) and alu paratha (Panna, of course).
One of the boys had wiped our Punch clean yesterday, and we could feel that it had recovered a bit of its dignity as it rolled down the steep approach road to the hotel and trundled through the market (closed on Sunday though).
The road to Ranikhet, is too beautiful for words. As we descended into the valley, where river Kosi was wandering moodily, oak gave way to pine, and pine to normal vegetation. A quick crossing on a bridge, and we started climbing the other mountain towards Majkhali and then Ranikhet, the vegetation reversing once again.
Visiting the Katarmal Sun Temple (9.30 am):
17 kms from Almora, a road rises to the left with the sign ‘Heritage Sites Ahead’. A few kilometres up a hilly road, we pass a sign ‘Parking’, which we studiously ignore. We sneak ahead another half-a-km, and park by the roadside, beside a sign tilted 45 deg upward, saying ‘Sun Temple’. A quiet steep pathway around 200m up brings us to the gates of an unexpected sun temple.
This is a pretty old temple, built in the 9th century by Katarmalla, a Katyuri King. Also known as Bada Aditya temple, it has a central shrine with 45 smaller temples surrounding it, supposedly worshipping various deities, though all empty now, mostly kept locked in the inner sanctum since they were getting stolen. The premises are not very big, but the similarity with sun temples in other places is very distinct. In fact, Konark sun temple, built in the 13th century, came later! The top of the main temple is incomplete. Legend has it that the whole establishment was set up overnight, hence the incompleteness, as well as the lack of too many carvings of the stones!! Pretty difficult to believe - even stone prefab would need terrific handling to complete a temple that quick at 7,000 ft.
That said, it is a live temple, with Surya, Durga, Ganesh, Vishnu and Shiva idols, and there was a steady stream of visitors. The view from the top was also fantastic, with the Kosi river barrage clearly visible down in the valley, south of the temple.
Reaching Ranikhet (12.30 pm):
The road from Katarmal to Ranikhet continued to be beautiful. The road quality was top class, and the scenery rolling out with every bend of the road touched something within. We stopped once or twice and just sat in our car with the engine off, marvelling at the number of bird calls that could be heard.
That we were stepping into Ranikhet could be made out by the number of military establishments by the roadside, right from training camps, to golf clubs, to the famous Somnath Dwar war memorial. The British established a significant Cantonment area here, and also popularised it as a retreat. Ranikhet is a small place, apparently owned once by a Katyuri queen, hence the name, with a population of around 20,000. Its height at 6,800 ft is lower than Mukteswar, where we had practically been absorbed as citizens. Consequently, the weather is a little warmer, 22 degC at 8.00 pm.
Although the market was a crowded stretch, we found Ranikhet a very cute and clean town. In fact, in order to reach our hotel, we had to drive beyond the town and climb up a few kilometres to a place where the Ranikhet Continental Hotel was practically the last man standing, surrounded by pine forests. Without putting too much effort in the planning, we had stumbled upon a gem of a place, spanking new, excellent room decor, and located away from the hurly-burly. We checked in and had a light lunch of rice, daal and alu gobi. Good cooking, so we shall experiment further at dinner time.
