Uttar Mahayatra

Bird’s eye view : Around 110 km travel today to Mukteswar, dropping to 7,500 ft, slightly lower than Binsar. We travelled to Almora, which we bypassed and took a slightly longer route via Lamgara, since we will be going to Almora anyway later on. We left at 7.30 am and reached at 12.30 pm, just before lunch. Apart from the initial 6 km return road inside the forest, the highways, both national and state, were excellent. Leaving Binsar (7.30 am): Simba Jungle Lodge had been a nice stay, except, as we said, for the exorbitant price of food. We were planning to have breakfast somewhere on the way, after we hit the highway again. The descent of 6 km to the gate of the wildlife sanctuary was as perilous as ever. While ascending, we had run the risk of getting stuck in the ruts if we slowed down. While descending, the car tended to skid on the loose soil if I braked too hard on a slope. So we made it down slowly, driving on tiptoes as it were. We saw one family looking at the tra...

Even professional cricketers get a break, be it a rest-day, a drinks-break, or at least a time-out. But we are even luckier, because our rest-day  happens in beautiful places like the Binsar forest reserve. We wanted to sleep in late, but our body clock pushed us out of bed before 6.00 am. Since our room faces west, there was no chance of seeing a sunrise over the valley, but we sat inside next to the big windows and enjoyed our morning cuppa.  The Simba Lodge, and maybe other places inside this remote wildlife sanctuary as well, seemed to have two constraints. One was that there was no running hot water in the bathrooms. For a hot bath you would have to holler and get delivered a bucket of hot water from the solar heater setup. Secondly, the prices of food were exorbitant. A plate of toast-butter-jam was Rs 100/-, and two boiled eggs Rs 130/-. I mean, it would be a proud chicken who would live to see her children do so well in life. We shared a poha ...

Bird’s eye view: When my biographer writes the story of 20th April, circa 2025, he might lightly gloss over it, saying they drove around 80 km today, to a village called Binsar. Pretty place and all that. He might even sneeringly suggest that less than 100 km was a bit below par. What he would miss out is that hidden in that short journey were challenges where big cars had failed today. First, we drove 25 kms to Bageshwar, where the Thal road joins, touching the scenic Chaukori - the road not taken by us, remember? Then we travelled 50 kms to Binsar town, just before which we turned left into the controlled forest area where our lodge was located, 6 kms inside. Today’s weather had been quite sunny overall, and our car AC was running for most of the time, except hairpin climbs. Overall, we travelled upward from the 3,800 ft of Kapkot to 8,500 ft of Binsar, so it is expected to become jolly chilly at night. Leaving Kapkot (8.30 am): When the journey lengths are sm...