Oct 2005

It all started when I was sitting in the campus mess getting really bored.
I was pestering Dim to get something to eat and after a while he got pissed and bought a lot them. I said "what the hell we gonna do with these. What were you trying to do, get me supplies for a trip". Suddenly a thought flashed in my mind and I asked to him to get some more coz we are going to mukteshwar.

So at 3 am we headout towards Mukteshwar on my bike. By eight we were at Bareily a typical UP city. Now we had to leave the Delhi highway and catch the road to Kathgodam. Kathgodam is a place in the foothills of the Uttaranchal mountains. The climb in the himalayas start from here. The view from Kathgodam is breath taking, with huge green mountains waiting for you and coupled with the typical smell of fresh mountain air.

From kathgodam we started the climb to Bhimtal a beautiful lake nestled in the mountains. The next thing was to catch a narrow road to Naukuchiatal another lake though smaller but no lesser in terms of beauty.

The drive from Naukuchiatal to Mukteshwar is amazing. With apple orchard everywhere in the mountains. We managed to reach Mukteshwar by 2pm. The rest of the day was spent visiting the orchards around Mukteshwar.

The next morning we headed to Chauli Ki Jali a place at the apex of the Mukteshwar mountain with views of seven of the highest peaks in the Indian and Chinese Himalayas. At this place you can also enjoy some of the mountain sports like Rappeling and Rock climbing. The place also has a temple called the "Temple of Bells".

The next thing we were doing was heading out of Mukteshwar towards Rampur and it started raining. We took shelter in a small tea stall in the middle of some apple orchard. The guy offered us tea and some fresh hand-picked apples from the orchard. With the gift and memories of Mukteshwar with us we headed straight to Nainital.

Nainital, I just can't get over with the memories of Nainital. This must be my sixth time here, but I still found this place mesmerizing.

My favorite pass-time in Nainital is to sit at Mountain Magic in the middle of the Mall road sipping lemon tea and watching boats and sails in the lake. The whole evening went doing the same. It was getting dark and the time to hit the road back. We left Nainital sometime around 10pm and Dim was a bit concerned coz this was the first time he was riding pilion on a bike that too in the Himalayas and I had proposed to take the trip back in the Night. We drove all through the night to finally reach Shahjahanpur where our bikebroke down.

Well the story in Shahjahanpur is interesting (will write about it in a seperate blog entry). Post repair we finally were back in Lucknow, tired like hell but no way down in spirits.

Cheers
eRiC