Some where in Uttrakhand

It was totally unplanned. We were fed up of doing coding daily and decided to do some adventurous. I called my mom that we are going to Rishikesh but the place we explored on internet was 350km away from that.

We started our journey on Dec 21 and decided to stay there till Christmas (If we survive on the so called Doom’s day). We took deluxe bus from Delhi to Rishikesh at 11 in the night.

The adventure has already begun and we didn’t know. Actually it was all foggy that night and the visibility was hardly 8-10 meters. Fog was so dense that looking outside the window pane seeming we were hovering over the clouds.

We reached Rishikesh at around 7 in the morning. From Rishikesh we took bus to RudraPrayag.

Our bus was going between the hills. And suddenly at one place, I saw a stunning cricket ground and I got the reason why Cricket is a religion in India. Like Temples, that you can find everywhere, same as with Cricket Grounds.

RudraPrayag, the place where Alaknanda and Bhagirathi rivers meet to form the holy Ganges. It was a beautiful site. From one side Alaknanda was flowing in dark blue color and from other side, Bhagirathi was in a bit whitish color and together they were forming serene sky blue color. And the sound of water, it was so delightful that we were watching spellbound. We took lunch there in RudraPrayag and boarded on bus at 4 in the evening to UkhiMath.

From Rudraprayag, the roads were totally rough and ruptured. Actually this part of Uttrakhand stroke with a massive cloud burst last year. And due to flood, landslide and cloud burst, the roads got scuppered. 

There were several instances when I looked down from the window and saw a gorge several feet deep, just inches away from the bus. And deep down the gorge, the holy Ganges was flowing in a full swing. 

As we were approaching Ukhimath, the roads were getting more narrow and rough. But I must admire the drivers there. I mean there was not a single chance of committing a mistake on these roads.

When we reached Ukhimath, we thanked the driver for such a safe journey. I got to know that he has an experience of 30 years of driving on the same route. From Ukhimath we took bus to Saari village. At this point of time we were all tired of traveling for whole day. But all our tiredness vanished when we saw ravishing white snow coated hills from the bus window. It was a magnetic view, attracting us.

Finally we reached Saari Village at 8pm. It was a small village surrounded with mountains. Our guide Negi was waiting for us there. With him, we reached our guest house and unloaded our luggage there. But our journey didn’t end up there. Now we had to do trekking over the mountain to reach our destination Deoria Tal.

As the temperature was very low at that moment of time, we packed ourselves with as much as clothes we can wear.

Our trekking started at 9 in the night under twilight. The sky was damn clear. I haven’t seen that much of stars in my life. May be the reason is we were more near to the space or there were zero pollution or may be both.

Our cook joined us in the mid way. We were trekking between the jungles and mountains and it was all under moonlight. Finally after an hour of exhausted trekking, we reached our destination Deoria Tal. At the top of the hill there was a small valley and in the middle of the valley there was a small lake. As it was already late at night, we decided to take our dinner and wake up early morning to capture the sun rise scene between the hills.

We set up our camp in the middle of the jungle. There was a serene silence there. Our guide told us that two days back a bear attacked two guys and after this information, we literally feared. I was unable to sleep after that. I thought thousand of plans to run off if we encounter such a situation in this dense jungle.

Finally after a frightful night, we woke up early in the morning and it was about to sun rise. We rushed to the lake to capture the reflection of snowy mountains in the lake. The area was heavily wooded, lush green surroundings with snow covered mountains in the backdrop. It was such a charming view.

 

We spent 4-5 hours there at the bank of the lake. We played cards there. Our cook made delicious food. After so many days I enjoyed sunlight. Sky was damn clear. Lush green valley with lake surrounded with snowy mountains, bright sunlight, yummy food and cards, it was like heaven.

In afternoon, we decided to explore this area more. We planned to visit Duggal Bitta and Choupta, a place about 25 kilometer from Deoria Tal. But for this first we had to do trekking all the way back from Deoria Tal to our guest house in Saari village.

While trekking we captured some pictures of Saari village, their people, houses and their lifestyle. We also found some orange fruits mid way and we couldn't resist ourselves from plucking that juicy fruits.

From Saari village we took private cabs to Duggal Bitta. As this place was located more higher in altitude, the temperature was very low there, I think it was in negative.

The journey continues......