Serene beauty of Incredible Kumaon IssSummerBaharNikal

Day 1

Almora

The slippery, narrow road guiding up from the last town of Kathgodam that sits in the foothills of Kumaon to the upper reaches of the Kumaon hills is not at all a cake walk one has to stay calm and composed while motoring in such a terrain.

But what a treat to sit in the cabin of a heavy duty vehicle Tata Sumo that rules the terrain of the Himalayas, watching & listening to the jingle sound of the monsoon rain lashing the hillside, it’s hard to imagine a better ride.

This realistic sense of being far removed from the noise of the elements (in the world outside the car) became obvious during our four-day journey in the lower Himalayas of Kumaon, in the northern state of Uttarakhand.

Earlier, after we left Delhi, the weather all together was a little harsh with humidity and temperature. But our goal, however, was simple enough to avoid the crowded itinerary rushing towards the historic (but hopelessly over-visited) hill station of Nainital. So, we chose to travel through the kotdwar a small town that leads the way to Kumaon via a little longer but a route with absolutely no traffic.

Moving on past the entirely forgettable plains town of Haldwani, the road starts winding its way up to Kathgodam, past which it divides towards Bhimtal ( the other turn in the fork goes up to Nainital), and crosses a bridge over the Gaula river.

While driving through the narrow serene mountains of Kumaon we reached "Kaichi Dham" It is a place at an altitude of (1400 MT) On the Nainital - Almora Road, 9 Km from Bhowali and 17 Kms from Nainital is a modern pilgrim centre. This place has achieved recognition owing to the ashram of the famous Shri Neem Karoli Baba Maharajji.

Many hundreds of people visit the temples here every day, in season. Each year, during the June 15th Bhandara, reportedly, more than one lakh (100,000) people are fed.

Kainchi is a term used for two sharp hairpin bends of the motor road in local dialect hence the name. It has NO relation with scissors, founded by the famous Maharaj Neem Karoli Baba in 1962 and is very well maintained and kept neat and clean.

After offering prayers here we reached to our guesthouse in Ranikhet at Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya as my father is an officer of the organisation so we have added benefit of stays during vacations all over India.

Photo of Almora, Uttarakhand, India by Prateek bhatt

Day 2

After reaching Ranikhet we had some delicious food made by local grown groceries and spices that drained out the stress of day 1. After an 8 hours of sound sleep we were ready to proceed further with our road trip on day 2 towards Almora hills. Almora is indeed one of the most breathtakingly beautiful places in Kumaon, we went to "Chaubatia Garden" it is at an altitude of 1,800 metres above sea level and sprawls over 600 acres of land. This place is renowned for the orchards laden with juicy fruits like peaches, apples, apricots and much more. This charming place is a nature hub for the solitary lovers and those who want to bond with nature. One can savour a panoramic view of the Himalayan beauties such as Neelkanth, Nanda Devi, Trishul and Nandaghunti.

After spending some 20 minute at Chaubatiya garden we headed towards Golf Course ground in Kumaon hills which was an extraordinary place, it was so peaceful and relaxing there we laid down there for an hour and listened to some good music, it was like a relax therapy. After this we headed back to our guest house in Almora and again after some delicious food and good sleep next day we headed to a really long ride again to Champawat.

Photo of Serene beauty of Incredible Kumaon #IssSummerBaharNikal by Prateek bhatt

Day 3

So it took us the whole day to reach Champawat and it was a really hectic ride that ended at 8 pm in night, we were exhausted like anything so we has a cup of ginger tea took some rest followed by the dinner and again a sound sleep and then next morning we took a spin in Champawat, we offered prayers to Golu Devta Mandir in Champawat, visited beautiful tea gardens and few other tourists points. Then we decided to get back to guest house as we were so exhausted from past three days tripping.

The next day we were driven to Nainital for a night stay, we had a stay at Hotel Evelyn which was good and located lake side, we explored the local market in the evening and had dinner at a local restaurant.

And went back to our hotel.

Day 4

On the last day of our trip while exploring and enjoying our stay at Nainital, we walked around the lake, did boating, had some street food and lot more activities after which we were driven down back to Kathgodam and for few hours we had a stay at our relatives place for the dinner and meet and greet. Then we boarded our bus back to our home to Delhi. Altogether the experience of road tripping was adventurous yet super exhausting.