Pauri Garhwal - Exploring Off the Beaten Routes

It was high time that I rode out carefree after i got posted at Roorkee. Busy just like that all this while but I had to move now and the Rakshabandhan weekend with a Saturday leave looked promising. A quick recce off the Map and I selected a few destinations around the base at Pauri.

Day 1, 17 Aug 2024 : The sweltering heat of Roorkee was killing me so an early breakfast and off I was on my Bullet. After a comfortable 5 hrs ride I was at my destination beautiful - Pathaal Pauri - A cosy homestay made with all the love by Maj Gorki Chandola (The owner), could invest into.

This ancestral house of his sits nicely tucked deep inside the woods, I bet humans can't find it at their own (Even the local Baghira of the area, a regular visitor there gets confused sometimes) but now it's a listed property on Google Maps.

Getting off the bike and moving down the narrow slippery trail with a few moss laden steps I got into this natural haven of flowers and vegetables. Dinesh Kaka, the caretaker was there to welcome me with a wide grin.

Aah, it felt so good getting back to Pathaal after 4 long years. Had an afternoon siesta and went for long walk along the village road. I was lucky to have another single traveller with his British Bulldog staying in the property. Chats which started with the pros of Jimny and travels over the drinks culminated late after dinner with a spiritual insight into the cult followers world. Thts the beauty of solo travel, u meet people and learn so much new. The Gynaecologist with Bulldog left for Vyas Ghat (at Ganga near Devprayag) in his Jimny after having a breakfast of sumptuous Dal Parathas with me.

Day 2 : Now was the time for me to go exploring the new routes off the Map.

Destination 1 - Tara kund Mahadev temple near Paithani. Distance from Pathaal - 70kms.

Beautiful tarmac with no traffic makes you feel as if u own the roads. Climbing up from Pauri to Madakhal and Pabau I had a beautiful riding experience and then the serpentine road climbs down to Paithani along the Pashchimi Nayar river. If for nothing else but for this road I would come back anytime. From Paithani I took a not so good road to Tarakund temple. To my disappointment, I was told by the locals that the trek is long (2hr atleast) and passes through thick jungle where the chances of me getting lost and a Bear encounter couldn't be ignored. After chatting for a while with the locals, I rode down the same way ( last 6 kms is a challenging off-road) .

Destination 2 : Khirsu - is a beautiful local hill station for the locals. It sits atop an altitude good enough to cover this entire Khirsu range under thick carpet of snow during winters.

There are multiple homestays and eating options. I only had a milky cup of tea with a roadside vendor.

Destination 3 : Forest Farm Cafe. It's a new opening and a nice opening to say the least. Divya is running this beautiful cafe with full efficiency and trust me the cafe is doing well. Being a Sunday it was crowded in a way I had not expected but I was happy to see the locals turning up in good numbers at her place. The Italian preps are good and the Latte was simply authentic (couldn't have asked for more). It has a nice seating both inside and outdoors with a Machan too offering some place. The views are enthralling and so is the cool breeze. A full thumbs up from me, if at Pauri don't miss it.

Day 3 : The weather at Pauri looked pretty okay to have a comfortable ride back but the moment I hit the main highway along the Alaknanda, there was something else in store for me. It had been raining since early morning. My Rynox Rain top and bottom came handy now. Enroute I took a Tea break at a roadside dhaba. Between Devprayag to Rishikesh there were multiple small landslides and shooting stones on the road. An entire 30 km stretch before Byasi was covered under thick fog with very limited visibility. But the good part was very less traffic and a lovely weather.

Encountered a major landslide near Byasi which had come down at 0600h in the morning. There were long queues of vehicles waiting on either side but on a Bullet I literally went like one through the tfc.

Before 1200h after an adventurous ride I was home at Di's place in Dehradun for the Rakshabandhan.