The call of Koel

In the muted quietude of dawn, the insistent cry of a Koel came startlingly clear through the dense foliage of trees. Buried deep in the bowels of Dehradun, the Walterre Resort built with much love and care and with painstaking attention to details, resembled a quintessential British home with an Indian touch. If the weathercock on the roof of the resort was any indication of the unexpected treat that was in store for us, then it was by far, a fair barometer.

The eclectic collection of items in the resort,  ranging from furniture to artifacts and fixtures gave it an aura of a comfortable home. The wooden flooring and the fireplace with all the paraphernalia of stoking the fire made you want to come during the cold winter months and while your time with a book!

Talking of books, the resort had a mini library of books catering to all tastes- fiction non fiction, thrillers history, biographies etc. You could ensconce yourself in any of the sofas, placed with much consideration around the house and lose yourself to the world of literature.

The owners of the resort, whether by fortuitous or deliberate intent, had installed yellow lights all over the house which gave it a feeling of warmth, comfort and pleasure. It had all the ambience of a home.
I had come here hoping to do some trekking but ended sitting on the balcony looking at the intense verdant greenery stretching far into the valley and without a pang of guilt indulged in the pleasures of la dolce niente.

The two tiered garden, that you typically see in hilly regions, was a veritable botanists delight to explore and to browse in. The garden was a kaleidoscopic assemblage of flowers and plants from the plains to the hilly regions. One could see that the same painstaking effort had gone in gardening as in decorating the resort.

As I sat in the garden just prior to my departure I tried to compose a list of memories that I would take away from here. The list was easy to compose: the incessant plaintive calls of the birds; breakfast on the balcony overlooking the treetops and the distant mountains; the lolling of the cows in the far distance, the soft cadence of the rivulet flowing in the cusp of the valley, the ethereal quality of the mists moving ponderously over the mountains.....I could go on and on ....!!

Team building at Camp Kyari

The sprawling dense jungles of the Kumaon district adjoining the Jim Corbett National Park, provided an ideal setting for our team building effort. The programme was held in the tented camps set up by Wildrift one of the many companies that specialise in out door activity.

 An interlude in the programme permitted us a foray into the jungle.  We were divided into 4 Jeeps for the Safari. Though September was not the best season to sight Tigers, we however did spot other denizens of the jungle.

A Cheetal suddenly appeared on the track that we were travelling on. As the jeep approached it, the deer with an exquisite grace of an athlete effortlessly cleared a 2 meter mound and disappeared into the dense under growth-an essential attribute to possess in the amphitheater of the jungle where the only law that prevails is the law of claw and fangs.

There are 2 types of people who come on a Safari. The alert ones say, "There! There!" the more sluggish respond with "Where? Where?" So it was that when our guide suddenly stopped the jeep and pointed  to the hollow of a tree, after many "wheres" we spotted a giant monitor lizard basking in the sun. It was so effectively camouflaged against the background  of the tree that it was impossible to spot it at first glance. How the guide manage to spot it beats me.

Next we spotted a giant owl, perched on a tree and looking away from us.On sensing our presence it turned a full 180 degrees and stared at us piercingly with unblinking eyes. It gave me quite a turn (no pun intended). It reminded me of the little girl possessed by the devil in the film, 'The Exorcist.'

Back at the Camp a canal of water one and a half meter wide and half a meter in depth flowed from the hills to the fields in a gentle gradient. Each of us were given a life jacket and made to lie face upwards in the canal afloat. The force of the current pushed us down the gradient all the down to the fields. as you float down, all you van see is the dense foliage of overhanging trees in various shades of green interspersed with the deep blue sky.

Joining up with these camps are fun. You get to do many activities that you normally cannot when you are on your own. In one of the outings we had walked in the river, knee deep, for several kilometers. When you are with the group it can be boisterously fun!

Salvation at Badrinath

The journey to any pilgrimage center is always difficult and some of the most beautiful places in the Himalayas pass through these very locations. Vehicles stranded bumper to bumper moved sinuously along the highway. The black granite mountains rose abruptly, dwarfing me by its sheer immensity. I was in Joshimat, traversing through a land of terrifyingly deep chasms and towering ridges. A narrow road, just broad enough to accommodate two vehicles, wound precariously upwards towards Badrinath.

As with all pilgrimage centers, Badrinath was also humming with people. It was the third day of the opening of the Badrinath temple. Though not particularly inclined to theism, I decided to visit the temple anyway. Despite the inclement weather the queue for the temple was at least a quarter of a kilometer long. Our piety notwithstanding, we find our selves falling short when it comes to observing queue etiquette  As I neared the door of the temple, the queue was in imminent danger of breaking. There was pushing, pulling and jumping - just about everything that one would experience while standing in an unruly queue.

All these activities increased in direct proportion to the proximity of the temple door. By the time I managed to reach the temple gateway, the right was with the might! Katha Upanishad, that vedic book with profound wisdom has astutely observed, “to cross over razor’s edge is difficult, so is the path to salvation.” I had no option but to exercise my might too if I had to have any chance of getting my cut of salvation!

Inside the temple, there was no let up in the pilgrims desire to be as close to the Murti as was permissible. They came with eagerness and hope, surrendering themselves completely to the Gods before them, oblivious to the shoving humanity, the noise or the heavy incense filled atmosphere. It was wrenching to see the imploring look on their faces. Will the Gods oblige them? Will He bestow his infinite benignity on them? The obeisance had to be brief. The impatient humanity behind did not allow you a longer communion with the Gods. Only when I was pushed out of the temple did I realise that I had forgotten to ask anything from my Maker. Well, God is everywhere, I consoled myself.

The next day held the exciting prospect of a four hour trek to the Vasudhara falls. No throngs of people accompanied me there. The libation done, the crowds had vanished. I walked alone at a comfortable pace along the narrow path that cut through the vast expanse of the valley towards the cascade.

Valley of Flowers

I have never been to this intriguing place but yet it beckons me relentlessly. I read the book with the eponymous title written by its discoverer Frank S. Smythe, a mountaineer, botanist and an explorer.

In the book he recalls how by happenstance he spotted it:

"Dense mist shrouded the mountainside and we had paused, uncertain as to the route, when I heard R.L. Holdsworth who was a botanist as well as a climbing member of the expedition, exclaim: "Look!" I followed the direction of his outstretched hand . At first I could see nothing but rocks, then suddenly my wandering gaze was arrested by a little splashes of blue, and beyond it were other splashes of blue, a blue so intense it seemed to light the hillside...."

Holdsworth writes, "All at once the day seemed to brighten perceptibly. Forgotten were all the pains and lost porters."

Thus the world came to know the existence  of  The Valley of Flowers.

The valley had a profound impact on Smythe as he  wistfully reminisces,... "Others will visit it analyse it and probe it but whatever their opinions, to me it will remain the Valley of Flowers, a valley of peace  and perfect beauty where the human spirit may find repose."

Talk of serendipity!!

Guide to the Valley of Flowers

Trek to the Valley of  Flowers

Kedarnath-A trek without end

Kedarnath, the Himalayan mountain temple, evokes a sense of wonder because of its remoteness and difficulty of the trek. It is a trek that very few people would undertake,  preferring rather to go on a mule or be carried on palanquins.

Nestled in the heart of thickly wooded mountains, Gaurikund is the place where you finally disembark from your vehicle. You can go no further. The place is crammed with cheap Rest Houses (with few facilities), eatery joints, shops selling woolen clothings, curios, medicines and even toys.  There are lanes and by lanes and of course the humanity from just about all parts of the country. Remove the mountains and the trees you could very well mistake the place for a poorer version of Chandini Chowk in Delhi!

There is a paucity of parking place here. If you are coming in your car, you have to search for a good place to park your vehicle. However make sure you do not park your car close to the wall of the mountain- chances are that a rock can roll down and damage your car ( as it happened to ours)!

Take a days rest at Gaurikund. The acclimatisation will stand you in good stead for the 14 km trek to the Kedarnath temple. Cheap raincoats made of polythene are easily available here- buy one, it rains frequently- without much ado.  A word of warning about these rain coats. You need to walk very daintily when you have this rain coat on. These coats are made of very flimsy polythene material. Take a longish stride and the coat will end up having a vertical split without as much as a whimper! 

Wear loose fitting shoes with a tough base. The trekking path strewn with pebbles all along,  would make your trek slow and painful, if you do not have inadequate footwear. 

Beginning from Gaurikund, the track to  Kedarnath temple is barely four meters wide with a steady upward gradient. You have to jostle your way up with the mules, horses  and the palanquins bearers. The  pathway has animal droppings and urine all the way. To make matters worse, it rains quite often which turns the track into a quagmire of slippery slush. 

Gaurikund is at 6000 ft, which makes the 12 km trek to the Kedarnath temple, in the rarefied is rain coat on. atmosphere, slow and arduous. The trek can take up to 6 hours. So start well on time from Gaurikund.

The path, fortunately is dotted with dhabas where you can have tea, paranthas and of course the omnipresent Maggie (which never tasted so delicious before!).

Avoid eating heavy meals while  you are on the trek, difficult though it may be, to overcome the delicious aroma of cooked food wafting from the Dhabas. Eat little or subsist on light food. You can feast after you reach your destination. A heavy stomach will dramatically slow down      your progress.

Finally do remember that Kedarnath is a pilgrimage center and like such centers, do not expect the niceties of life. The food is mediocre, the motels are just bearable, hot water is not readily available (forget about any kind of service), there is frequent breakdown of electricity, the weather can be wet and clammy, cell phones   may not work at all. The good old land line in a public kiosk would be your life line to the outside world.    

But do not get discouraged by these negatives. Its a wonderful and a challenging trek- you see some of the most spectacular mountain ranges - awesome and absolutely majestic in its  splendor-a visual delight for the city bred eyes! 

The temple made of granite rocks is ideally situated in a wide open expanse surrounded by ridges. It is as if the traveller, after a bone breaking climb, reaches this flat piece of land for a respite and to recoup his energies. Whoever built this temple had probably this in mind.

The temple (Wikipedia)

The temple stands on a plateau over looking the village. 

Queuing up for darshan

Temple precincts.  Did not see much people here-probably owing to the difficult trek . 

The town in front of the temple. The entire place is shut down after the festival of Bhai- duj in Oct. It is literally turned into a ghost town.It is opened again next year in May.

The temple is surrounded towering mountains forming a rampart.

A glacier trail behind the temple.

First rays of the morning sun. Do fight the cold and rise up in the morning- its beautiful.

A beautiful day-on the way to Kedarnath-but the weather can be capricious and can change dramatically to pelting freezing rain.

A lonely trek to Vasudhara Falls- Badrinath.

The people in the endless caravan of vehicles winding its way to Badrinath,  come almost exclusively for their yearly obeisance. Their long arduous mission ends with the temple. 

Far from the hustle and bustle, 8 kilometers from the temple is the gorgeous Vasudhara water falls. The trek of 4 hours is through a wide expanse of valley- flanked with towering snow-draped ridges.  The path on one side gradually slopes away down to the scree strewn gorge, carved from the waters of the melting glaciers.

The water from the Fall cascades down 100 meters  in a fine crystalline spray, which buffeted by the wind, reach you much before you arrive at the Fall. The falling spray of water forms a huge mound of ice at the base- rising like a giant stalagmite.  

On a sunny day the trek is easy and pleasant. Half way to the Fall, you would need to ford fast flowing stream of icy water coming from the upper reaches of the Himalayas.  On our way back, post lunch, the quantity of water flowing down had increased substantially which made our navigation across the stream fraught with danger of a bath in the icy waters! 

In the wide expanse of the valley strong gusts of wind pommel you without warning. Its then that you become aware of your almost total isolation in the wilderness of the mountains and  your vulnerability to the forces of nature. It sets your adrenalin pumping!  The desolation hits you and you tend to feel a wee bit nervous.  Better start early for the Fall, so that you are back at Badrinath town before dusk.

When travelling from New Delhi, break journey at Rishikesh for the night halt.The road, by and large, is good.  The authorities do not allow vehicular movement to Badrinath after 4.30 pm.  The final strip of the road from Joshimath to Badrinath, is narrow, steep and treacherous- definitively not advisable to traverse at night.

There are plenty of  motels and rest houses at Badrinath, but most  are extremely mediocre.  Since it is predominantly a pilgrimage centre, the turn over of people is fast and the owners do not have the means or the inclination to maintain the customary level of standard. The bed sheets look unclean and used. Advisable to carry your own bed-sheets.

Getting accommodation there should not a problem except during festival season. The cell phones do not work. The land line is your best bet.


There is not much variety in the food-but then in all high altitude stations the situation is the similar. Food is strictly vegetarian.

It was s pleasant in the day time in the Month of May. However the the weather can change dramatically- from pleasant balmy clime to  cold wet and icy winds.

The nearby place that you can see, from a trekkers point, are: 

• The Valley of Flowers.
• Hemkund Sahib and 
• Auli

On the way to the Falls.Deep.....valleys and ridges.

A rugged  trail of a glacier 

You come across some of the most majestic peaks .... 

........silent and eternal.

The water from the falls coalesces into ice forming a huge mound.

The flora near the falls. The plant is prickly and stays close to the ground

The winds disperses the falling water into a fine spray which solidifies into ice and rises like a giant stalagmite.

Its a pity that there are no spectators to see this magnificent water fall.

There are no trees and or  birds, just thorny bushes which grows laterally, hugging the ground.

A saint smeared in ash-quite oblivious of the cold.

On the way to Badrinath.

It is a four hour trek to the fall. Its easy and pleasant (if the weather holds).