There are two kinds of Trips: The planned one and the spontaneous one. Well, you’ll all agree that planning anything during this pandemic has only resulted in vain, therefore, it seemed like a better idea to go ahead with the flow, unplanned. Ours was a journey amidst the beautiful lush hills of Kumaon, and, therefore, I knew I had to share what we felt. Needless to say, we took all necessary precautions -- kept multiple masks, sanitizers, general medicines -- and finally started our long-pending road trip.
We started our journey from Haldwani around 4 pm and planned to spend the night in Almora. We chose hotel HIMSAGAR for our stay. The rooms were decent enough but what hooked us to the place was the substantial parking they offered for in-house guests. We were lucky enough to find the stay while driving along the main road. We settled in, ordered in some room service, and went for a peaceful walk at night. One can say that I’m a sucker for Momos, it’s my weakness, and we luckily found some fresh, juicy mutton momos at ‘The Mall Road Café’ right across our hotel. We finally called it a night after a fulfilling start to our trip.
We had an early morning the next day and drove off at 8 am from Almora. Our day-long journey involved a 200 km drive amidst the curvy mountainous roads. We halted for lunch at around 2 pm at a PAHADI Rasoi and had pahadi thali which served bhang ki chutney, jholi {dahi kadi} and bhatt ke dubkey.
Well, the hunger let us finish the mouth-watering local meal in no-time. While driving again, we witnessed the Ram Ganga river flowing just beside the road and stopped to take in the scenic view. After taking some mandatory pictures, of course, we drove along our journey. The roads, however, were not in a proper state post that so we took it slowly and carefully.
As we went ahead, we could feel the Panchachuli peaks nearing us, and the moment we were about to reach Munsiyari, we could clearly see the magnificent peaks. That was a scene to watch and how !!
We reached Munsiyari around 5:30 pm just in time when it was starting to get dark. We would recommend that it’s better to drive to Munsiyari in the clear day time and not at night considering the poor state of roads. We chose hotel Milan Inn as our stay and it offered a beautiful view of the mighty mountains with a wall-sized glass window. We called it a night while glazing at the beauty the hills offered.
We woke up early the next morning to witness the beautiful sunrise right from the Panchachuli peaks. Our next step was to head towards Khaliya Top and stay in the middle of the mountain during the night. We left to get to the famous green KHALIYA DWAR.
Just opposite to the Dwar is Iglu restaurant, where we had a lovely breakfast meal. The restaurant is run by the forest department and the owner was very polite and helpful, he moved his car to provide us with space to park right in front of the restaurant. FYI, it is safe to park anywhere around that area, as CCTV cameras are also installed thoroughly. Lately, the authorities have started a system featuring feeding in all entries of people visiting and going up and down at the Khaliya gate.
Therefore, after all the formalities, we started our trek around 10 am. Alright, so another important takedown, it’s definitely not as easy as it appears to be. Due to a shortage of oxygen and the sudden increase in elevation moving upward, it was hard to trek continuously. I had to halt at multiple places for proper oxygen and then begin again. So, around 12 pm, we reached the Alpine resort at Khaliya top and it’s all worth it from the top. The feeling of being above the clouds and in parallel to those mighty mountains remains unmatched. We took a room, kept our stuff, had Maggie (I mean, c’mon) and admired this view :
After taking some rest we began our trek again towards Khuliya Bugyal/Zero point. Bugyals are alpine lands, or meadows, in higher elevation range between 10,800 ft and 13,000 ft of the Himalayas, also known as "nature’s own gardens". The uphill now was less time consuming than the climb from the bottom. Climbing from the bottom was more of a trek between the forest, but from resort upwards it was open and the views were amazing. The view from the top was **BREATHTAKING**. I don't believe photos can justify what we saw and felt there.
We returned to the resort around 5:30 pm before it started to get dark. We met two amazing women there, one was 75 years old and the other was around 65. Both of them had multiple trekking experience and the enthusiasm they held at their age was commendable. We sat there in front of the bonfire in awe of them, chit-chatted our time away, had our dinner with them and went our way to the room. There is no electricity at the top and the lights generated via solar panel turn on around 6 and turn off around 9 pm. It is then all dark and cold. Do note down that the bedding is not very proper at the top, although we had one light blanket with us, it was very hard to sleep at a temperature as low as that.
The next morning we climbed up again to see the sunrise from Bugyal. We sat there for an hour watching the sunrise and enjoying the view and then returned to the resort. We started our trek down around 9 am and got to the bottom at about 11 am. We booked our next stay at the camp we had come across while travelling to Munsiyari. We started our journey back and reached Birthi Fall around 12:10 pm. We munched on some maggie there and drove back towards the place.
The camping site is located around 10 km before that in the middle of a village next to the Ram Ganga River. We did Kayaking on our own on a flowing river and it was one hell of an exciting experience. So, we cooked the chicken at night right next to the bonfire, it tasted so good that my mouth is watering reliving it while typing even now. We then went off to sleep after a heartwarming day’s journey at the campsite.
We started our journey back around 9 am the next morning and reached Haldwani around 6 pm. Our thrilling trip may have come to an end but the journey, the experience, the warm feeling amidst those cold winter nights - all of this remains with us, and forever will.
